AKRON, Ohio – Retief Goosen, a late arrival and an early starter, took advantage of a Firestone South course that played long and short on his way to a 4-under 66 that gave him a one-shot lead Thursday in the Bridgestone Invitational.

One year after Tiger Woods was the only player to break par, Goosen and 32 other players in the 80-man field met only minor resistance on a balmy afternoon at this World Golf Championship.

Vijay Singh and former Masters champion Zach Johnson were among those at 67, while Steve Stricker was headed for the outright lead until running into trouble off the tee late in his round, losing three shots in two holes and joining another large group at 68.

Women’s British Open

SUNNINGDALE, England – Juli Inkster had the sort of opening round Annika Sorenstam was hoping for at the Women’s British Open, a bogey-free 7-under 65 that left the 48-year-old American one shot ahead of the field.

While Sorenstam struggled to a 72 in what the Swede says is her final major before she quits tournament golf at the end of the season to start a family, Inkster went out among the earliest in the field to shoot an eagle and five birdies. Her 65 matched the lowest opening round at any Women’s British Open.

Inkster, whose last major title was the 2002 Women’s U.S. Open, is a stroke ahead of seven players – Ji-Yai Shin, Ji Young Oh, Yuri Fudoh, Momoko Ueda, Jo Head, Laura Diaz and Stacy Prammanasudh. Defending champion Lorena Ochoa was three strokes behind. Inkster’s opening round gives her a good start toward becoming the oldest winner of a major and the second player to complete a career Super Slam.

U.S. Senior Open

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The only thing that spoiled John Cook’s comeback was Fred Funk’s finish.

Cook, who blew a big lead on the back nine at the British Senior Open on Sunday, carded a 4-under 66, which was good for the clubhouse lead for most of the day until Funk birdied the 16th and 17th holes to go 6 under before three-putting the final hole and finishing at 5-under 65.

Funk had two birdies and an eagle on the first four holes of a spectacular round that was bogey-free until the 18th hole.

Reno-Tahoe Open

RENO, Nev. – Michelle Wie put herself in contention to make her first cut in eight tries on the PGA Tour, shooting a 1-over 73 in Thursday’s opening round of the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open that left her eight strokes behind leader Jeff Overton.

Playing on the men’s tour for the first time since January 2007, Wie had three birdies, four bogeys and rallied to save par on several holes at the 7,472-yard mountain course at Montreux Golf & Country Club on the edge of the Sierra Nevada.

Wie, playing on a sponsor’s exemption, has failed to make it to the weekend in her seven previous bids on the PGA Tour.

The cut has averaged even par in the nine previous years of the Reno tournament, which runs opposite the Bridgestone Invitational.

– where the top 50 men are playing in Ohio this week.

Wie hit one pin on the fly from 65 yards and another on one hop from 85 yards, the latter leading to a 6-foot birdie putt on the 616-yard, par-5 ninth that brought a smile to the 18-year-old and a fist pump as the crowd cheered.

More than 400 people – the biggest gallery on the course – crowded around the first tee where Wie drove the ball into the left rough. She managed to hit her approach 195 yards onto the front of the green, but carded a bogey after she left her first putt 20 feet short of the hole.

She also bogeyed the par-4 fifth before she hit her approach 160 yards to within 5 feet of the pin and sank the birdie on the par-4 sixth. She saved par on the difficult 220-yard, par-3 No. 7 after blasting out of the sand to within 13 feet and did it again on No. 8 with a two putt from 50 feet after she hit a ponderosa pine tree off the tee and a deputy sheriff confiscated a cell phone from a fan who took her picture during her back swing from the rough.

On the back nine, she bogeyed the par-3 12th after hitting her tee shot in a bunker and averted another on the next hole with a 10-foot putt to save par. She missed the green on the par-3 16th and failed to convert a 10-foot par putt.

But she came back with a birdie on the par-5 17th after she drove the ball 316 yards and hit her third shot 57 yards to inside 2 feet of the pin. On the last hole, she made another sand save, again hitting inside 2 feet of the hole from a bunker fronting the green.

Overton, a former all-Big Ten golfer at Indiana, birdied four of the first five holes and made eight birdie putts on the day – seven from 10 feet or closer – to go with a lone bogey for a 7-under 65 and a two-shot lead over Harrison Frazar, Brian Davis, Marco Dawson and John Merrick at 67.

Omar Uresti, who aced the 176-yard, par-3 16th, was in a group at 68 that included 1987 Masters winner Larry Mize.

AP-ES-07-31-08 2231EDT