Miyazato leads LPGA's big payday event

The first of Morgan Pressel's many challenges Thursday came on the opening hole, when she knocked a birdie putt 6 feet past the cup.

"I was a little brain-dead," Pressel said.

At least she recovered nicely -- a theme for her opening round at the ADT Championship.

Pressel made that par-saving comebacker and many others like it, putting herself in a solid position after one round of the LPGA's season-ending event in West Palm Beach, Fla. Pressel shot a 1-under 71 at Trump International, finishing three shots behind opening-round leader Ai Miyazato.

"The day was OK, overall," Pressel said. "I certainly made enough birdies out there to be right in the hunt, but I gave too many shots away."

Still, the 18-year-old from nearby Boca Raton is still squarely in pursuit of Sunday's $1 million first prize, the biggest in LPGA history.

Il Mi Chung and Karrie Webb -- who finished with a birdie shortly after waiting out a 31-minute weather delay -- were each one shot off Miyazato's lead at 3-under. Natalie Gulbis, Julieta Granada and Mi Hyun Kim were 2-under, while Paula Creamer, Se Ri Pak, Wendy Ward and Pressel were another shot off the pace on a humid, windy South Florida day, with strong southwest breezes befuddling players at times.

"The course definitely played a lot differently to what it normally does," Webb said. "But I managed to play the tough holes very well, hit some really good iron shots on the back nine and to finish with a birdie, I was very happy with that."

Meanwhile, two-time defending ADT champion Annika Sorenstam and newly crowned player of the year Lorena Ochoa both struggled.

Sorenstam was 4-over after 10 holes before rallying to finish 2-over, six shots off Miyazato's lead. And Ochoa was 3-over in her opening round, with four bogeys and only one birdie.

"It just wasn't a good day," Sorenstam said. "I got off to a bad start. I had to fight pretty hard today."

The 32-woman field gets cut to 16 Friday, then eight Saturday. Those players return Sunday, their scores from the first three days erased, to play for most of a $1.55 million total purse.

Dunlop Phoenix

Tiger Woods overcame a slow start and shot a 3-under 67 Thursday to sit two strokes behind leader Shingo Katayama after the first round of the Dunlop Phoenix in Miyazaki, Japan.

Katayama, the highest ranked Japanese player in the world standings, had seven birdies and was one shot ahead of Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano. Woods, the two-time defending champion, shared third place in the with Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Toshi Izawa, Satoru Hirota and Hisayuki Sasaki of Japan.

"The weather conditions changed quite a bit on the back nine and became a lot more difficult, so I'm very pleased to shoot 3-under," Woods said.

Seeking his third consecutive victory in the $1.69 million event, Woods endured an embarrassing incident at the dogleg 332-yard, par-4 13th when he drove to the green with the previous threesome still putting. His ball landed in the front left fringe and rolled within several feet of the surprised players before stopping on the back fringe.

The green is not visible from the tee, blocked by a thick forest of stunted pines, and Woods said he didn't see the caddie's yellow flag warning that the green was still occupied.

"We saw no flag so I went ahead," Woods said. "I thought they were off the green and they weren't, so I had to apologize when I got up there."

-- The Associated Press