Diaz leads, but hears footsteps

Annika Sorenstam is within striking range.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- While Laura Diaz was impressive in taking the lead at the LPGA Tour Championship, the fact that Annika Sorenstam was able to stay within striking range was close to mind-boggling.
Dealing with a chronic bum ankle and playing a course she's never liked, Diaz used some of the lessons from a motivational book she just read to shoot a 3-under 69 Thursday.
Pink eye
Five strokes back was Sorenstam, who took a trip to the emergency room in the morning, where doctors told her she had pink eye. She finished Day 1 in a tie for 10th -- not bad considering she played the entire round without a contact in her right eye.
"It was a pretty dramatic day," Sorenstam said.
Sorenstam said she'll finish the tournament, but probably won't be able to put the contact back in until next week. She contracted the infection while playing in a skins game in Singapore last week.
"It's from shaking hands too much," she said.
While Sorenstam performed wonders with just one eye, Diaz used all her senses to persevere at the blustery Trump International Golf Club and take a one-stroke lead over Lori Kane. Meg Mallon was another stroke back on a day in which only three players in the field of the LPGA Tour's top 30 money winners broke par.
One of Diaz's highlights came after she left an easy 90-yard sand wedge some 35 feet from the hole on No. 6, but made the putt for birdie to get into the red for the first time.
"That was nice, very nice right there," she said.
The Donald
A few nice moments aside, it was a grind of a day for everyone, and not just because of the way The Donald sets up his 6,506-yard course, full of gnarled rough, for the annual season-ending tournament. Swirling winds gusted up to 25 mph and almost everyone paid the price. The average score on the par-72 course was 75.564.
Sorenstam came to the course from the hospital and found herself in trouble from the very start, when what looked like a good drive kept drifting right, into a hazard. It took her five minutes to get hold of a rules official, who told her where to drop, and the world's best player proceeded to make bogey.
Sorenstam rallied for a 34 on the front, but missed a number of short putts -- probably because she couldn't see -- and shot 40 on the back, leaving herself a lot of work to defend her title here.