Lorena Ochoa Invitational Thursday: Kerr Shines, Wie Withdraws

Those of you who watched Golf Channel's coverage of the Lorena Ochoa Invitational will know better than me how Cristie Kerr opened with a near-flawless 64 at Guadalajara Country Club and why Michelle Wie WDed after posting a score 14 shots worse than her playing partner's. With a 3-shot lead on Stacy Lewis and a 4-shot lead on Na Yeon Choi, Ai Miyazato, Paula Creamer, and Katherine Hull, Kerr still has her work cut out for her, but she can take some comfort in the fact that she's 5-up on In-Kyung Kim, 6-up on Suzann Pettersen, 8-up on Song-Hee Kim and Mika Miyazato, 9-up on Morgan Pressel, 10-up on Lorena Ochoa, and 12-up on Ya Ni Tseng.

[Update 1 (11:11 pm): Dammit, it was Michelle's back problems that lead to the WD. Check out Beth Ann Baldry's twitter feed and LPGA.com for more.]

[Update 2 (11:15 pm): Hound Dog surveys the 1st-round scoring and wonders if the 70-round minimum requirement to qualify for the Vare Trophy needs to be adjusted downward in light of the LPGA's limited schedule.]

[Update 3 (11:18 pm): Here's the reaction from the aggregator/blog Michelle Wie LPGA.]

[Update 4 (11:27 pm): Great to see that Ai Miyazato made more birdies today (8) than she made all week at Mizuno. And nice catch by LPGA.com to note that Stacy Lewis's bogey-free streak is 61 holes and counting when you go back to her results last week in Japan!]

[Update 5 (11:36 pm): Great to see that the LPGA is keeping key performance stats, despite the event being played outside the U.S. Surprised that players didn't seem to get that much of an altitude-aided distance boost off the tee, by and large.]

[Update 6 (11/12/10, 9:25 am): Great post by Mike Southern on the 1st round!]