Park, looking frustrated moments earlier when her wedge shot missed the 18th green, beamed and waved to acknowledge the applause after her snaking, perfectly paced putt from the fringe dropped into the cup.

Scores were low on the opening day of the tournament, with Park's the best in the tournament's 24-year history. The event is being played for the first time at Bighorn Golf Club, the 13th course used for the tournament.

Grace Park

Catriona Matthew had a 64, while Sorenstam was tied at 66 with defending champion Sophie Gustafson, Lorena Ochoa and Cristie Kerr.

Park was still beaming 20 minutes after she finished her round, which included one bogey, an eagle and nine birdies.

"I'm extremely thrilled. It's my first time shooting 10 under, so I'm happy. Today was just an unbelievable day," said Park, who had a 61 earlier this year on a par-70 course in the tournament in Tucson, Ariz.

"I'm a desert kind of girl, I guess," she said, laughing.

One bad swing led to a triple-bogey for Hawai'i's Michelle Wie, who opened with a 2-over 74 in Samsung World Championship. Laura Rauch • Associated Press

"One swing. I was hitting the ball fine until that one shot," she said.

Wie said she was trying to stay focused on her game, but that she also was watching Sorenstam.

"I really look up to her. I kind of looked out of the side of my eye at her," Wie said. "You really see the experience, see the course management."

Sorenstam said she was concentrating on her own play.

"Michelle is a wonderful player with a lot of talent. She is always very nice and fun to play with," she said. "But I've got to focus on my game and not look around too much."

Goosen wins; darkness stops all other matches

U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen was the only winner during yesterday's rainy opening day of the World Match Play Championship at Virginia Water, England, beating Jeff Maggert by a record 12 and 11.

Goosen's margin of victory exceeded the previous record in the 36-hole matches of 11 and 10, when Mark O'Meara beat Vijay Singh in the second round in 1998.

Because of a 2 1/2-hour rain delay at the start of the day, seven of the eight matches were suspended by darkness with the players still on the course, including defending champion Ernie Els. The South African recovered from a morning deficit to lead Scotland's Scott Drummond 2-up with two holes to play.

Top-ranked Singh was 2-down to European Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer after 26, while England's Lee Westwood led British Open champion Todd Hamilton of the United States 3-up after 29 holes and Argentina's Angel Cabrera led K.J. Choi of South Korea 1-up after 33.

Three matches were all square: Ireland's Padraig Harrington against American Chris Riley after 32, Canadian Mike Weir and Frenchman Thomas Levet also after 32, and Spain's Miguel Jimenez against Steve Flesch of the United States after 26.

The seven matches were to be completed this morning before the start of the second round.

Rookie Dufner leads with opening 65

Jason Dufner pointed to last week as evidence anything can happen on the PGA Tour. He hopes to prove it again.

Mired in an awful rookie season, Dufner shot a 7-under 65 yesterday to match his best round of the year and take a one-shot lead after the first round of the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro. He has missed the cut in 15 of 26 tournaments, and with only two events left, he's 186th on the money list.

Only the top 125 are guaranteed a spot for 2005.

Of course, Dufner is well ahead of where Andre Stolz started in Las Vegas a week ago. He was 217th before an improbable victory there, and it vaulted Stolz all the way to 89th. And, it gave him a two-year exemption.

Brent Geiberger, Tom Pernice Jr., Bo Van Pelt, Brendan Pappas and Brett Quigley all had 66s yesterday and 12 players were another stroke back.