Annika Sorenstam is one shot back, tied with recent high school graduate Paula Creamer, who, at 18 three weeks ago, became the youngest woman to win a tournament in 53 years.

Oh, and Michelle Wie, the 15-year-old amateur who created a stir when the tournament changed its rules to let her in, is two shots back after battling through an ailing stomach.

"I feel really stupid saying this," Wie said, "but I ate too much. Going out in the heat and walking I think it was causing a little bit of indigestion. Every time I went to breathe, I felt like I was going to barf."

Wie took a remedy midway through her round that she said tasted like "coffee and vomit." Later, she said it was a combination of ginseng and deer antlers.

After taking it, she made three birdies on the back nine.

"I guess birdies are the best remedy for stomach aches," Wie said.

Not bad for the first round at Bulle Rock Country Club, which was seen by a first-day tournament record crowd of 16,700.

Those storylines followed a stunning day in which 44 golfers finished at par or better on a course that many have said would be among the hardest they'll play this season. No doubt, that should guarantee a large turnout for the rest of the weekend.

Which is just DuPont's luck. The Rockland, Del. course, which hosted the tournament for the previous 18 years, was spurned last summer for Bulle Rock. Now the new course gets a first-day script that even Gulbis' reality TV show called "Natalie" couldn't make up.

"My caddy and I thought 8 under would win this," Gulbis said. "I thought pretty much anything under par would be a really good round."

That was before Gulbis birdied each of her last five holes, a tournament record. Sorenstam, who was in her group and set her own personal record with her 12th straight round in the 60s, watched idly and talked to herself as Gulbis raced past her on the leaderboard.

"I have a lot of mind games I have to play with myself to keep in control," Sorenstam said. "Otherwise who knows what I will do? So I talk to myself constantly. There's two people in me — one calm and one totally excited. I'm not schizophrenic, but sometimes I could be on the course."

She said the calm version won out on this day. It had to. There are three days left where the notoriously thick rough, or the "ridiculously" long par-5s, as Davies called them, will certainly swallow up some of the competitors' shots.

Of course, Davies is the longest hitter on the tour. She used her driver twice on the par-5 11th hole, which is 596 yards long.

"I was just trying to see if I could get it (to the green in two shots)," she said with a laugh. "I'll be trying all bloody week, I tell you."

She came close. But Davies said the main difference in her game was that she finally got her putter to work over the past five weeks or so, ever since she allowed her caddy to help her line up her putts.

Diaz had similar success with her putter, too.

This after a long recovery from ankle surgery, which she said was prolonged by the fact that she tried playing through her pain most of last season. She had four tears in her tendon and a torn ligament in her left ankle.

"When you're injured, you don't realize how much pain you're in, and how much it's really setting you back mentally and physically," Diaz said. "If I had to do it over again, I would probably play right through the injury, even though that's not the wisest decision one could make."

Wie knows all about wise decisions, too, saying that she was "stupid" for eating too much before her round, then playing in the heat and humidity. She said by the time an approaching storm suspended play for 52 minutes late in the afternoon, she was about ready to quit.

"(From now on), I'm going to eat just a sandwich, and after I eat, I should be hungry, not full," Wie said. "That's my new rule of eating."

Minicam crews from CBS Sports and the Golf Channel and one of the largest fan contingents of the day followed the Hawai'i teenager.

"We think it's really amazing to see that a 15-year-old can hit as well as people who have been doing this all their lives," said Christy Snyder, 13, of Bel Air, Md., a self-proclaimed Wie fan.

"Yeah, and she's our age too," added younger sister Ashley.