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PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — The tougher the course, the more Stacy Lewis enjoys it.

She's having a blast on Pinehurst No. 2 so far.

The top-ranked Lewis took an encouraging first step toward her third major title Thursday, shooting a bogey-free, 3-under 67 to take a one-stroke lead over Michelle Wie at the U.S. Women's Open before play was halted because of severe weather with 30 players still on the course.

"Once you get one under your belt, it's contagious," Lewis said. "You just want to win more and more. And a lot of times you're announced on a tee or introduced as how many Solheim Cups you've played on and how many majors you've won. Winning all of them is something I'd like to do some time down the road."

That means finally winning a Women's Open.

She hasn't finished in the top 10 at one since she was tied for third at Mission Hills in 2008, and her major victories have come at the 2011 Kraft Nabisco Championship and at last year's Women's British Open.

She called this "an easy day" — a reflection on her game, not the Pinehurst No. 2 course.

"I just have geared my game towards majors," Lewis said. "I love it when it's hard. I love it when you have to grind. I love it when you have to make 8- and 10-footers for par. It suits me and my game."

Pinehurst No. 2 was rough on the men last week during the U.S. Open and now it's being rough on the women.

This is the first time the men's and women's opens have been played on the same course in consecutive weeks.

The course measured 6,296 yards — a little over 1,000 yards shorter than it did a week earlier for the men — but the lack of cloud cover and sweltering, green-drying temperatures in the 90s meant it played just as tough, at least until the storms prompted the suspension of play. The scoring average for the women was 75.73 — about 2 1/2 strokes higher than the men averaged during their first round.

Of the players who finished their first round, only five shot in the 60s: Behind Lewis and Wie were former Women's Open champion So Yeon Ryu, Katherine Kirk and amateur Minjee Lee at 69.

"On this golf course, you make a couple of mistakes, you can easily shoot a high number," defending champion Inbee Park said after her 76.

Here are five things to watch for when play resumes Friday morning:

TOUGH LI: The youngest player to qualify for the Women's Open has some work to do to become the youngest to make the cut. Eleven-year-old Lucy Li was solid for 15 of 18 holes, but a triple bogey and two double bogeys left her 11 strokes behind Lewis and in need of a big day Friday to make it to the weekend. "I just need to get rid of the big numbers," she said.

NOT SUNDAY YET: Wie insists it's too soon to start thinking about winning her first major championship because "it's a long road until Sunday." But she certainly put herself in position to challenge for it, finishing with four birdies on the back nine. Wie's last major was her best — she finished second to Lexi Thompson at the Kraft Nabisco — and she has eight top-10 finishes in 12 events this year. "If I keep doing what I'm doing now, I'll be close," Wie said, "and hopefully I'll be there Sunday having an opportunity, and that's really all I can ask for."

THEY'VE STILL GOT IT: Ryu wasn't the only past Women's Open winner to start strong. Karrie Webb, the last player to win it two years in a row (2001-02) opened with a 70, as did 2010 champion Paula Creamer. "I think it helps a lot having to have won an open and then constantly giving myself opportunities," Creamer said. "You learn a lot." And 53-year-old Juli Inkster, who has said this Women's Open will "probably" be her last, shot a 71.

PARK IN REVERSE: Park won her second Women's Open title last year. She faces a tough path to her third. She was nine strokes behind Lewis after getting into trouble with a run of three bogeys in six holes and, later, with two double bogeys. "My plan has definitely changed," Park said. "Not so much about the trophy now anymore, just trying to keep it into play."

TOP AMATEUR: Minjee Lee was the only amateur to finish under par. The Australian who won the 2012 U.S. Girls Junior began and closed her round with birdies and had an eagle on the par-5 fifth. For a while Thursday afternoon, though, Pepperdine's Marissa Chow had the top of the leaderboard all to herself after moving to 4 under. But three straight double bogeys sent her tumbling, and she was at 3 over through 15 holes when play was halted.

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Follow Joedy McCreary on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joedyap

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria's state-run news agency says a powerful car bomb explosion has killed 34 civilians and wounded more than 50 others.

SANA says the explosion went off on Friday morning in the government-controlled Horrah village in the countryside near the central city of Hama.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which documents the violence in Syria through a network of activists on the ground, says at least 37 people were killed and scores were wounded.

Car bombs are common in Syria's civil war, now in its fourth year. The conflict has killed more than 160,000 people according to opposition activists. Nearly a third of the victims were civilians.

AGUAS CLARAS, Brazil (AP) — A family is counting on the fingers of a single hand its hopes for Brazil to win a sixth World Cup championship.

All the members of the Silva family living In Aguas Claras, a town on the outskirts of the capital of Brasilia, were born with an extra digit on each hand as a result of a genetic condition known as polydactyly.

Rather than recoil in the face of stares by curious onlookers, the 14 members of the family spanning four generations seem to embrace their physical difference with pride.

