New Zealand's 16-year-old Lydia Ko, making her professional golf debut, carded a one-under-par 71 on Thursday in the first round of the LPGA Titleholders in Florida.
She was tied for 30th with South Korean defending champion Choi Na-Yeon.
Although Ko won four professional tournaments as an amateur - including back-to-back LPGA Canadian titles in 2012 and 2013, she admitted her first round as a pro was fun but hectic.
"I tried not to think too much about it and stay calm," said Ko, who will become a LPGA tour member next season. "It didn't feel too odd or special or slow or whatever today. That actually surprised me - I thought I would be much more nervous. And actually one of the good things was I actually wasn't thinking about any money or related stuff. I just tried to play my game."
She had a double-bogey six at the third and a bogey on seven, but responded with birdies at the eighth, 12th, 15th and 17th.
"I gave myself opportunities, and par is sometimes good and all I can do is just set up birdie putts and then some will go in and some won't."
Germany's Sandra Gal made a sizzling start with six straight birdies to finish with an eight-under 64, seizing a one-shot lead.
She played par golf until a lone bogey at the par-3 fifth but bounced back with birdies at six, eight and nine to match the tournament record and edge ahead of Canada's Rebecca Lee-Bentham.
Gal, 28, opted to attack from the start in the season-ending event, which is open to players with top-three finishes this year.
"I thought this tournament was a little different than the other ones, so I thought I'm just going to be really aggressive and just go for everything ..."
Lee-Bentham opened with back-to-back birdies, added two more at 13 and 14 and another two shots at 17 and 18 before her only bogey at the second.
She made two more birdies coming home for outright second ahead of Sweden's Anna Nordqvist, China's Feng Shanshan and US teenager Lexi Thompson.
Feng finished with an eagle to grab a share of third on 66.
American Sandra Changkija was sixth on 67, while world No.1 Park In-Bee headed a group of six players sharing seventh on 68.
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