updated 10:07 p.m. ET July 9, 2009

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - There’s no denying this is the biggest week in women’s golf — full of good news and bad.

The game’s top-ranked player, a former champion and a developmental tour qualifier are one stroke behind a talented second-year LPGA player at the U.S. Women’s Open, on a course that doesn’t yield birdies easily.

All the while, controversy is swirling around the women’s tour amid reports Thursday that LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens could be out of her job as early as next week after a faction of key players signed a letter calling for her resignation.

Despite the theatrics, it has the makings of a developing drama on the golf course as well, with the game’s top players off to hot starts and a 14-year-old amateur trying to make her first cut in her third Open.

Leader Na Yeon Choi birdied her first three holes, and four of her first five, making the tough Saucon Valley Country Club course look tame with an opening round 3-under 68.

“I know it’s a difficult course, but I was really excited to start my round and I thought it was going to be a very, very interesting week for me,” the South Korean said through an interpreter.

It could get quite interesting considering the players chasing the 21-year-old.

No. 1-ranked Lorena Ochoa, 2007 champion Cristie Kerr and qualifier Jean Reynolds opened with 2-under 69s, and Hee Young Park, also of South Korea, was another stroke back after a 70.

“Patience is the No. 1 thing you have to have this week,” Ochoa said.

But major news about the LPGA and its players keeps intruding on the championship.

Special feature Lorena Ochoa Take a look at some highlights from Lorena Ochoa's golfing career. NBCSports.com

Just as Choi was completing her round, Golf Digest and Golfweek Magazine, citing sources, reported on their Web sites that Bivens’ four-year tenure with the tour is coming to an end.

The move comes after a call for her resignation by key players, who wrote to the LPGA board asking Bivens to step down.

Easily overlooked in the fallout of the LPGA brouhaha were solid rounds by Choi, the runner-up for rookie of the year in 2008, Ochoa, who is seeking her first Women’s Open title, and Kerr, aiming for her second championship crown.

Birdies were tough to come by for nearly everyone but Choi, who has won four times in international events.

Playing in her second Open, she made Saucon Valley’s narrow fairways seem wide and handled its speedy, undulating greens. Choi relied on accurate approach shots throughout and reached 5-under by her 12th hole, before backing up just a bit. Starting on the back nine, she had consecutive bogeys on the 409-yard, par-4 fifth, and 559-yard, par-5 sixth before closing with three pars.

“I think being here for the second time, being on the Tour for two years now, I think I find it much more comfortable,” Choi said. “I now understand better about the magnitude of this U.S. Women’s Open, and to be honest, I think I’m much more comfortable playing on this tour and these golf courses than I do in Korea, so, you know, everything is good for me.”

Ochoa started early Thursday on the back nine and offset two bogeys with two birdies on her first nine and then moved below par with consecutive birdies at Nos. 2 and 3.