Up and Down Helps Sorenstam Around

When Annika Sorenstam arrived at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana Friday, caddie Terry McNamara met her in the parking lot in somewhat of a panic.

McNamara got there early and had watched player after player post high scores in the first round of the Office Depot Championship Hosted by Amy Alcott. The course, he figured, was playing tough and he wanted to warn his player, who had an afternoon tee time.

“[He] met me at the car and said, ‘You’ve got to be patient today,’ ” Sorenstam said.

It was good advice. Sorenstam, who started on the back nine, made two eagles, two bogeys and two birdies in her first eight holes, then steadied the ship and finished with seven consecutive pars for a first-round, four-under 68.

She has a two-stroke lead over Cindy Figg-Currier and is three better than Lorena Ochoa, Alison Nicholas, Yu Ping Lin and Stephanie Louden. Defending champion Se Ri Pak bogeyed her first three holes but rebounded with a birdie-birdie-eagle stretch on Nos. 15-17 and finished at one-over 73.

The 68 by Sorenstam was the only round in the 60s on a course with tight, tree-lined fairways and tricky, undulating greens. Only 11 players shot par or better. Nineteen failed to break 80.

“This is a true test,” Sorenstam said. “You don’t get away with bad shots here.”

Sorenstam started her adventurous first nine with a routine par at No. 10. She hit a tree with her tee shot and made bogey at No. 11. She followed another routine par at No. 12 by hitting an eight-iron to within four feet and made a birdie on No. 13.

On the 14th, she holed a nine-iron shot from the fairway from 129 yards for eagle, missed the green on No. 15, didn’t get up and down and made bogey, then chipped in from 30 feet for birdie after missing the green on No. 16.

On the 17th, she rolled in a 50-foot putt for her second eagle in four holes to complete a birdie-eagle-bogey-birdie-eagle stretch.

“It was a little bit of an up-and-down round, especially on my front nine,” Sorenstam said. “Last week I did the same thing, I had a lot of birdies and a lot of bogeys.”

Figg-Currier is returning from a one-year layoff after giving birth July 7 to her second child. After missing the cut in her first two events this year, she had four birdies and two bogeys Friday.

“I think it has been good for me,” she said of her absence from the tour. “I guess you kind of feel like you are more focused. It’s good for your perspective.”