Golf Capsules: Ochoa takes first-round lead at Tour Championship
RICHMOND — Lorena Ochoa shot a 66 on Thursday and has a 1-shot lead over Reilley Rankin after the first round of the LPGA’s season-ending Tour Championship.
Michelle Wie, fresh off her first LPGA victory last week, shot 72. She limped through her round on a sprained left ankle that she first injured at the Solheim Cup in August. She was going for treatment after her round and was considering withdrawing from the tournament.
The first round was suspended due to darkness at 5:25 p.m. Four threesomes will finish their first rounds on Friday.
Ochoa teed off in the morning, before the winds picked up. She is four shots ahead of Jiyai Shin (70), who leads Ochoa by eight points in the race to become the tour’s player of the year. For Ochoa to earn her fourth straight player of the year title, she must win this week or finish no worse than third and hope Shin places out of the top 10.
LPGA Tour adds new tourney near San Diego in 2010
CARLSBAD, Calif. — The LPGA Tour is adding a new $1.7 million tournament at La Costa Resort & Spa outside San Diego in 2010.
The LPGA Classic Presented by J Golf will be played March 22-28 at the resort in Carlsbad the week prior to the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the year’s first major.
In February, the tour said it would return to the Los Angeles area after a five-year absence. However, the new event is located 85 miles south of Los Angeles.
It gives the women’s tour three events in California, including the $2 million Kraft Nabisco to be played March 29-April 4 in Rancho Mirage.
PGA European
Allenby shoots 7-under 65 for 1-shot lead in Dubai
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Robert Allenby of Australia shot a 7-under 65 Thursday for a one-shot lead after the first round of the Dubai World Championship, while Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy vied for the European Tour money title.
Allenby had eight birdies and only one bogey on the Earth Course, which is hosting the $7.5 million final event of the European Tour season. He was one shot ahead of Westwood, Chris Wood and Camilo Villegas, who all shot 66.
When the tournament ends Sunday, the top player on the European Tour’s money list will win a $1.5 million bonus from the Race to Dubai.
Westwood, second in the race, was two shots ahead of money leader McIlroy of Northern Ireland, who shot a 68. Westwood produced three birdies in the final four holes to boost his chances of overtaking McIlroy’s $191,000 lead in the money race.
The two other players in contention for the money title were off the pace. Germany’s Martin Kaymer shot a 71, and England’s Ross Fisher had a 73.
Allenby decided to travel to Dubai with a new set of clubs in his bag. He adjusted quickly to the feel on the desert course, designed by fellow Australian Greg Norman.
Villegas and Wood, playing for the first time in a month after injuring an ankle falling down a flight of stairs during a tournament in Spain, had taken the clubhouse lead with 66s. That score was matched later in the day by Westwood.
-- Graham Otway
