A six-under-par 66 saw Brittany Lincicome top the leaderboard on the first day of the Kraft Nabisco Championship in Rancho Mirage, California.
The 23-year-old American carded eight birdies and two bogeys to set the pace in the first Major of the LPGA Tour season at Mission Hills, with Angela Stanford, Brittany Lang and Oh Ji-Young finishing one stroke behind.
Lorena Ochoa, the world number one and defending champion, struggled with some wayward tee shots and eventually signed for a one-over 73.
Lincicome was delighted with her opening round and later revealed her unusual tactic for dealing with poor shots - breaking into impromptu renditions of country music songs with her caddie.
"Anything to keep my mind off the bad shot that I just hit," she explained.
"I was hitting the ball really well, keeping it in play, which has been a little bit of a struggle lately and then putting, I was making almost everything I looked at."
The Florida-born player has two LPGA Tour titles to her name and was a member of the US Solheim Cup team in 2007.
03/04/2009