With the first round of the U.S. Women's Open halfway through, Temecula's Sydnee Michaels and Beaumont's Yani Tseng find themselves near the top of the leaderboard after shooting matching 2-under-par 71 at the testy Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn.

Ji Young Oh shot a 67 and is leading.

Tseng, who became the second-youngest player to win a major title when she claimed the LPGA Championship earlier this month, carded four birdies and one double-bogey on the 316-yard par-4 seventh hole.

Michaels, a junior-to-be at UCLA, got it going with a tap-in birdie on the par-5 18th (her ninth hole.) The 20-year-old notched birdies on three of her next five holes, before finishing her round with her fifth birdie on No. 9.

"I kind've was trying to do something swing, and I didn't get it down until my back nine," Michaels said by phone. "Then once I got it down, I really attacked the pins."

Neither player has made the cut at an Open in two appearances apiece.

"Have I broken through? I guess so," Michaels said after her best Open round. "It just shows that hard work pays off, and my game is really improved a lot over the past couple years."

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