Three share lead entering second round of LPGA’s Kraft Nabisco Championship

Na Yeon Choi, Suzann Pettersen and Jodi EwartShadoff share a one-shot lead over Amy Yang and Anna Nordqvist entering today’ssecond round of the $2 million Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Choi, Pettersen and Ewart Shadoff all shot four-under-par 68s Thursdayat Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage in the LPGA’s first majortournament of the year.

Choi and Pettersen were paired together and both had bogey-free rounds,while Ewart Shadoff had six birdies and bogies on the par-3 fifth and par-416th.

“I think I played well because she played well,” said Choi, a SouthKorean who is third on the Rolex Women’s Golf Rankings.

“I think we had a great round and we motivated each other on thecourse. She’s a great competitor, but I tried to chase her until the lasthole.”

Choi and Pettersen played the back nine first. Choi sank a slightly morethan 30-foot putt from the fringe on the par-three 14th hole for her firstbirdie.

After parring the par-4 15th hole, Choi had back-to-back birdies on the16th and 17th holes and finished her round with a birdie on the par-5 ninth.

Pettersen birdied the 16th through 18th holes and the seventh.

“Today was everything I could ask for (in an) opening round,” saidPettersen, a Norwegian who finished second in the Kraft Nabisco Championship in2010 and tied for second in 2007 and 2008. “Bogey-free, gave myself a lot ofchances, feeling good with my game.

“If you hit a lot of fairways here, you give yourself a lot of greatlooks on your approach shots. I feel like I’m striking my irons good and I’mhitting a lot of shots that I’m seeing.”

Ewart Shadoff is a 25-year-old from England who played for theUniversity of New Mexico and whose best finish in an LPGA event is a tie forseventh in the 2012 Kia Classic.

Ewart Shadoff said she “didn’t think I was going to shoot that low, butI holed some great putts. My putting has come a long way in the past couplemonths.”

Ewart Shadoff was playing in the last group on the back nine when, shesaid, “the wind picked up quite a bit in the last 20 minutes,” making thefinal three holes “pretty difficult,” but she was able to par all of them.

Eleven golfers are two shots behind the leaders at two-under-par-70.

Among the 21 golfers at even-par 72, four shots behind the leaders, are15-year-old Lydia Ko of New Zealand, the world’s top-ranked woman amateurgolfer, who has won three professional tournaments, one-time prodigy MichelleWie, and Yani Tseng of Taiwan, whose 109-week reign as the world’s top-rankedplayer ended March 18 after American Stacy Lewis won her second consecutivetournament.

“She’s damned good,” Wie said of Ko, her playing partner in Thursday’sfirst round. “She hits it straight and she’s not short. She’s pretty longand a good putter, good short game, just really solid of a round. Doesn’treally play like a 15-year-old.”

Ko called Wie her idol. Wie said it was “weird” and “really strange”to play with someone who calls you her idol.

Tseng said she “thought I could play a little better because I missed afew short putts out there.”

Lewis was among nine players shooting one-over-par 73s, five shotsbehind the leaders.

“I was in a couple divots and it was just kind of a strange day,”Lewis said. “I’m definitely disappointed, but I made some putts there on theback nine, which was kind of nice.”

I.K. Kim, who had a one-foot par putt break to the right on the finalhole of regulation in last year’s tournament, forcing a sudden-death playoff,which she lost to fellow South Korean Sun Young Yoo, shot a three-over-par 75.

Yoo’s hopes of repeating as champion suffered a major setback as sheshot a five-over-par 77.