Grace Park and Song-Hee Kim share a one-stroke lead following the opening round of the Avnet LPGA Classic in Mobile, Alabama.
Park was bothered by a long-running back problem earlier this week that kept her out of the pro-am tournament at Magnolia Grove, but there was no sign of any injury as she shot a five-under-par 67 to join Kim at the summit at the end of the first day.
The 32-year-old, who has missed the cut in each of her last three tournaments, sank five birdies, an eagle and two bogeys as she enjoyed her lowest scoring round of the 2011 campaign.
The South Korean said afterwards: “I started feeling a little funny on Tuesday afternoon. But overall, my back's been better than it has been in the last five or six years. I'm feeling really strong.
“I'm obviously very, very happy, but I've been waiting for this round. I played three events early on, and I never knew what being rusty was.
“After having two seasons out with surgeries, I was lucky. I was swinging just as well and putting just as well.”
Park and Kim will head into Friday’s second round a shot ahead of Karen Stupples and Stacy Lewis, while defending champion Se Ri Pak is hot on their heels at three under.
Pak said: “It was pretty difficult this morning because it was really windy out there and the greens are pretty hard to get the right distance.
“But I'm trying my best, trying to be patient. So overall, I got another solid round.”
First-round leaders
-5 Grace Park, South Korea 67
-5 Song-Hee Kim, South Korea 67
-4 Karen Stupples, England 68
-4 Stacy Lewis, United States 68
-3 Se Ri Pak, South Korea 69
-3 Na Yeon Choi, South Korea 69
-3 Angela Oh, United States 69
-2 Marcy Hart, United States 70
-2 Stacy Prammanasudh, United States 70
-2 Maria Hjorth, Sweden 70
-2 Christina Kim, United States 70
-2 Sandra Gal, Germany 70
-2 Amy Yang, South Korea 70
-2 Sarah Kemp, Australia 70
-2 Paige MacKenzie, United States 70
