HALIFAX, Nova Scotia - Janice Moodie's thoughts quickly shifted to her late father after her opening round Thursday in the Canadian Women's Open.
Minutes after making birdie on the final hole to take the outright lead at 6-under 66, the 32-year-old Scot broke down in tears in the media center when she tried to answer a question about her busy trans-Atlantic playing schedule.
"I have probably racked up in the last month, I don't know, 20-something-thousand miles. My dad passed away, so it's been a lot," Moodie said before she was overcome by grief and was unable to finish the interview session.
Her father, John Moodie, died last month. He was a lecturer at Anniesland College in Glasgow.
After missing a short birdie putt on the first hole, Moodie reeled off four straight birdies on the scenic Glen Arbour course and tied rookie Emily Bastel for the lead at 5 under with birdie on No. 9. Moodie parred the next eight holes and capped her bogey-free round with a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th.
Bastel had a hole-in-one in her career-best 67. Linda Ishii was third with 68, also the best round of her brief LPGA Tour career. Brittany Lang, the former Duke star making her second pro start after tying for second in the U.S. Women's Open as an amateur, was at 68 along with Angela Stanford, Johanna Head, Sherri Turner, Cathy Johnston-Forbes, Mhairi McKay and Il Mi Chung.
Bastel aced the 152-yard 13th, hitting a knockdown 7-iron shot that landed 10 feet short of the pin and rolled into the cup.
Defending champion Meg Mallon opened with 70, as did Naree Song of Bradenton.
Seminole's Brittany Lincicome finished the round at 71; Beth Bauer of Tampa and Aree Song shot 72, and Tampa's Dawn Coe-Jones had 73.
B.C. OPEN: Playing on his only sponsor exemption of the year, rookie Matt Hendrix shot 9-under 63, tying Glen Day for the first-round lead. Mike Springer, Jason Bohn, Ben Crane and South Africa's Brenden Pappas were a stroke back in PGA play at Endicott, N.Y. Hendrix's finish atop the leaderboard was remarkable, considering his start. His first drive landed next to a tree. He punched his second shot into a water hazard, and finished with double-bogey 6 at No. 1.
WOMEN'S PUBLIC LINKS: Co-medalist Mari Chun, 17, of Hawaii survived two close matches and advanced to the quarterfinals at Kansas City.
Chun, who will enter Stanford this fall, had a five-hole lead over Hannah Jun, a junior at UCLA, after seven holes. Jun stormed back to get within one after 16 holes, but Chun won the third-round match 1-up.
In the morning match, Chun didn't take her first lead over Renee Skidmore of Everett, Wash., until the 17th hole and won 1-up when they both parred No. 18 at Swope Memorial Golf Course.
Jun birdied Nos. 9, 15 and 16 and eagled 12 in pursuit of Chun.
Chun meets Jane Rah, 14, of Torrance, Calif., in the quarterfinals this morning. Also advancing: Tiffany Chudy of Miramar and the University of Florida. She ousted RemiJin Camping of Hollywood, Fla., in 20 holes and Tiffany Lua of Rowland Heights, Calif., 2 and 1.
Co-medalist Angela Park lost 1-up to Juli Wightman of Brigham Young in the second round.
