ON a day full of soft, summer sunshine there was some very unlady like behaviour at Woburn yesterday as the competitors in the Women's British Open showed little modesty in fairly ripping the course apart.

With holding fairways and receptive greens the field was not slow in coming forward, and by the end of the day there were no fewer than six leaders at five under (68), with a further eight only one stroke back.

The leaders featured three Americans, Julie Piers, Emilee Klein and Tracy Hanson, one Englishwoman in Alison Nicholas, one Scot in Dale Reid, and, obviously, one Peruvian Swede, Jenny Lidback.

It was, perhaps, among those on four under that the long term strength lay, with Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb and Helen Alfredsson on that mark. So also was Natasha Fink, who once, in the Welsh Open, had eight birdies in 10 holes. Yesterday she had only six in total Fink ain't what she used to be.

One of the most appealing aspects of a women's event at this venue, apart from a walk around lovely Woburn, is the opportunity to watch some great techniques at work. Three of the leaders, not just of this tournament but of women's golf world wide, are, in the old fashioned phrase, mere slips of girls. But they yield not an inch to the bigger girls, always excepting Laura Davies of course, and all three would expect to see the back of the 250 yard marker on a regular basis.

Both Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb are only 5ft 6in, and Alison Nicholas is barely 60in tall. I'm 5ft 0in in my spikes," she says. Nicholas has a solid frame, but both the others have the slimmest of shoulders and lithe, wiry, bodies. All three evidently are strong but in none of them is it obvious, and the distance they propel the ball, particularly with the long irons, repeatedly comes as a shock.

So does the simplicity of their swings. There are no histrionics, no convolutions, no contortions, just a straightforward take away, a club taken to the top and then brought back down again in the most graceful of arcs. There must, of course, have been club head speed created, and the club head itself must have been brought to the ball absolutely square, but again, nothing is obvious. Sorenstam is perhaps the most extreme of the three there is a point and press camera quality about it all. I Leica.

The Swede is diffident about her ability to hit the ball distances the average club male achieves only in mid summer, downhill, downwind. "It is all timing," she says, which is a blow for those hoping to learn, but adds. A full turn helps, you must complete the backswing."

Nicholas agrees about timing and also about the full turn, adding. I'm fairly strong, but when I'm playing badly I'll go to the range and concentrate on turning properly and finding a good rhythm."

Webb's first words, when asked if there was a secret, were. It's all timing."

It was not a Laura Davies day yesterday. There was a first day record attendance of 7,820 and many of them opted to watch the world's number one and winner of two major championships this season. But she seems inhibited by Woburn, and the arboreal delights so pleasing for the spectators are simply claustrophobic for the women game's longest hitter.

Only once did she give it a real crunch off the tee, at the 310 yard 17th, where she finished just a few paces off the green. But then she hit a poor chip some IS feet past the hole, and a watching old codger said, with some satisfaction. "Well, I could have done that." And so he could, but it would have been with his third, or maybe fourth, shot.

. Castletroy amateur Barbara Hackett was the best of the three Irish challengers. The Irish amateur champion came in with a one under par 72, two strokes ahead of Aideen Rogers. But Maureen Mad ill failed to make a birdie in a disappointing 81.

Hackett's was an admirable performance on her debut against a field of professionals. "I was a little nervous at the start but I settled down. It was something of a birdie and bogey round, but I enjoyed it," she said.

Rogers struggled at the short holes going out. Standing only two inches over 5ft, she could only see the top of the flagstick from the elevated tee at the short second, where she finished in a bunker. Rogers did birdie the long fourth, but then needed two attempts to escape from sand to run up a double bogey five at the short eighth hole on her way out in 38.