ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Lorena Ochoa took a step toward ending the year with her first major championship, taking advantage of calm, sunny conditions at St. Andrews for a 6-under 67 on today to take the early lead at Women's British Open.

On a historic day when women's professional golf made its debut at the home of golf, the 25-year-old Mexican star set out to make history for herself. Ochoa, the No. 1 player in the world, made three straight birdies around the loop starting at No. 8 and kept bogeys off her card to keep her name atop the leaderboard among early finishers.

"It was just a really good day, one of those days when things are easy and really good," Ochoa said. "There was only a little bit of a breeze and I took advantage of that and made some birdies.

"I had in my head 2 or 3 under so it's even better than I thought."