Mother Nature cooperative in first round

Adam Candee

Friday, April 15, 2005 | 10:28 a.m.

The notion at first seemed silly to Stephanie Louden after she played two-thirds of her first round in a fickle wind that made her ball "wiffle" on a couple of shots.

Good scoring conditions at Las Vegas Country Club? Well, by the time Louden wrapped up her round close to noon Thursday, the wind that normally owns the LPGA Takefuji Classic vanished and never reappeared in the afternoon.

No, make that great scoring conditions, as Louden admitted after a second finger to the sky.

"It's out there," Louden said of a low-scoring round after carding a 1-under 71. "That's the great thing. If you're hitting it tight, you're going to have a lot of birdie putts."

The second round began this morning with 82 of the field's 143 players at even-par or better, led by Wendy Ward and Karrie Webb at 7-under 65. Bishop Gorman High junior In-Bee Park, playing on a sponsor's exemption, headlines a group at 6-under after one round.

Ward and Webb's scores broke the record for best first round in tournament history, and if the wind stays away through Saturday's final round as forecasted, any writing in the record book is best done with pencil.

Candie Kung set the mark for low tournament total at 12-under in 2003 and that appears to be in serious jeopardy starting play today. Players, however, caution that if the wind unexpectedly kicks up, Las Vegas Country Club quickly grows fangs.

"It's a pretty good defense when the wind does blow," Ward said. "The fairways get fast, the greens get firm and it's hard to hit it tight, keep it in the fairway. You end up running through the fairways and what not."

Seemingly no one missed much Thursday. Players lit up the course for 10 eagles -- including Wendy Doolan's back-to-back ones at the par-4 8th and par-5 9th holes -- and more birdies (452) than bogeys (417). Afternoon tee times proved to be a huge benefit, which is just the opposite of what the tournament has yielded in the past two years.

That's just fine with Ward, who is seeking her first victory since 2001, and Webb, who was last dominant around the same time.

"It's fun to be back in here," Ward said as she left the interview room. "It's been too long."

Ward credits extensive work with her sports psychologist, Debbie Crews, and a reunion with her longtime caddie, Carl Laib, for her resurgent play. Although she hit just six of 14 fairways, Wad took advantage of the tame conditions to nail 16 of 18 greens to help her low round."Quit trying, just start believing," Ward said of Crews' strategy. "So we're going with that philosophy right now. We are going to stick to it."

Laib is relaxing Ward on the golf course by forcing her to stop carrying a yardage book. She is focusing more on her shots, especially putting with her first new putter in 14 years.

"I was kind of getting in my own way, he thought, where I was getting so obsessed with the numbers and doing the math, and making sure we got the same thing," Ward said. "He said, you get paid to hit the shots, I get paid to get the numbers."

The scariest name on the leaderboard is likely Webb, a six-time major winner who is nearly the completion of a rebuilt swing. Webb just once in both of the past two years after claiming all six of her majors in the previous four-year span.

"I feel like I should have tons of confidence going out on the golf course," Webb said. "And it's just a little bit of a block there where I haven't been able to put everything together."

Webb is a future LPGA Hall of Famer, needing only to meet longevity requirements on tour now to make it in. Still, she is focused on improving her game and returning to the dominance of 1999-2001, which could be enough to give Annika Sorenstam her first real challenger since that time.

"I'm really close," Webb said. "I think I could be even closer if I could have more putting days like I had today. It sort of takes some pressure off your long game if you know you can make a putt or two. But I'm really close to putting everything together and playing some really good golf."