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WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia (AP) -The booming drives were there, but more often than not, Michelle Wie didn't know where they were going in her first round on the LPGA Tour since February.
The best scores, as usual, belonged to just about everyone else - a course record-tying 63 by Scotland's Mhairi McKay, and a potential battle looming between Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam in the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill.
Once the most heralded young player in the women's game, Wie managed just one birdie in a zig-zagging 4-over 75 on a soggy day, even as the River Course yielded its fourth 8-under 63 in six years, 64s to Sorenstam and Sun Young Yoo, and 65s to Ochoa and Diana D'Alessio.
Six others were three off the pace, and there were eight more four behind.
While 90 players in the field of 144 shot par or better, Wie was lucky to get off as easily as she did. She pulled her drive on the par-5 seventh, and only a tree kept it from flying out of bounds. She hit into the greenside rough on the par-3 13th, and it kicked onto the green. She hit her drive way right on the wide open par-4 14th, and another tree knocked it down.
Still, she took the half-full approach to her first round on tour since the Fields Open in Hawaii, where she made the cut but finished in a tie for last, 20 strokes off the pace.
"I felt like I was hitting the ball pretty well," she said, considering the rust. "There were a couple of shots here and there where I felt like if I play a couple more tournaments or had more experience under my belt, it would come out a little differently. But, like I said, I'm hitting the ball solid. I just have to work out a couple of other things for tomorrow."
Wie could have at least been encouraged by her putting. She had only two reasonable birdie putts all day, making a 5-footer and missing from 15 feet, but several times made par-saving putts from 3-5 feet. Without many birdie chances, that was about as good as it got.
"I just think it's going to come around anytime," Wie insisted. "I'm not far off."
She'll have to get there fast to stick around for the weekend, especially with top-ranked Ochoa and No. 2 Sorenstam off to fast starts in a tournament neither has won.
Sorenstam, coming off a playoff victory over Paula Creamer two weeks ago in the Stanford International Pro-Am, had seven birdies in a bogey-free round.
"I haven't shot this low all year, so it feels good to get off to a good start here, a place that I really like a lot and haven't played so well," she said.
"Very solid. Lots of fairways, lots of greens. Just good golf."
