The gusts that serve as Ko Olina Golf Club’s primary defense protected par with ferocity on Wednesday.

Moriya Jutanugarn and Minjee Lee tamed the breezes better than most to end the first round of the Lotte Championship atop the leaderboard.

“I was having fun today,” Jutanugarn said after spending just over five hours on the course. “I’m pretty sure nobody’s comfortable or really likes it when it’s windy, but I’m having fun with my game and I enjoyed it today.”

Jutanugarn and Lee led Wednesday’s morning wave at 4-under-par 68 and their scores held up through the afternoon to send them into today’s round with a one-shot lead over a pack of five players at 3 under, including defending champion Sei Young Kim.

“I’ll take under par any day, … especially today,“ said Lee.

Kim began defense of her tournament title in the afternoon and made a run at the lead by stringing together three straight birdies from holes 13 to 15. She had a chance to join the leaders with a birdie putt on No. 18 before settling for par.

In all 22 of the 144 entrants finished the day in red numbers with another 24 at even par.

“I like to play (when it’s) windy because into the wind I can hit the cut shot, and even if the left to right wind my natural flight is a hook,” Kim said. “So it’s easy today. … Very comfortable today.”

Lydia Ko, the world’s top-ranked player for the last 24 weeks, stumbled early with a double bogey on the second hole, alternated birdies and bogeys in a four-hole stretch and made the turn at 2 over.

She steadied herself and played the back nine at a bogey-free 3 under. She closed with a birdie at 18 to move to 1 under par going into her 7:44 a.m. tee time today with Kim and Lexi Thompson.

“It’s tough out there and I think I was struggling a little bit with club selection, especially when I was hitting out of the rough,” Ko said, “but I got it together on the back nine so it’s good to finish strong.

“I just gotta play confident (today). Sometimes it’s gonna be really tough with the wind, and you know you could be into it, it could be across, there’s a lot of things to think about but I just gotta be confident with the club I have and just commit to it.”

Jutanugarn started on No. 10 and circled seven birdies on her scorecard — the most on the day — to offset a double bogey on the 16th and a bogey on No. 6 that dropped her a stroke behind Lee. She got it back by sinking a birdie putt from about 18 feet on the par-3 eighth hole and finished with a par to close out the best of her nine rounds in the event.

Jutanugarn shot a 69 in the first round in 2013 then averaged 74.4 strokes in her next seven rounds at Ko Olina while missing the cut two of the last three years.

“I didn’t even count until I finished and I was like, ‘oh that’s nice, seven birdies,” Jutanugarn said.

“I think the wind made me have more patience, because sometimes you hit a bad shot and I’m kind of like, ‘It’s OK, it’s windy today,’ (and) kind of accept it.

“I was just trying to play my game and didn’t really look at the score and just tying to keep going. The only thing just trying to hit it and go find it today because it’s really windy.”

Lee had a run of three straight birdies on the back nine and closed her round by firing a 6-iron into the ninth green to about 4 feet and made her birdie putt to get to 4 under.

“You’ve got to have some luck with it, too,” said Lee, an Australian who entered the tournament ranked 17th in the world. “You never know. Mother Nature can throw anything at you.”

Brooke Henderson was among early leaders at 3 under in her Lotte debut. She missed earning a start in last year’s tournament after falling short in the Sunday qualifier. She skipped that step this time around, returning to Oahu as the world’s seventh-ranked player.

She played her first nine holes, Ko Olina’s back nine, at 3 under and balanced two birdies with two bogeys on the front.

“Last year in the qualifier it wasn’t that windy, so coming here this year it was kind of a little bit of a shock to see how windy it actually is,” Henderson said.

“I made a lot of good putts to save par or make birdie. You know bogeys are going to come this week and you just have to prepare for them. I wanted to get out front early so if I made a few mistakes it wouldn’t hurt me too much. That kind of happened today.”

Punahou graduate Stephanie Kono led the local contingent with an even-par 72 to finish the day tied for 23rd, her best score in three Lotte appearances.

Michelle Wie, two years removed from her Lotte victory, signed for her highest score since 2013 at 8-over 80. She had one birdie, at the par-5 13th, and closed with bogeys on four of the last five holes and will tee off today in a tie for 131st in the 144-player field.

Punahou senior Allisen Corpuz finished three strokes better at 5 over in her debut in an LPGA Tour event.