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Lee, who won this tournament in 2016, said her
strategy paid off with the tricky greens. She hit 17 of 18
greens and finished with 28 putts.
"I hit a lot of good lag putts and just tried to be on the right
parts of the green," she said. "They're so small and the hills
are so severe that I think sometimes you just can't help it. You
just have to accept it and then just accept the putt that you
have."
Sarah Schmelzel carded the day's only other bogey-free round and
is tied for second at 6-under with China's Ruixin Liu and
Miranda Wang.
Schmelzel, who led after the first round of last week's HSBC
Women's World Championship, successfully navigated the
6,712-yard layout's variable conditions.
"It was definitely the tale of two nines," she said. "The front
nine didn't have much wind. If you had a wedge, you were pretty
much aiming right at the pin; whereas on the back nine if you
had a wedge, you had a downslope that maybe the pin was right
over and you couldn't necessarily go right at it because the
wind might take it past the hole and over the green."
Liu and Wang each posted seven birdies and a bogey. Liu birdied
four consecutive holes at Nos. 12-15, while Wang birdied four in
a row at Nos. 14-17.
Eleven players are within three shots of the leader heading into
Friday. Caroline Inglis, Luci Li and South Korea's Hye-Jin Choi
are tied for fifth after opening rounds of 67. Choi balanced
eight birdies with three bogeys, Inglis birdied five straight
holes (Nos. 14-18) and Li eagled the par-5 eighth hole.
Defending champion Gaby Lopez of Mexico is tied for 31st place
after posting a 71. That's the same score carded by 14-year-old
amateur Yijia Ren of China.
Two Korean players were forced to withdraw due to injury, with
Jenny Shin departing after nine holes and In Gee Chun pulling
out after finishing at 3-over 75.
--Field Level Media
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