Stanford Posts Career Best 62, Breaks Course Record At Safeway International

Angela Stanford made 10 birdies and fired a career-best 62 on Thursday to take a three-shot lead over defending champion Lorena Ochoa after one round of the LPGA’s Safeway International.

Stanford said she felt like she was playing in slow motion while setting the course record at Superstition Mountain and beating her own scoring record on the LPGA Tour by two strokes.

“I guess that’s what they call the zone. I found it today,” said Stanford, a 30-year-old whose only win came five years ago. “It was one of those days that you can’t even get in your own way.”

Stanford had a three-stroke cushion on the world No. 1 Ochoa, who opened with a 65 at the event she won last season to kickstart her second straight Player of the Year campaign.

Stanford made six birdies and shot a 30 on the front nine to take the early lead on a warm, sunny day in the desert. Only then did she realize how low she was scoring after glancing at a nearby leaderboard.

“I looked up and it said six (under) and I thought, ‘I’ve only played nine holes.’ That was the first time that it hit me,” she said.

Stanford didn’t make her next birdie until the 13th hole, on a five-foot putt. She then moved to eight-under with a two-footer at the 15th. Closing with back-to-back birdies, Stanford passed Cristie Kerr’s old scoring record of 63, set in 2004.

She rolled in 35-footer at the 17th, then two-putted for her birdie at the last.

“It was so much fun. It felt like everything was in slow motion,” said Stanford, whose previous career-low was a 64 in the first round of the 2006 Canadian Women’s Open.

Stanford, whose only win came at the 2003 ShopRite LPGA Classic, has never finished better than a tie for 20th at this event, missing the cut in three of her previous seven starts.

The difference Thursday, she said, was in the softer putting surfaces.

“The greens have always been really firm here, and I think that’s what gets me. Some of these pins it looks like you can go after, but when the greens are firm and you miss long here you’re usually in trouble,” she said. “They seemed a little softer today.”