Stuart Appleby opens with a 66 for the lead

Maria Hjorth and Cristie Kerr shot 65s to share the lead in LPGA play.
HUMBLE, Texas -- Stuart Appleby thinks he has 10, maybe 15 years left on the PGA Tour. He's determined to make the most of them.
The 34-year-old Appleby shot a 6-under 66 on The Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club on Thursday to take the first-round lead in the Shell Houston Open.
"I'm trying to play well all the time," Appleby said. "I think that's an addictive thing you want to get into and you keep going and keep playing until it gets out of tune."
The Australian teed off early and took advantage of calm conditions on the new course, the event's third venue in four years. The Rees Jones-designed layout opened in August 2005 and most of the players are getting their first look at it this week.
Wind stayed down
Appleby said the course would yield low scores if the wind stayed down -- and it did throughout his round.
"Conditions were quite easy," Appleby said. "There was definitely a 6-under score to be had out there by somebody and I was fortunate."
The breeze picked up later in the day, though, and the course toughened up.
"The wind can kind of mess with you a little bit," said John Daly, who shot a 69 in the afternoon. "It can change on your back swing."
Appleby said his round wasn't "clean and perfect," but a couple of "bonus" shots led to the sparkling score.
Appleby won the Houston Open in 1999, when it was played at the TPC at The Woodlands. But outside of Kapalua, where he's won the season-opening Mercedes Championships three straight years, Appleby has won only the 2003 Las Vegas Invitational since 2000.
Jerry Smith and D.A. Points also benefitted from early tee times and shot 67s.
LPGA
STOCKBRIDGE, Ga. -- Annika Sorenstam put herself in a familiar position at Eagle's Landing Country Club -- one shot off the lead after the opening round.
The rest of the field can only hope she doesn't do a repeat over the next three days.
Maria Hjorth and Cristie Kerr shot 7-under 65s to share the lead at the Florida's Natural Charity Championship, but Sorenstam was right in the thick of things with a 66 and was eager to duplicate last year's performance at the course south of Atlanta.
Sorenstam won the 2005 event in a 10-stroke runaway, positioning herself one shot off the lead after Day 1, taking control with a second-round 64 and essentially wrapping up the tournament on Saturday.
Started erratically
This time, she started out a bit erratic with three bogeys on her scorecard. But she nearly holed out a 4-wood from the fairway at the par-5 sixth hole, the ball stopping just inches short of the flagstick for a tap-in eagle.
"I told my caddy, 'A few more rolls and it would have been a 2,"' said Sorenstam, who also won this event in 2001. "I have never had a double eagle. That would have made my day for sure."
Not that she was complaining. Sorenstam took her score into the 60s with birdies on five of the last six holes and is right where she needs to be to go after her second win of the year.
"I'm happy with my day," she said. "I made a lot of birdies and I made an eagle. I did make a few mistakes."
Brazil's Candy Hannemann and France's Patricia Meunier-Lebouc were also one shot off the lead after shooting 66.
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