Thu Apr 24 20:04:03 2008

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Creamer, two others share lead in Florida

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Aventura, FL (Sports Network) - Paula Creamer carded a three-under-par 68 Thursday to grab a share of the lead after the opening round of the inaugural Stanford International Pro-Am.

Creamer was joined atop the leaderboard by Momoko Ueda (68) and Young Kim (67).

The event is being played on the par-71 Soffer course and the par-70 Miller course at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club. Creamer and Ueda played Soffer on Thursday, while Kim competed on the Miller course.

Those three are one stroke clear of seven players, including Annika Sorenstam (68 Miller) and Cristie Kerr (69 Soffer).

Creamer parred four straight before dropping a shot on the par-four fifth. She rebounded with three birdies in the next four holes.

Around the turn, Creamer birdied the 11th from 12 feet out to move to three- under. After she tripped to a bogey on the 14th, Creamer ran home a 25-foot birdie putt on No. 16 to grab a piece of the lead.

"I hit the ball well today. I was struggling a little bit at the beginning trying to make some putts, but I came on strong," said Creamer. "I made a couple and I felt pretty confident, probably the most confident I've been standing over the ball putting and hitting in quite some time, so that was good."

Ueda traded a birdie for a bogey from the second. She dropped in back-to-back birdies from the fifth. After seven straight pars, she moved to three-under with a birdie on the 14th.

The 2007 Mizuno Classic winner stumbled to bogeys on 15 and 16 to fall back. Ueda rebounded with birdies on the final two holes to end at three-under.

"It was very hard to keep concentrating because the game was very slow," said Ueda of the slow pace of play at the pro-am. "But I was good enough to focus on my shots and make my putts."

Kim dropped a shot on the second to start her round, but she atoned for that mistake with a birdie at the third. She moved into red figures with a birdie on the seventh.

Around the turn, Kim moved to minus-two as she birdied the par-five 11th. She faltered to a bogey at the next though. Kim closed her round in style with birdies on 17 and 18 to join Creamer and Ueda in the lead.

Sorenstam and Kerr were joined in second place by Candie Kung (68), Meena Lee (69), Carolina Llano (69), Kyeong Bae (69) and Yani Tseng (68).

Ten more players, including Juli Inkster and Christina Kim, are tied for 11th at minus-one.