 |
 |
 |
|
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) -The two best players in women's golf played together and seemed to push each other to keep doing better, the day ending with both high on the leaderboard.
For Michelle Wie, it was another rare day of gaining experience, a 4-over-par 75 leaving her more in danger of missing Friday's cut than making Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa or most anyone else in the Michelob Ultra Open sweat the presence of the one-time preteen phenom.
And it wasn't that the River Course at Kingsmill wasn't there for the taking. Mhairi McKay tied the course record with an 8-under 63, Sorenstam and Sun Young Yoo had 64s and Ochoa and Diane D'Alessio, who played with Wie, shot 65 on a soggy day with intermittent drizzle.
In all, 90 of 144 players were at par or better. Six others were three off the pace, and eight more were four behind. Wie was already 12 shots back, in a tie for 126th, and probably should have felt fortunate to be there because several bounces went decidedly her way:
- 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. "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."
Fresh off a month working with coach David Ledbetter, Wie said she was encouraged.
"I just think it's going to come around anytime," she 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.
