WILLIAMSBURG - Annika Sorenstam has at least one thing in common with the U.S. Postal Service. Neither can be stopped by wind or rain or the gloom of approaching dusk.

Sorenstam, the once and perhaps future queen of women's professional golf, scrambled into sole possession of first place at the midway point of the $2.2 million Michelob Ultra Open by shooting a 5-under-par 66 yesterday and moving to 12-under for the tournament.

She repelled not only archnemesis Lorena Ochoa but also capricious and at times nasty weather. Play was halted twice, once in the morning and again in the afternoon, by slashing rain and swirling wind.

"It was a long day," said Sorenstam, who leads Ochoa and Jeong Jang by three shots heading into today's third round on the Kingsmill Resort's long, lush River Course. "Looking back, I can hardly remember my front nine. Everything considered the wind, the rain, the delay it was quite the test. I'm very pleased with the way I hung in there."

Pleased? In truth, she quite possibly was ecstatic. Sorenstam, who won five consecutive player-of-the-year trophies before relinquishing the crown to Ochoa in 2006, has completed two tours of the River Course without making a bogey. In addition to her five birdies yesterday, she nimbly danced away from danger on her last two holes, Nos. 8 and 9, to save par.

Sorenstam said she "can't remember the last time" she played consecutive bogey-free rounds. "I'll say this: I'm so happy with the way I'm striking my irons. I feel so good about hitting the targets and the spots and the yardages that I'm planning."

As well she should. The longest of her birdie putts was a 16-footer on the par-5 3rd hole.

Ochoa, playing in Sorenstam's made-for-television threesome, didn't flinch in the face of such precision. Nor was she able to match it. Her 3-under-par 68 included a final-hole bogey that deprived her of sole possession of second place. She slapped her tee shot into the right rough and hit an indifferent second shot before missing a 12-footer for par.

"It was still a solid day for me, especially from the tee," she said. "I played well. I'm right there. I'm where I want to be for the weekend. I've given myself a chance."

Jang leapt into contention by matching Sorenstam's 66. She birdied her last four holes and five of her last eight. Jang has performed splendidly for the first two days of this 72-hole event despite nagging discomfort in her right wrist. The problem: a cluster of small cysts, one of which is rooted between bones.

Her physician gave her "a couple of options," Jang said. "He said, 'One of them is surgery, but I don't recommend it because you're too young and because you're a golfer.'" Medication and rest, she said, have produced mixed results.

"Then he said, 'Maybe you should try a different club maybe graphite instead of steel.' I'm going to take next week off, I think, and try the graphite shaft."

The two delays forced the last groups on the course to race darkness to the clubhouse. They also produced occasional backups on the course. One of those was mildly significant. Christina Kim began the day at 1-under but played brilliantly through her first 17 holes. She was 7-under for the tournament when she departed the No.17 green.

She fidgeted through a 15-minute delay before entering the tee box at No.18. She then yanked her tee shot far to the left, to the lip of the lake that protects the left side of the 18th fairway. A double bogey followed.

Kim could think of but one way to escape her exasperation.

"I'm going to have lunch, sent my caddie home and go have a facial," she said. "I've been thinking about it since I got here. Now I'm going to do it."