By ,
Published May 02, 2016
Paradise Island, Bahamas (SportsNetwork.com) - Brooke Pancake fired a 6-under 67 on Thursday to grab a 1-shot lead with the opening round of the Pure Silk- Bahamas LPGA Classic suspended due to rain.
Pancake is starting her third full season on the LPGA Tour. In her first two years, Pancake has no top-10 finishes and just four top-25s in 39 starts.
Inbee Park, who lost the No. 1 ranking to Lydia Ko on Monday, is one stroke back at minus-5. She shares second place with Brittany Lincicome and Natalie Gulbis.
Azahara Munoz shot 4-under 69 on the Ocean Club Golf Course at Atlantis Resort. She was joined in fifth place by Gerina Piller, Ariya Jutanugarn and Joanna Klatten, who completed just 12 holes of the first round.
Ko was 1-under par after eight holes, while Stacy Lewis was 1-under par through seven holes when played was called for the day.
Play was suspended at 2:47 p.m. ET due to heavy rain and eventually halted for the day due to unplayable course conditions. The first round will resume on Friday morning at 8 a.m.
Pancake was in the second group out off the 10th tee and she got off to a fast start with birdies at 10 and 11. After a par on No. 12, she birdied the next two holes.
She kept rolling with a birdie on the par-5 15th. Pancake poured in her sixth birdie in seven holes at the 16th. She closed out her opening nine with a pair of pars.
Pancake parred all nine holes of her front nine to close with 11 straight pars.
"I luckily got to get out early this morning and really took advantage of not as strong, there's still wind, but not as strong of a wind on my first nine, and I putted really well," Pancake stated. "I gave myself a lot of birdie looks, and I really took advantage of those. It was definitely nice having those going into the back nine and going into the rest of the week."
Park started her day with six consecutive pars. She made eagle at the par-5 seventh. After three more pars, Park birdied the 11th and 13th to move to minus-4. She birdied the par-5 18th to close out her round.
Lincicome played the back nine first on Thursday and she opened with birdies on the 11th and 15th, both par-5s. She also birdied the 17th en route to making the turn at minus-3.
The 2009 Kraft Nabisco champion birdied the first and followed with five more pars. Lincicome birdied the par-5 seventh before closing her bogey-free round with two more pars.
Gulbis had one birdie and four pars in her first four holes. She dropped in back-to-back birdie tries at six and seven to move to minus-3. Around the turn, Gulbis birdied the 11th and 15th to get within one of the lead. She finished her rounds with three pars.
"I hit it good. The last couple weeks that I have been able to practice, I've been practicing a lot and spent a lot of time with Butch (Harmon) and a lot of time at TaylorMade, and I have some new equipment," Gulbis explained. "It's been like any other getting ready for the season. I didn't play last week. I wasn't quite ready last week. I'm just happy to be back."
NOTES: If she keeps the lead, it will mark the first time Pancake has led after any round in her LPGA Tour career ... Defending champion Jessica Korda was even-par through eight holes when play was called for the day.
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