And that pride never shines more brightly than during the World Cup as they relish the attention of Brazilian media, which have trained cameras on the family as much of the South America nation crosses its fingers hoping the national team will add to its record five World Cup titles.

"Since the last World Cup we wanted Brazil to become hexacampeao," said Ana Carolina Santos da Silva, using the Portuguese term for "six-time champion" that would be the envy of the soccer world. "But it didn't happen, so this year we really want Brazil to achieve the sixth."

Far from a hindrance, having an extra finger seems to help the Silva family perform domestic chores and pursue musical talents.

Fourteen-year-old Joao de Assis da Silva shows off his dexterity moving up and down his guitar's fret board.

His 8-year-old cousin, Maria Morena da Silva, has musical dreams, too. "I have never played the piano, but I want to learn, and it might be easier playing with six fingers," she says.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — It's not easy to get to the right of U.S. Rep. James Lankford, a staunch conservative from a state that prides itself on being "the reddest of the red." The Baptist minister and onetime leader of one of the nation's largest Christian youth camps came to Congress three years ago and has preached a hard-right doctrine heavy on gun rights, abortions and the evils of Obamacare.

Yet Lankford, a rising star in the national GOP, now finds himself fighting for political survival in a primary election for a U.S. Senate seat that may show whether the insurgent shock wave that felled leading Republican Eric Cantor in Virginia extends into this part of the nation's Republican heartland.

Lankford, 46, is being challenged by another conservative, T.W. Shannon, the former speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The race, which focuses on Lankford's role in GOP leadership positions, has drawn advertising money from national conservative organizations and has left even tea party groups confused over who to support.

National tea party organizations are weighing in for Shannon, but local groups, some of which have backed Lankford in previous races, haven't chosen sides.

"They all go to church, probably donate to charities and help little old ladies cross the street," said Mark Keeling, a truck driver who heads up the local tea party chapter in Chickasha, a semi-rural town of 16,000. "The problem is, you don't really know who these guys are."

Drawing further attention to the race is the challenger's ethnicity: Shannon, 36, was the state's first black speaker of the House and is also Native American, a valuable asset for a party struggling to diversify outside its overwhelmingly white voting bloc.

The election might shed light on whether a tea-party favorite risks his grass-roots credibility if he moves up in the GOP he's pledged to reform. Five other less-funded Republicans will also be on the ballot next week, along with three Democrats, vying to replace retiring Republican Sen. Tom Coburn.

Lankford was a political unknown when he won an open seat in Congress in 2010 from Oklahoma's Republican-leaning capital city.

Thin, with red hair and a preacher's booming voice, he leveraged an army of young evangelicals from his Baptist network to propel his campaign, and he's now counting on them again in a statewide race.

Lankford has been campaigning as he legislates — like a workhorse. The congressman happily delves deep into nuance with voters who ask about complicated federal budget issues or congressional investigations.

But Shannon, a striking presence at 6-foot-4 and impeccably dressed, describes himself as the more conservative and aims to exploit the sliver of room to the right of Lankford, who became House Republican Policy Committee chairman because of his grasp of GOP issues. For some conservatives, that raises the specter of a Washington insider.

"I get that," Lankford said recently. "That's just the dynamic of it."

A particular target of pro-Shannon ads is Lankford's votes to increase the nation's debt limit and to support a bipartisan budget agreement.

"Mr. Lankford: The truth is, these are not our Oklahoma conservative values," says one ad funded by an independent group.

Lankford defended those votes as the result of hard-fought battles with a Democratic Senate and president.

"The issues I'm being attacked on are issues that say, basically, you should close the government," Lankford said.

Shannon, a protege of J.C. Watts, who in the 1990s became the first black Republican congressman from the South since Reconstruction, climbed the leadership ladder in the state legislature by cultivating the party's right wing. As speaker, he created a special committee to hear proposals for defying the federal government.

Shannon, whose father, a school teacher, is black and a Chickasaw and whose mother is African-American, says there should be nothing unusual about a black or Native American conservative.

"I think we're beyond the days where that's a major issue in the race," Shannon said before a candidate forum.

But it's unlikely Shannon will get much support from those traditionally Democratic groups, even in his hometown of Lawton, a rough-and-tumble Army post town.

"The Republican Party has thrown us off the bus, and I'll be doggone if I'm going to vote for a black dude that drives the bus over me," said Jim Floyd, 84, a retired African-American Army officer and Democrat who has lived in Lawton for 50 years.

Shannon's membership in the Chickasaw Nation has been a fundraising asset. The tribe operates the state's largest casino and leaders of several Oklahoma-based tribes are backing him financially.

The fierce attack ads from both sides have drawn a rebuke from Coburn, the hugely popular conservative maverick, who decried politics "in its very worst form with misleading advertisements and allegations against candidates."

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Follow Sean Murphy at www.twitter.com/apseanmurphy