Times wires
Thursday, March 31, 2011
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Brittany Lincicome and Stacy Lewis are splitting more than dinner checks and lodging bills at the LPGA Tour's first major of the year.
The fast friends and occasional road roommates overcame the stifling desert heat to shoot 6-under 66s Thursday, sharing the first-round lead at the Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Sandra Gal and Mika Miyazato were one shot back, while world No. 1 Yani Tseng was in a group in 10th place at 2 under.
Despite playing in the hotter part of an unseasonably scorching day, Lincicome of Seminole and Lewis handled the fast, dry Mission Hills course with similar aplomb after temperatures topped 90 degrees by midday in the Palm Springs area.
The heat is supposed to break on the weekend, but Lincicome worried about the damage.
"Being a course that I love and I love to play, I'd hate for them to lose the greens," said Lincicome, the 2009 Kraft Nabisco champion. "Especially No. 1, and there was one other green turning brown, even — or purple, which can't be good."
Although they aren't rooming together this week because their parents made the trip, they went to dinner together Wednesday night and chatted with Rosie Jones before making identically excellent starts.
"Stacy has been a great friend for a little while now," Lincicome said. "If we don't want our fathers or mothers to go to a tournament, we'll stay together, but she's just a really nice girl. We're kind of the same age, very low-maintenance for both of us, so it's very easy-going."
PGA: Jimmy Walker tied the course record with 9-under 63 to take a two-shot lead over Josh Teater and Nick O'Hern after the first round of the Houston Open in Humble, Texas. Walker matched the record set by Johnson Wagner and Adam Scott in the first round in 2008. Chris Kirk was three back after 66.
Ishikawa pledges earnings: Wanting to do his part to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated his native Japan, Ryo Ishikawa decided to donate his entire tournament earnings this year — plus a bonus for every birdie he makes — toward relief efforts. "I always believe in myself, but because I am playing for the people of Japan, I feel like I will be playing with a greater purpose this year," he said.