Youngsters start solid at Open

Veteran McKay leads, but teens making noise

? Mhairi McKay turned in a surprising performance Thursday with five straight birdies and a 5-under 66, giving her a three-stroke lead to match the largest 18-hole margin in the U.S. Women’s Open.

Even more stunning were the players behind her.

Hey, these kids can play.

In a U.S. Women’s Open dominated by talk about teenagers, 15-year-old Morgan Pressel played bogey-free golf on a wicked Witch Hollow course at Pumpkin Ridge until a double bogey on the final hole dropped her to 1-under 70.

She was tied with 17-year-old Aree Song, whose 70 matched the best score of the early starters, with 18-year-old Irene Cho another stroke behind.

Michelle Wie, at 13 perhaps the most heralded of the teenagers, blasted drives over 300 yards and finished with a birdie on the tough ninth hole for a 73.

The big Hawaiian played in the final group of the first LPGA major, the Nabisco Championship, and the others look like they want a piece of the action.

“Great, great talent,” McKay said of the 14 teenagers at Pumpkin Ridge, which the USGA believes to be a record. “They’re probably looking at Michelle and gaining confidence.”

Of the 14 teens, 10 shot no worse than 76 — the average score on an otherwise punishing afternoon.

Defending champion Juli Inkster, a 43-year-old with a daughter the same age as Wie and Sydney Burlison (81), birdied the final hole for a 69. She was tied with Donna Andrews.

McKay, Inkster and Andrews were the only players to break 70, while there were 20 rounds in the 80s. The worst belonged to Kathryn Cusick, who had a 93.

Annika Sorenstam, going after her second straight major, opened with a 72.

Of the eight players who broke par, two were teenagers.

“I’m playing well,” Pressel said with a shrug. “I’m not going to say I expected it, but I’m not surprised by it.”

No one can ever be too far ahead of Sorenstam, who scrambled out of a tough start with three straight birdies. The best player in women’s golf closed on a disappointing note, three-putting from 30 feet for bogey to finish 1 over par.

That left her six shots out of the lead, and behind three teenagers.

“I’m tired,” Sorenstam said. “I was thinking on every shot.”

Song was known as Aree Wongluekiet — her mother’s Thai surname — when she played in the final group of an LPGA major at the 2000 Nabisco Championship as a 13-year-old, winding up in a tie for 10th.

“I think my time will come,” Song said.