LPGA Diaz, Lindstrom, Stanford share lead

Hall of Fame member Juli Inkster is one stroke back at the ShopRite Classic.
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) -- With Annika Sorenstam having mixed success using a new ball and phenom Michelle Wie struggling with her putter, three less-publicized players shared the first-round lead in the ShopRite LPGA Classic on Friday.
Laura Diaz, Kris Lindstrom and Angela Stanford shot 6-under 65s and held a one-shot lead over Hall of Fame member Juli Inskter, who once again seems to be peaking with a defense of the U.S. Women's Open on tap next week.
The much anticipated battle between Sorenstam and Wie -- the two biggest current names in women's golf -- never materialized on a hot, humid day on the Bay Course of the Seaview Marriott Resort and Spa.
The No. 1 player in women's golf, Sorenstam shot a scrambling 1-under 70 in a round where she had trouble controlling her distance playing the new Calloway Hex-Tour ball.
Teen shoots par
Wie, the 13-year-old who seems to be the future for women's golf, settled for a par round after making a crowd worthy of a leader's group groan repeatedly by missing six make-able birdie putts.
"Some days you are lucky and some days you are not," said Wie, who last weekend become the youngest winner of a USGA event for adults when she won the U.S. Amateur Women's Public Links Championship. "Today was one of the days I was playing good and then I had bad breaks."
The bad luck ranged from afternoon spike marks on the green to bad bounces on rolling fairways that sent balls into the rough.
Sorenstam's problem was controlling a new ball.
"It's just a hotter ball," said Sorenstam, who had five birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey. "I hit it farther. The sand wedge is normally my strength and today I was missing the greens with my sand wedge, it was flying so far."
Leaders
Diaz, Stanford and Lindstrom had no problem with their putting. All three had the advantage of playing in the morning, when the 90-plus degree temperatures weren't as oppressive as in the afternoon.
Diaz, a two-time winner last year who has been bothered by a torn tendon in her left ankle that probably will require surgery, had seven birdies and a bogey. She birdied all three of the par-5s and made four other birdie putts between 9-and-20 feet.
"I think the heat helps my ankle and loosens it," said Diaz, who has two top 10 finishes in 12 events this year.
Lindstrom, who had made 13 cuts in 46 career starts dating to 1998, had seven birdies and a bogey in her fourth event of the year. The Richfield, Minn., resident has never finished better than a tie for 23rd.
"I've been working on my swing pretty intensely and I hit some really good shots and the next shot I don't know where it's going," she said. "So it's more of wanting to get it where I have a lot of good days instead of good day, bad day, good day, bad day."
Had an eagle
Stanford, whose best finish in 10 events has been a tie for seventh, had four birdies and an eagle, a 5-footer on No. 3 after a magnificent 3-wood.
"To tell you the truth I didn't know how I ended up there," Stanford said. "I felt like I was all over the map. Sometimes that's better for me because then I can focus on just that one shot at a time."
Inkster, who has won this event twice and posted 10 top-10 finishes, had an eagle and three birdies playing in the same group with Stanford. She rolled in a 60-footer for eagle on No. 3 minutes before Stanford made her eagle.
"I hit a lot of fairways and had a lot of chances to make birdie," said Inkster, who was second to Sorenstam here last year.