Cherry Hills Village – By the time Brittany Lang’s opening round ended at Cherry Hills Country Club, shortly before the day’s second suspension of play chased everyone off the course, it only seemed as if Annika Sorenstam had won the Grand Slam twice over.
But then again, nothing about Thursday’s opening round of the U.S. Women’s Open was really quite what one might have expected.
There was an Open-winning Swede high atop the leaderboard, but it wasn’t Sorenstam, who began with an even-par 71. Liselotte Neumann, the 1988 champion, did her countrywoman a shot better, her 1-under 70 being good enough for a tie for fourth place.
Although not nearly as big as the gallery that followed Sorenstam around from the time she teed off just before 8:30 a.m., a sizable crowd gathered in the afternoon to watch 15-year-old Michelle Wie. The big-hitting Hawaiian had her moments during the 15 holes she managed to complete, standing at 1-under, but even that only placed Wie second among amateurs.
She, and nearly everybody else, was looking up at Lang, who was tied with LPGA Tour veteran Angela Stanford at 2-under 69. European Karine Icher, on the 15th hole when play was halted, also was at 2-under.
Playing in her first Open, just a little more than a month after being part of a Duke team that won an NCAA title, Lang now may be setting her sights on a bigger national championship.
“I actually saw the leaderboard on the second hole,” Lang said. “I saw that I was on the top and I was the first, the very top name. That was pretty exciting seeing that.”
Of course, as Lang may find out at some point during today’s second round, the Open can be rather seductive, teasing players by getting their hopes up before cruelly dashing them.
Such was the case with yet another amateur, Morgan Pressel. The 17-year-old birdied her first two holes, four of her first five. When she added another on No. 17, her eighth hole of the day, Pressel was suddenly 5-under.
She bogeyed No. 18, beginning a slide that ended with three bogeys and a double bogey in her final five holes. While her even-par finish left her, along with Sorenstam, in a tie for ninth, Pressel was disconsolate afterward.
“I’m a little upset because I had it going so well, then it just entirely fell apart on me,” she said. “It happens to you; you get it going real well, then all of a sudden it’s gone just like that.”
For a time, it seemed like Sorenstam was in danger of not getting it going at all. Beginning on the 10th hole, her opening tee shot found the rough, leading to a bogey. She also missed the fairway on her second drive, but scrambled for par.
She rallied to get to 1-under after 16 holes but dropped a stroke at No. 9. Her approach shot nestled near a sprinkler head, giving her a drop. With an improved lie, she was able to putt but ran the ball about 15 feet past the hole. She then just missed the comebacker for par.
While those expecting Sorenstam to cruise blissfully to her third consecutive major championship may have been disappointed in her start but Sorenstam wasn’t. That could be because, in each of her six victories this year, she trailed after the opening round.
“I think if somebody would have told me on the first tee, ‘We’ll give you level par,’ I think I would have taken it,” she said. “It’s a good start. I was nervous on the first tee. It’s the U.S. Open, there’s a lot of people, it’s a tough golf course, there’s a lot on my mind.”
Although she’s playing in just her third professional event this year, there may be an equal number of disparate thoughts swirling around in Lang’s head.
The 19-year-old won her sectional qualifier to put her into the 156-player field; typical for a player who also has won six collegiate tournaments in two seasons, including two Atlantic Coast Conference titles.
Things will certainly change today, when the 48 golfers still on the course when play was stopped complete their rounds. But, on a long day that was both vexing and perplexing, it almost made sense that the most grandiose event in women’s professional golf was close to being dominated by a bunch of kids.
“Is there a competition with the amateurs? I don’t think so,” Lang said. “We’re all friends; we just want to beat the pros as much as we want to beat each other.”
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or at acotton@denverpost.com.
