Lee has early lead in Arkansas

Jul 5, 2008 - 6:02 AM ROGERS, Arkansas (Ticker) -- Seon Hwa Lee has a two-stroke lead at the P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship.

Lee fired nine birdies and a bogey en route to an 8-under-par 64 on Friday at Pinnacle Country Club.

Play was delayed for five hours Friday morning and 72 players will have to resume the first round at 6:45 a.m. local time on Saturday.

Lee will be able to sit back and watch if anyone can reel her in Saturday morning after being able to finish on Friday. She leads H.J. Choi by two strokes with Ai Miyazato, Eun-Hee Ji and Kristy McPherson another stroke back.

McPherson will be one of the players out early on Saturday to complete the first round. She was 5-under through 13 on Friday when play was halted at 8:20 p.m. local time due to darkness.

Lee had four birdies on the front nine and added five more coming in. Her lone bogey came at No. 17 and ended a run of four consecutive birdies. She bounced back with a closing birdie at 18.

"I hit it pretty good today," Lee said. "I mean, I didn't miss any fairways and was pretty solid with my irons. And I hit a lot of birdies because my irons. I was really good today. So I made a couple putts, actually nine birdies today. So that was really, really good."

Inbee Park, who made history last week on her way to her first major championship, is six strokes off the lead after a 2-under 70.

A 19-year old South Korean, Park won the U.S. Women's Open on Sunday, becoming the youngest winner in the event's history.

Local favorite Stacy Lewis followed up her strong showing at the U.S. Open with a 69 on Friday.

"With the weather, I got off to a great start," Lewis said. "Birdied three of the first four. And then from there, I don't know, I just didn't really hit the ball as well as I would have liked today. I had to scramble quite a bit to make some pars. But, overall, just the way I hit the ball, I'm pretty happy with the day and I'm glad we got it in."

Lewis, who played in college at Arkansas and won the NCAA championship in 2007, led entering the final round of the U.S. Open and ultimately finished tied for third in her first event as a professional.