NAPLES, Fla. Jerraud Powers Red Jersey . -- Lydia Ko didnt look any different in her first LPGA Tour event as a pro. The 16-year-old wore a golf shirt promoting golf in New Zealand, untucked over white shorts, her bookish glasses under the cap, and nothing about her demeanour that indicates so much as a pulse. She didnt feel any differently, either. Not after a double bogey on the third hole, missing what amounts to a tap-in that gave her a three-putt bogey on the seventh hole, or any of the four birdies that followed in her round of 1-under 71 in the LPGA Titleholders. "Just normal," Ko said. "I didnt feel too odd or special or slow or whatever today. That actually surprised me. I thought I would be much more nervous. And actually, one of the good things was I wasnt thinking about any money or related stuff. I just tried to play my game, which was obviously very helpful." It was a slow start and a strong finish, quite the opposite of Sandra Gal, who made six birdies on the opening six holes and wound up with an 8-under 64. Gal had a one-shot lead over Rebecca Lee-Bentham of Canada, who made six birdies on the back nine at Tiburon Golf Club for a 65. The LPGA Tour grouped players for the opening round of its season-ending tournament with a theme. The top three players in the world and on the LPGA money list -- Inbee Park, Suzann Pettersen and Stacy Lewis -- were in the final group. Juli Inkster, Karrie Webb and Cristie Kerr were in the same group. They have combined for 84 victories on the LPGA Tour, although Kerr found another theme -- "$47 million," she told her colleagues, referring to career earnings (its actually closer to $45 million, but whos counting?) In between were Ko, Michelle Wie and Jessica Korda. Not since Wie has there been so much attention on a teenager making her pro debut. Wie played with Korda when she turned pro. Wie couldnt help but think of that day in October 2005 at Bighorn Golf Club -- about two weeks after she turned 16 -- when she started shaking after being announced on the first tee, hit a thin 3-wood and threw her hands in the air in mock celebration when it found the fairway. "There were definitely flashbacks to when I hit," Wie said. "She played great today. She looked calm -- a lot calmer than I looked." Ko can only hope for a better outcome. Wie tied for fourth in her pro debut, but she didnt get the $53,126 because LPGA Tour officials determined she had taken a penalty drop in the wrong spot. She was disqualified for signing for the wrong score. Wie said she told Ko about her opening tee shot as a pro. The three of them walked together off the second tee, and the conversation between Ko and Wie turned to their first meeting with Phil Mickelson, and some of the amazing shots Lefty has hit. It was a relaxing atmosphere that could have turned dour if Ko had not kept her composure. Her round took a bad turn early on the third hole. Ko pulled her tee shot through a waste area of coquina pebbles and just into the pine straw. She tried to play a draw toward the right side of the green, but was distracted when her club clipped a branch at the top of her swing, and her foot slipped. She didnt get out of the waste area, and then took two more shots to reach the green and made a 4-footer for double bogey. "I think I was a bit too ambitious," she said. "A 7-iron down the right side would have given me more than an opportunity to make up-and-down for par." She turned a birdie chance into a shocking bogey on No. 7 with a three-putt from just inside 15 feet, missing a 2-footer for par when she tried to jam it into the back of the hole. That put her at 3-over through seven holes, as Gal was making birdie on the other side of the course on every hole. "My birdie on 8 definitely helped," she said. "It kind of came in from the back of the hole, which was quite interesting. I thought I had missed it. I gave myself opportunities, and par is sometimes good. All I can do is just set up birdie putts, and then some will go in and some wont." They were dropping for Gal. She shot to the top of the leaderboard, settled into a string of pars, and then had a big finish. Unlike the teenager, Gal was thinking about money, or at least the breakdown. The prize distribution from the $2 million purse is heavy at the top -- $700,000 for first place, while second place pays just over $139,000 and third place is about $100,000. "I thought this tournament was a little different than the other ones, so I thought, Im just going to be really aggressive and just go for everything, because really all you want to do is win here," Gal said. "Any other place it doesnt really matter that much. So thats kind of the mindset I had and I think that really helped me, and I just kept rolling in putts. So that was kind of fun." Kurt Warner Jersey .J. Miles are out for Tuesdays game against Sacramento because of injuries. Patrick Peterson Red Jersey . Louis Cardinals have agreed on a four-year contract, giving the All-Star a fresh start after his Biogenesis drug suspension last summer.Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone says his series and NASCAR wont be competing for the same motorsport fans in Texas when they hold races 190 miles apart in November. Ecclestone dismissed on Wednesday any clash between the series, after the top executive at Texas Motor Speedway called F1 "arrogant" for scheduling the United States Grand Prix in Austin on the same weekend that his track hosts NASCAR in Fort Worth. "I absolutely think its foolish," said Eddie Gossage, the track president and general manager. "Its a shot fired by Formula One at NASCAR. I cant say I was surprised because Bernie Ecclestone does a lot of foolish things. The thing he unfortunately doesnt recognize is there is an 800-pound gorilla when it comes to major American motorsports. The 800-pound gorilla is NASCAR." Texas Motor Speedway will host NASCARs Texas 500 on Nov. 2, the same day F1 will hold its only race in the U.S. this year. Fort Worth is about a 3-hour drive from Austin. While Gossage thought a stronger stance by the management at Circuit of the Americas would have prevented the scheduling issue, Ecclestone believed it was a non-issue. "Ive also spoken to the people that run the race at COTA and their position is thhat they believe the NASCAR crowd is a different crowd to Formula One, different people, different customers," Ecclestone said. Michael Floyd Jersey. "At the end of the day, they run a domestic series in America -- we run a world championship." F1 requires considerable logistical planning by the teams, he said. "Weve a small problem they (NASCAR) dont have -- we have six jumbo jets to move around all our equipment, and we have to find the most sensible way to use them to do that," Ecclestone said. "We have to be efficient and bear in mind we may also encounter problems at an airport. "There are issues that can occur, but (Gossage) and other people do not realize these things. The race prior to the one in the U.S. is in Russia, in Sochi. Weve never been before, and we have to get out of there and into Austin. That is probably a lot easier than trying to get into Brazil, and then we have to get out of there (Sao Paulo) to go to Abu Dhabi." Gossage said F1 could have found another weekend to race in the U.S. "Its just not smart," he said. "Theres 52 weeks in the year. But that was the only weekend that Formula One could make it work in Austin, Texas. Give me a break." cheap jerseys ' ' '
