Golf: Sara Lee Classic

Kathryn Marshall justified her decision to send her husband, Scot, behind the ropes when she produced her best opening round of the season in yesterday's first round of the Sara Lee Classic at Nashville, Tennessee.

In blustery conditions, the 30-year-old Solheim Cup player birdied the final two holes for a round of 69, which placed her in the company of fellow-Scot Catriona Matthew, four shots behind Donna Andrews, who led by a shot from Nancy Lopez.

Matthew, who is a Solheim contender, has had a flawless three birdie round, while Janice Moodie, the tour's leading rookie, continued her season's impressive run with a one under par 71.

With Australian professional Alison Munt on the bag for the first time, Marshall made the perfect start, holing form five feet for a birdie at the first. She did drop a shot at the fourth following a poor drive, but the sweet finish - holing from 12 feet for a two at the seventeenth, and from five feet at the long eighteenth - sealed her best ever round over the Hermitage course. ''I've never even broken par in the six years I've been here and this is probably my least favourite course on the circuit,'' she said.

Starting at the tenth, Matthew birdied the eleventh and sixteenth to reach the turn in 34 and added another at the long second from 10 feet to move onto the leaderboard.

65 - D Andrews.

66 - N Lopez.

67 - R Hetherington (Australia), B Mucha.

68 - S Ri Pak (Korea), S Mehra (India); N Ash (S Africa).

69 - K Marshall (Scotland), C Matthew (Scotland), A Acker-Macosko, S Steinhauer, M Mallon, K Poppmeier (Austria), M Morris, C Figg-Currier, C Koch (Sweden), V Odegard, E Klein.

70 - J Inkster, L Rinker-Graham 71 - J Moodie (Scotland), W Doolan (Australia), D Eggeling, L Fairclough (England), M Lunn (Australia), N Ramsbottom, J Zedlitz, S Strudwick (England), S Croce (Ita), C Johnson, P Hurst, Dina Ammaccapane, H Alfredsson (Swe).

71 - V Skinner.

72 - A Alcott, C Dibnah (Australia), C Greatrex, L Hackney (England), M McGann, D Pepper, C Walker, K Tschetter, C Sorenstam (Sweden), M Spencer-Devlin, D Dormann, C Walker, E Dalhoff (Swe), J Stephenson (Aus).

Other scores included: 73 - A Sorenstam (Swe). 75 - A Gottmo (Swe). 76 - C Nilsmark (Swe), D Reid (Scotland).