By DON O'BRIEN

Herald-Whig Sports Editor

EDINA, Minn. -- Going into her maiden voyage in the professional golf arena, Emily Powers wasn't too worried about all of the eyeballs that would be focused on her.

"I like being in front of the camera and performing in front of people," Powers said while preparing for her trip to the U.S. Women's Open. "I do better when there are cameras around."

With ESPN's cameras rolling on the 18th green Thursday afternoon at Interlachen Country Club and the gallery the biggest Powers played in front of all day, she delivered in a big way.

Powers made a chip-in birdie to cap an even-par 37 on the back nine, making up for a rough opening nine -- when she shot 8-over -- to finish with an 8-over 81 total.

"I'm happy that I came back and at least I didn't make it any worse," said Powers, who has a 2:31 p.m. tee time for her second round today.

Things started to turn around for the former Quincy Notre Dame star near the turn after she scrambled nicely for a bogey on the ninth hole.

Powers hit her approach shot well right of the green and it wound up rolling down a cart path in front of the No. 1 tees. After clearing the heavily populated area to give herself a look at the green, Powers' chip shot stopped within 20 feet of the cup. She barely missed saving par and tapped in for a bogey to cap her front side.

At the par-5 10th, she worked her way out of trouble again, blasting out of a green-side sand trap to within a foot of the cup for a tap-in par.

"That's when I settled down," Powers said of the sand save.

Powers saved par with a 7-foot par putt on No. 11 and made a two-putt par on the par-3 12th. Another two-putt par followed on the par-5 13th before Powers drew her first roar from the crowd.

At the par-3 14th, Powers stuck her tee shot within 20 feet of the cup and drained a birdie putt.

Wild off the tee on No. 15 and 16, Powers made back-to-back bogeys. She got up and down from 90 yards out for par on No. 17. The par-5 18th is a three-shot hole to the green. Her third shot wound up in the rough, about 15 feet from a hole cut on the left side of the green. She chipped the ball perfectly, the ball rolling the final 8 feet into the center of the cup.

"At least I ended good," Powers said.

Her start wasn't so good. She hit driver off the first tee and had it go into a bunker on the left side of the fairway. That led to a double bogey 6, which immediately put her in catch-up mode.

"I was a little nervous, but I wasn't shaking as bad as I thought I'd be," Powers said. "(The ball) actually went a good distance."

Powers never was able to find a groove on the front side. She also had a double bogey on the par-5 third hole after hitting her drive into a hazard. She made bogeys on No. 5, No. 6, No. 8 and No. 9.

"I knew (the front nine) was terrible," Powers said. "At the same time, I knew I was pretty nervous.

"I just got a little ahead of myself and was moving too quickly. There were just a lot of little mistakes that I'll learn from."

Powers is near the bottom of the 155-player field and will need to go low during the second round to make the weekend. The low 60 scores and ties as well as anyone else within 10 shots of the lead will make the cut.

"I got the bad round over with," Powers said.

--dobrien@whig.com/221-3365