Golf: Alfredsson makes inspired recovery

HELEN ALFREDSSON, of Sweden, and Ayako Okamoto, of Japan, both scored four-under-par 68s to share the first-round lead at the 48th US Women's Open at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, on Thursday.

Alfredsson, who won her first LPGA event earlier this year at the Nabisco Dinah Shore, had seven birdies, including a 20ft putt on the 17th, to recover after a bogey and a double-bogey had reduced her to par.

Okamoto played a more consistent round. After a bogey at the eighth, she came back with birdies at the 14th and 15th holes.

Dawn Coe-Jones, of Canada, was three under on 69. Although holding par on the 16th and 17th, she drove into the pond at the 18th and finished with a bogey.