Birkdale: American Resurgence Continues, Wie Has Work To Do

Ayako Uehara of Japan shot a four-under-par 68 to take the first round lead at Royal Birkdale, but as Ron Sirak points out, the American contingent got off to a nice start. (With the exception of Michelle Wie, who posted a 75 playing conservatively.)

More interesting is that Sirak reminds us it wasn't long ago that the Americans were not so great, and maybe it was that Solheim Cup loss that turned things around.

 Pretty much everyone traces the resurgence to the stinging defeat by Europe in last year's Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Club outside Denver, the first time the U.S. squad lost a home game in that competition.

"I think all of the Americans are very motivated," Wie said. "We kind of got our butt kicked [at last year's] Solheim and I think after that, I think a lot of us just really looked into ourselves and kind of just re-evaluated what was happening. It was a good reality check."

Round one highlights courtesy of Golf Channel.