Times wires
Friday, March 18, 2011
PHOENIX — Angela Stanford got over a terrible hole in a hurry Friday in the first round of the LPGA Founders Cup.
After making a mess of the par-4 eighth for double bogey, she holed out from a fairway bunker for eagle on the par-4 ninth.
"After our first two events, I found that I was struggling mentally, and I just get down on myself really fast," Stanford said. "So after the double, I thought, 'Okay, I have a choice here. I can either stay down … or go to the next hole and try to make it better.' Usually, you don't get results that quick in golf."
Stanford shot 6-under 66 to take the lead in the tour's play-for-free U.S. opener.
Instead of paying the players, the tournament honoring the 13 tour founders is donating $1 million to charity — half to the LPGA Foundation and its LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program and half to the top-10 finishers' designated charities.
Meanwhile, Seminole's Brittany Lincicome matched Aree Song at 67 to tie for second.
Lincicome birdied four of the first six holes on the back nine.
"I don't even know what happened. It was just one after another, and it wasn't like I was making 50-footers," said Lincicome, playing for The First Tee of St. Petersburg. "I drove it well. You don't want to get in the rocks in the desert."
In partly cloudy conditions with the temperature in the low 80s, large crowds lined the fairways at the Wildfire Golf Club.
"We had a lot of fans out there, and that always gets me kind of juiced," Stanford said. "The fans here are amazing."
Juli Inkster, 50, shot 68 and is trying to become the oldest winner in tour history.
"It's not like I'm 80," Inkster said. "I know I'm completing against 20-, 25-year-olds, but I'm sure I could beat half of them on a treadmill."
Fox at Outback: Actor and Parkinson's advocate Michael J. Fox committed to play in the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am on April 15-17 at TPC Tampa Bay in Lutz. This will be the third time Fox has played in the Champions Tour event.
Times staff writer Rodney Page contributed to this report.