Ryu Heads up Women's Australian Open

South Korea's So Yeon Ryu carded a 4-under 69 at Royal Melbourne Golf Club to assume the lead in the Women's Australian Open. The $1.1 million tournament, sanctioned for the first time this year by the LPGA Tour, began Thursday.

Ryu, the reigning U.S. Open champion, carded six birdies - three on the front nine and three on the back- and two bogeys on the classic course, which is playing to a par-73 for the women.

The 21-year-old Ryu stands at 6-under 140, one stroke ahead of fellow South Korean Hee Kyung Seo, who posted the low round of the tournament so far, a 7-under 66.

Tied for third at 142 are Americans Jessica Korda (70) and first-round co-leader Stacy Lewis (73), England's Melissa Reid (71) and Paraguay's Julieta Granada (72). Australian Sarah Kemp, who shared the lead with Lewis other 18 holes, stumbled to a 6-over 79 Friday and is now tied for 19th at 2-over 148.

Ryu had a chance to win last week's Australian Ladies Masters at Royal Pines, something she really wanted to do in honor of her Australian instructor Ian Triggs, who she says "is a coach, but feels like a father."

Instead, she tried too hard and tied for second behind the Netherlands' Christel Boeljon. "I think the reason was that I really wanted to win the tournament," Ryu said. "I think it was really high expectations of myself. I was thinking about winning and the trophy and maybe I lost concentration."

Despite her excellent score, Seo echoes the sentiments of the enter field, saying Royal Melbourne is a difficult nut to crack. "It is very hard to play this great course," she said. "I know it is not an easy course so I was nervous."

The LPGA's reigning Player of the Year is certainly finding the going tough at the Alister MacKenzie-designed course. Tseng, a 12-time winner last year including two majors, followed up her opening 71 with a 76 Friday. Tseng is also the two-time defending champion in this tournament when it was held at Commonwealth Golf Club.

After a promising two birdies in her first three holes, things quickly turned south for Tseng as she carded three bogeys and a quadruple-bogey eight on the par-4 seventh hole to make the turn in 5-over 41. On the seventh her drive ended up in an unplayable lie. After taking a drop, she needed three more shots to get back to the fairway from the deep grass.

She managed to get two birdies and the rest pars on the inward half. "I almost cried," kidded Tseng, who reached the seventh green in six and two-putted for the quad. "But no I didn't. I hung in there and I did a good job . . . I'm glad I was able to fight back on the back nine."

Despite a 2-over 75, American Brittany Lincicome is still in the hunt, sharing seventh with Canada's Lorie Kane (73) and Germany's Sandra Gal (74) at 1-under 145.

The cut was set at a whopping 7-over 153. Among those eligible for the weekend are 16-year-old American star Lexi Thompson, who's posted two straight 74s; four-time winner Karrie Webb (a pair of 75s); and second-ranked Suzann Pettersen of Norway, who followed up her opening 80 with a 71.

For all the scores, visit http://www.lpgascoring.com/public/leaderboard.aspx?TournamentID=27853.

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