Lewis' compatriot Mo Martin went round in 69 to sit one shot off the lead, while two other Americans, Morgan Pressel and Mina Harigae, are joined by Australian Sarah Kemp on two-under-par.

Conditions on the opening day of action at the Southport course were tricky as strong winds made it difficult for players to find the fairways, but it was Uehara who managed to negotiate her way around in the least strokes despite opening with a bogey on the first hole.

But the world number 125 did not let that affect her rhythm and knocked in four straight birdies from holes five to eight before picking up two more shots at 12 and the par-five 18th to record the best score of the day.

Defending champion Stacy Lewis plays her approach shot to the 18th at Royal Birkdale on her way to a round of 71 ©Getty Images




Lewis was playing in the same group as Uehara and was impressed with what she saw.

"Ayako obviously put up a really good number," Lewis said.

"She seems like she wasn't in trouble at all.

"She was just greens, greens, centre of the green.

"You can kind of learn a little bit from that and maybe not go at so many pins."

US Women's Open champion Michelle Wie arrived at Royal Birkdale as one of the pre-tournament favourites following her first major win at Pinehurst Resort in California last month.

Michelle Wie struggled on her return to Royal Birkdale ©Getty Images



The Hawaiian's best performance at a Women's British Open came here nine years ago when she finished third but she struggled to get to grip with the conditions today and stumbled to a disappointing three-over-par 75.

She hit only seven fairways off the tee in an error-strewn round that saw her make only one birdie on the final hole.

"I definitely felt like my tempo was a little bit off," Wie admitted.

"But it's a long way until Sunday, and I battled out there.

"It's not the score I was looking forward to on Thursday, but it could have been a lot worse."

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