WILLIAMSBURG, 15 May 2015 (AFP) - Klatten, who has missed five cuts and hasn't finished better than a tie for 30th this season, jump-started her round with four birdies in a row starting at the third hole, and finished the day one stroke in front of Pat Hurst, Alison Lee and Morgan Pressel.
"Well, it's nice because I haven't had a very good stretch lately," Klatten said. "I mean, this is one of my favorite courses all year. I feel very comfortable here. It suits my eye really well. I think you have an advantage if you're among the long hitters."
France's Perrine Delacour was among a quartet of players sharing fifth place on four-under 67, where she was joined by Americans Paula Creamer and Jacqui Concolino and South Korean Ryu So-Yeon.
Defending champion Lizette Salas struggled to a three-over 74 that left her tied for 93rd.
US Women's Open champion Michelle Wie withdrew with a hip injury after shooting an opening 78.
Klatten acknowledged that she had luck on her side on Thursday -- including three monster putts between 30 and 50 feet.
The longest of those was at the par-three fifth, where she holed out from in front of the green for a third straight birdie.
"I had good breaks and it feels really good," she said.
"Lately, it felt the other way around, but I knew that it always evens out. Today, it definitely did."
Pressel's round was highlighted by a near-ace on the 17th. She said swing changes that she is gradually solidifying are giving her more birdie chances.
"I just played solid," Pressel said. "I didn't really make a whole ton of mistakes today, and the ones I did, I recovered from nicely with good up and downs, a couple good 10-footers for par, and was able to convert the birdie opportunities that I did have."
Creamer got off to a hot start with birdies at five of her first seven holes.
She arrived at 18 with a chance to tie Klatten for the lead, but bogeyed to fall back.
Leading first-round scores on Thursday in the US LPGA Kingsmill Championship (USA unless noted, par-71):
65 - Joanna Klatten (FRA)
66 - Pat Hurst, Alison Lee, Morgan Pressel
67 - Jacqui Concolino, Ryu So-Yeon (KOR), Paul Creamer, Perrine Delacour (FRA)
68 - Katie Burnett, Minjee Lee (AUS) Mariajo Uribe (COL), Nannette Hill, Angela Stanford, Austin Ernst, Hur Mi-Jung (KOR), Sarah Jane Smith
69 - Paula Reto (RSA), Brittany Lincicome, Stacy Lewis, Yueer Cindy Feng (CHN), P.K. Kongkraphan (THA), Kim Sei-Young (KOR), Christina Kim