Rookie Sets Hot Pace as Leader at Canton

Karrie Webb, a rookie playing some of the best golf on the LPGA Tour, opened with a seven-under-par 65 Thursday for a two-stroke lead at the Ping-Welch’s Championship in Canton, Mass.

Webb was one shot off the course record at Blue Hill and matched the first-round mark set last year by Beth Daniel and Jane Geddes.

Janet Anderson and Vicki Fergon are at 67, with 1991 winner Julie Inkster and Danielle Ammaccapane at 68.

Webb is the tour’s second-leading money winner, and she showed why she is a leading candidate to be LPGA rookie of the year and player of the year.

“I hit the ball really well and hit all 18 greens,” she said. “I wasn’t that far away from the pin. I had a good rhythm, and I didn’t have many second putts that were too far away.”

Webb, 21, began with a birdie on the first hole, rolling in a seven-foot putt. She added birdies on Nos. 5 and 7 to make the turn at three-under-par 33.

“I was reading the putts well out there,” Webb said. “When you feel like you see the line it really helps your confidence.”

Webb sank a 25-foot birdie putt on No. 12 to get to four under, then added 20-foot birdie putts on Nos. 13, 17 and 18.

Anderson’s only LPGA win came in the 1982 U.S. Open. She has struggled since, missing most of the 1993 season because of a hand injury.

Anderson started with bogeys on two of the first three holes, but then ran off a string of five consecutive birdies, beginning on the sixth hole.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever made five birdies in a row before,” said Anderson, who also birdied Nos. 15, 16, and 18 to offset a bogey on No. 13. “It seemed easy for me out there.

“It has been a strange year for me. I’ve made just four cuts but after three of them I’ve shot in the 60s the final day.”

Until Fergon won the Michelob Classic in St. Louis two weeks ago, she had gone 12 years without a win. Now she is looking for a quicker return to the victory column.

“The big key to any win is putting well,” she said. “I putted unbelievable out there today.”

Fergon, starting on the 10th hole, made the turn at one under. She birdied four of her final six holes to move into the tie for second.

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Joellyn Erdmann of Little Chute, Wis., defeated Grace Park of Phoenix on the ninth playoff hole to advance to the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship in Lincoln, Neb.

“It was just everything a golfer looks for in a great match,” Erdmann said. “But toward the end, I started getting tired.”

Only twice before in the championship’s 96-year history--in 1950 and 1978--have 18-hole matches been stretched to 27 holes.

Defending champion Kelli Kuehne of McKinney, Texas, defeated Kim O’Connor of Leavenworth, Kan., 4 and 3, to also advance to the semifinal.

The other semifinalists are Jenny Lee of Fullerton, who defeated Martha Leach of Hebron, Ky., 2 and 1, and Maria Baena of Colombia, who defeated Laura Philo of Fernandina, Fla., 2 and 1.

Erdmann’s victory marked her second struggle of the day. In the morning’s third round of match play, she was 3 down after 13 holes to Eve Lux of Highland, N.Y., then won four holes in a row, finally closing out Lux, 1 up, on the 18th hole.

In today’s semifinals, Lee will face Kuehne while Erdmann is paired against Baena. A 36-hole final is scheduled for Saturday.