On a day when the best player in women’s golf played an uncharacteristically poor round, a recent winner of a major championship showed that she wants to make sure that first major is not her last.

“I think yeah, definitely, I have one under my belt, but I do want a little bit more,” said Australian Minjee Lee after her opening round 6-under 66 put her in a tie for the lead in the morning wave of players at the Chevron Championship in Rancho Mirage.

Lee’s bogey-free round on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course included a birdie on the par-5 ninth hole, her last hole of the day. That pushed her into a tie with American Jennifer Kupcho, who stumbled coming in with two bogeys in her final four holes for her 66.

The morning also saw World No. 1 Jin Young Ko of South Korea have her streak of 34 consecutive rounds under par on the tour snapped. Ko struggled with her driver and her putting on the way to a 74, putting her eight shots off the lead and needing a good round Friday to even make the cut in the first major championship of the year.

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Patty Tavatanikit, the defending champion, made a late run at the leaders in the afternoon, getting to 5-under 67 with birdie on the par-3 eighth hole, her 17th hole of the day. Tavatanakit is trying to become the first back-to-back winner of the Chevron event since Annika Sorenstam in 2001-02.

"Really proud. I feel like I really got my momentum going, was really present today, and just didn't really not care," Tavatanakit said of her round with seven birdies and two bogeys. "I didn't really -- didn't bother me if I was going to play good or bad."

Lydia Ko, the 2016 Chevron winner and runner-up to Tavatanakit in the event last year, also made a late charge to get to 68. She was joined at 68 in the afternoon wave by England's Georgia Hall and Gabriela Ruffels, who practices in the desert and whose parents live in Indian Wells.

Pajaree Anannarukarn of Thailand, Caroline Masson of Germany and Anna Nordqvist of Sweden all shot 68 in the morning wave. 

Lee, a rising star on the tour who is ranked fourth in the Rolex Women's World Rankings, won her first major championship in 2021 at the Evian Championship in France. That victory could be important for her as she plays the Chevron event, she said.

“It just means that I have a little bit more belief in myself,” Lee said.

Playing the back nine first, Lee had four birdies including on the par-5 18th, where she reached the famed island green in two shots. Lee said the island green was easily reachable, for her with a 5-iron, because the LPGA set the hole up at 485 yards and there was no prevailing wind into the face of the players.

But it was two earlier birdies that Lee remembered more that the late birdie.

"My second birdie (the 13th) I had -- it was like kind of weaved through the trees because I hit the cart path and went a little bit left, so that was a nice birdie," Lee said. "The next hole, the par-3, was tucked left and I made birdie there, too, so it really was a good shot in."

To end the front nine, Lee also went for the green on the par-5 ninth hole and was again rewarded with a birdie, chipping down from just off the green to the right to within two feet.

“I just really wanted to finish with a birdie on the par-5,” Lee said. “I think I had 216 meters to the pin, so it was a little cut 3-wood.”

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Kupcho, looking for her first LPGA win, looked like she might run away with the lead through 14 holes at 8-under with nine birdies and one bogey. But she bogeyed the 15th after hitting her drive into the rough, bogeyed the 16th the same way, missed the green on the par-3 17th but still made par, then missed a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th.

"I kind of the last couple days have not been hitting my driver super well, so honestly that's a big thing in a major, is to hit the fairway," said Kupcho, who missed the cut last week in the JTBC Classic in Carlsbad. "So really just focusing on that."

Ko, playing the back nine first with Lexi Thompson, made nine pars in a row to start her round. On the par-4 first hole, she was short of the green and lipped out a three-footer for a bogey. On the par-4 seventh, she drove into the left rough on the way to another bogey. The winner of six of her last 11 events on the LPGA finished the round without a birdie.

"I was hitting lots of great shots, but my putting wasn't good on the green," Ko said. "I couldn't see the break as much or speed, everything was wrong."

Ko also said she felt the greens on the Shore Course are not as fast as in past years, meaning she was leaving too many putts short of the hole. According to the LPGA, Ko had played 53 consecutive rounds with at least one birdie.