NEWPORT, R.I. — The U.S. Women's Open has given Annika Sorenstam fits the last 10 years.

On Friday, it gave her reason to believe her fortunes were changing.

The soupy fog that delayed the first round one day gave her time to finish fine-tuning her game, and she came out firing. The one time she found casual water on a course filled with puddles, it allowed her to clean mud off her ball for a long, uphill approach to the ninth hole, the toughest at Newport Country Club. She walked off with the only birdie.

And when the Swede completed her 2-under 69, she was in a four-way tie for the lead with Se Ri Pak, Pat Hurst, and 19-year-old amateur Jane Park.

"It's a great start, and hopefully I can continue this," Sorenstam said. "I feel like I've come a long ways the last few days, and today I really showed that. So it was good."

How good?

Sorenstam was the only player to break par among late starters who faced blustery conditions on a sunny afternoon along the shores of the Atlantic. It was the first time she broke 70 in the first round of the Women's Open since she won it in 1995. And with a 36-hole Sunday looming, Sorenstam figures her fitness will give her an advantage.

But she also knows not to look too far ahead.

"There's a long way to go," she said.

It took a long time to get started because of the fog delay, and the bad news was that it took more than a half-inch of rain to chase it away. That left Newport a swampy mess, with some bunkers looking more like ponds, small swamps in the rough and puddles everywhere on the fairways.

"It's wet, but you're playing the U.S. Open. I can't complain," said Park, who just finished her freshman year at UCLA.

Michelle Wie had few complaints with her round that was a good fit for the toughest test in women's golf. The 16-year-old from Hawaii made 15 pars, only one mistake and closed out her round with a 15-foot birdie putt to lead the group at 1-under 70.

Her only problem was straying into the soggy rough a few times too many, and she winced and held her left wrist trying to hit through the mushy grass. It's a minor injury that stems from the muscle in her forearm, but it didn't cause too many problems.

"I had a very solid round today, lot of pars," Wie said. "That's what the U.S. Open is. You have to have pars when you're in trouble, get away with a bogey or a par. And I felt like I did that today."