Koreans set pace at Lotte

The winds whipping the flags on the course and the South Korean banners bunched atop the leaderboard headlined Wednesday’s opening round of the LPGA Lotte Championship.

So Yeon Ryu set the pace in the morning with a 4-under-par 68 and was matched in the afternoon by 18-year-old Hyo Joo Kim and veteran Se Ri Pak in gusty conditions, even by Ko Olina Golf Club’s breezy standards.

Japan’s Ayako Uehara was the only other player to shoot in the 60s and ended the round one stroke behind the leaders at 3 under.

Hawaii’s Michelle Wie carded five birdies and three bogeys to finish the day as part of a five-way tie at 2 under. That group includes top-ranked Inbee Park, who birdied four of her first six holes before the winds picked up.

Wie opened her afternoon with a bogey, then stayed steady on her first nine in gusts that reached up to 30 mph.

She nearly aced the par-3 16th to set up her first birdie and bounced back from a bogey on No. 5 with back-to-back birdies to threaten the leaders at 3 under before ending her round with a bogey and a par.

"It’s not easy, but I’ll take it," Wie said.

"You expect the tradewinds, but there were certain points today where you needed stones in your pocket. It felt like I was going to blow away."

She’s scheduled to tee off at 7:40 a.m. Thursday to start the second round among those chasing the trio representing South Korea.

All three finished their rounds with just one bogey on their cards on a day when 13 out of the 144 entrants shot under par.

Pak is a Hall of Famer who at 36 has 25 LPGA Tour victories and more than $12 million in career earnings. She was steady for most of her 68 swings and spectacular on one, a chip-in eagle on the par-5 fifth hole that gave her the lead at 5 under.

Pak hit a 5-iron for an approach that landed just off the green, then holed a sand wedge to move ahead of the pack.

"It was pretty good perfect landing and the speed is perfect and it went in the hole," she said. "So that was a real surprise, good bonus for me."

She came back to the group with a bogey on the par-3 eighth and ended her round with a sand save on No. 9.

"It was really windy out there, a lot windier than last year," Pak said. "(It was) really hard to choose a club (on) every hole."

The winds were relatively calm to start the day and Ryu, who teed off at 7:50 a.m., birdied three of her first five holes.

Ryu was a six-time winner on the Korean tour before winning the 2011 U.S Women’s Open and earning LPGA rookie of the year honors in 2012. She credited her iron play for her solid start after giving herself birdie putts inside of 3 feet on the first two holes. She kept it going in part by being an attentive playing partner.

"If someone hit (before) me I could see the ball flight so I pretty much copied a lot with my fellow competitors," said Ryu, ranked seventh in this week’s Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

Kim is playing in her third Lotte Championship on a sponsors exemption, but her first as a professional. She opened last year’s tournament with a 66 and ended the week tied for ninth. She put herself in position to contend again by hitting 16 greens in regulation and played bogey free for her first 17 holes.

She was tied with Pak at 5 under after draining a birdie putt close to 20 feet on No. 8 before ending her day with her lone bogey.

"Except for the very final hole here, the putting in general was really good," Kim said through an interpreter.

Along with playing at Ko Olina that past two years, Kim, a member of the Korean LPGA, played in windy conditions at Jeju Island last week.

Uehara, playing in her first Lotte Championship, was even par through 13 holes after back-to-back bogeys but ran off three straight birdies from No. 15 to 17. She slid a 15-foot putt on the par-3 16th that snuck into the right side of the cup for the sixth of her seven birdies.