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WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- Azahara Munoz and Austin Ernst had strong finishes Thursday to share the first-round lead in the Kingsmill Championship at 6-under 65. The former NCAA individual champions completed their morning rounds on the front nine at Kingsmills River Course, with Munoz birdieing four of her last seven holes, and Ernst closing with birdies on No. 7 and 9. "I dont think its easy," Munoz said. "The wind is pretty tricky, but the pins were somewhat accessible. Obviously, the course is playing is much shorter than normal because its warmer and drier. Holes I had been having 4-irons in, I was having 9-irons in today." Munoz had a bogey-free round, saving par with a 10-foot putt on the par-3 second -- her 11th hole -- after hitting into a greenside bunker. The Spaniard lost a playoff to Paula Creamer in Singapore in March when Creamer made a 75-foot eagle putt on the second extra hole. "Ive been having a much better attitude," said Munoz, the 2008 NCAA winner at Arizona State who won the 2012 Match Play Championship for her lone tour title. "When I miss a shot, I dont let it get to me so much like I used to. I used to get pretty upset, and that really hurt me." Ernst, the 2011 NCAA winner at LSU, rebounded from a bogey on the par-4 first with an eagle on the par-5 third, hitting a 6-iron from 182 yards to 10 feet on the downwind hole. "Really just solid," Ernst said. "Gave myself a lot of looks, hit a lot of greens and made it really easy on myself out there on a day when it was pretty windy and it could kind of get away from you a little bit." Heavy rain was expected overnight and Friday morning, likely delaying second-round play. "Well just kind of see," Ernst said. "Im kind of glad Im in the afternoon tomorrow. That way I dont have to kind of hang out. If it does get delayed, youre not waiting on the update every 30 minutes." South Koreas Hee Young Park shot 66. "Everything is pretty good," Park said. "I made a lot more putts." Defending champion Cristie Kerr opened with a 67 after missing the pro-am Wednesday because of illness. She also won the Michelob Ultra at the course in 2005 and 2009. "It was weird. I started feeling really bad Tuesday night," Kerr said. "I woke up and just didnt want to get out of bed. Just kind of knew something was wrong. I just was going to stay in bed and try to recover, but my husband was like, You got to go see a doctor. So I went, and he was like, You have heat exhaustion and maybe something else going on. So they took me to the hospital and gave my IV fluids and ran some tests and I had an infection." Lexi Thompson, the Kraft Nabisco winner, also was in the group at 67 along with Lizette Salas, Brittany Lang, Kathleen Ekey, Danielle Kang and Thidapa Suwannnapura. "Overall, Ill definitely take 4 under," Thompson said. "I feel really good about my game right now. Ive worked extremely hard in my off-season, especially on my short game. I put a lot of hours and hard work into it. To see it paying off definitely helps my confidence out." Jessica Korda, Yani Tseng and Ai Miyazato topped the group at 68. Second-ranked Stacy Lewis and No. 3 Lydia Ko, both in position to take the top spot in the world ranking from Inbee Park, each shot 70. Lewis would jump to No. 1 with a victory or a solo second-place finish, as long as Ko doesnt win. Ko needs a victory to move to No. 1. Park is skipping the tournament. Lewis won the North Texas LPGA Shootout two weeks ago. The 17-year-old Ko is coming off a victory three weeks ago in the Swinging Skirts event in California. "I think Im hitting the ball really well, which is a really good sign," Ko said. "So, hopefully, I can hit like this the next couple days and get some putts going in." . Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon; a brief, poor outing that served to highlight two trends that have developed this season. . Hall had a goal and three assists in a 5-4 loss to San Jose on Tuesday, had an assist in each of Edmontons next two games the capped the week with a goal and two assists in the Oilers 4-2 win over Anaheim on Sunday. . 15 in Hamburg. The fight was originally slated for Sept. 6 but had to be postponed after Klitschko tore a bicep in sparring and was forced to miss four weeks of training. . Harrison Barnes had 15 points and Reggie Bullock scored 11 for the Tar Heels (17-3, 4-1 ACC), who took the court for the first time without starter Dexter Strickland. The junior guard tore his right ACL last Thursday at Virginia Tech and will miss the rest of the season. . -- Chad Labelle scored the winner 17:36 into the third period to give Medicine Hat a 2-1 victory over the Swift Current Broncos on Sunday and lift the Tigers into the second round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.Floyd Mayweather Jr. knows his audience, theres no doubt. Boxings superstar arrived in South Africa on Wednesda wearing a T-shirt with a bright yellow map of Africa on the front. Below it, his TMT logo -- that stands for The Money Team -- was in the colours of the South African flag. Mayweather told South African fans he had arrived in the "motherland." He even said he might fight here one day. "Money" Mayweather swooped into Johannesburg for the start of a four-city visit to South Africa and first trip to the African continent, and was hustled by security straight through a packed airport terminal and into a Rolls Royce. He sped off with no more than a few words, delivered on the run, to hundreds who had gathered to greet him. It didnt seem to disappoint any of them. Later, Mayweather was more generous with his time, speaking to reporters for around an hour about his future fight plans and this trip. Well, part of the audience was reporters. Many of those fans had also somehow infiltrated the news conference, beefy security and all, meaning there were fewer questions and more statements of Mayweathers general greatness. James Dalton, a former South African rugby international, stood up and thanked "Mr. Mayweather" for making the trip and honouring South Africa. Rugby players are a big deal in South Africa, but Mayweather apparently is bigger. The biggest thing in boxing. No surprise that Mayweather Jr. earned a guaranteed $41.5 million in his last bout, a dominating majority decision over Canelo Alvarez that was the richest fight in the world and made around $150 million on TV sales alone. And with those kinds of figures, the 36-year-old five-division world champion is in no rush to give in to Manny Pacquiaos pleas for a fight, he said. "As far as my last fight with . I cant even remember the guys name. Canelo! They all the same to me," Mayweather said. "So, as far as myy fight with Canelo, they said Floyd Mayweathers record could never be broken without the Pacquiao fight and as you have seen what we did, the fight done crazy numbers.dddddddddddd" Mayweather also suggested Pacquiaos renewed desire to make their mega fight happen came out of desperation after the Filipinos back-to-back losses to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012, and his tax problems. "I offered Manny Pacquiao the fight before," Mayweather said. "We didnt see eye to eye on terms. Years later we come back and I try and make the fight happen again. I offer him $40 million. He said he wanted 50-50. So we didnt make the fight happen. "All of a sudden, he loses to Timothy Bradley, he loses to Marquez ... he has tax problems now. So, two losses and tax problems later, now he all of a sudden want to say: You know what? Id do anything to make the fight happen, when hes really saying: Floyd, can you help me solve my tax problems, get me out of debt?" Instead, Mayweather named Britains Amir Khan and Argentinas Marcos Maidana as contenders to be his next opponent on May 3 in Las Vegas. Mayweather said nothing was finalized but they would know who it was within a week. And it wasnt all business. Mayweather had a couple of pretty good wisecracks saved up, too. He said he didnt call himself "the greatest," as that was Muhammad Ali. He rather referred to himself as "TBE" -- the best ever. Asked how he would go about fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr., he replied, deadpan: "I wouldnt fight Floyd Mayweather." Mayweather is due to also visit the cities of Bloemfontein, East London and Cape Town on his near week-long trip, which South Africa says will help "resuscitate" its own struggling boxing code. And he gave South Africans a glimmer of hope of their own Mayweather mega fight. "Its been a dream of mine to fight here," he said. ' ' 'ellmedia.ca ' ' '
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