Classic is in full swing, leading with Pak

By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
VIENNA -- To the surprise of almost no one, Se Ri Pak was at the top of the leaderboard at the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic after the first round at Squaw Creek Country Club on Friday.
Pak, the champion of the 1998 Giant Eagle Classic and a four-time winner in tournaments held in Ohio, fashioned a 5-under par 67 and is tied with two other players for the lead.
They are 13-year veteran Maggie Will, a three-time winner on the LPGA Tour but not since 1994, and fourth-year pro Marnie McGuire, who has never won an LPGA event and whose best finish was second place in the 1999 Giant Eagle Classic.
Pak, in her fourth season from Daejeon, Korea, started on the back nine and birdied three of the first four holes she played, but then went eight holes without scoring a red number.
Good with the bad: Will, from Wake Forest, N.C., had an up-and-down round. She started with three birdies on the front nine, then eagled the par-4 10th hole to take sole possession of the lead. She was at 6-under going to the 15th, but she made back-to-back bogies and had to make a spectacular birdie on 18 to get a share of the lead.
McGuire, a native of Auckland, New Zealand who has won five times on the International Tour, started birdie-birdie and was 5-under after eight holes. After a bogey on the par-3 ninth she managed just one birdie over the final nine holes for her 67.
Pak, who played in an all-Korean threesome with Gloria Park and My Hyum Kim, said she had a fun day.
"Playing with my Korean friends was nice," she said. "I started off with two straight birdies and it was really a lot of fun."
Pak said she had some trouble with her driver.
"It kept going left and I missed a couple of fairways, but it still could have been a much better round," she added. "I missed two putts inside 10 feet and had a chance to make birdie on three or four holes that I didn't."
Unpredictable: Will said she believes anything is possible over the last two rounds of the tournament.
"I've been hitting the ball real well and this was a pretty good round," she said. "I don't think it was my best ever, but it was the best one I had today."
Her eagle on the par-4 10th was a perfect 5-iron into the wind from 157 yards.
"It looked like it hit short and then rolled up and into the cup," she said. "I had been having trouble with that iron as recently as last week."
Twenty-two other players were within three shots of the lead.
One shot back: Three were one stroke back at 4-under 68, led by veteran Donna Andrews of Pinehurst, N.C., Becky Iverson of Gladstone, Mich. and Laurel Kean, from suburban Cleveland.
The group of 12 players at 3-under 69 was led by defending champion Dorothy Delasin and two-time Giant Eagle Classic winner Tammie Green. Also at 69 was Jane Geddes, a runner-up at Squaw Creek in 1991, who made a hole-in-one on her final hole, the par-3 ninth, hitting an 8-iron from 137 yards.
Ironically, that same hole, which was No. 18 in 1991, was where she lost a sudden-death playoff to Deb Richard.
The others at 3-under were Diana D'Alessio, Vicky Odegard, Suzy Green, Janice Moodie, Audra Burks, Dina Ammaccapane, Sherry Steinhauer, My Hyum Kim and Jane Egan.
Seven other golfers were at 2-under including 1999 Giant Eagle Classic champion Jackie Gallagher-Smith.
Thirty-four golfers were under par (72) and 10 more were at even par.
After today's second round the field will be cut to the low 70 scores and ties. Live television coverage on ESPN2 will begin at 2 p.m.
mollica@vindy.com