Michelle Wie didn't hit a fairway off the tee, didn't hit a green in regulation. And through the first nine holes Thursday, it was becoming increasing clear that she didn't have a chance to make the cut in the Sony Open.
Wie was 8 over par, and easily could have been worse without making four putts outside six feet. The 17-year-old from Honolulu was in last place, four shots worse than one of the club pros who qualified.
Luke Donald of England was among the early leaders at 4 under, and while the conditions were breezy, they allowed for good scoring.
Not for Wie.
She hit shots that bounced off rocks, twice found the water, clipped palm trees and went into the bunker. Her best chance for birdie came with a chip from 20 feet off the eighth green.
In her last two PGA Tour starts, Wie was last at the 84 Lumber Classic (77-81) and withdrew at the John Deere Classic after opening with a 77. A year ago at the Sony Open, she opened with a 9-over 79.
This is her fourth time playing the Sony Open, where she missed the cut by one shot in her debut as a 14-year-old. The last two years, her hopes were gone after the first round. This time, they were gone sooner than that.
Playing with Gavin Coles and Q-school grad Stephen Marino, the high school senior was on the ropes from her opening tee shot, which she hooked so badly that she almost went onto the driving range. She wound up saving par with a 10-foot putt.
She pulled her tee shot on No. 2, and it was so close to the water that it bounced a half-dozen times along the rocks before taking a fortunate hop to the right, sparing her a penalty drop. That's didn't help, because she topped her long iron so badly that it looked like a hard grounder to second.
There was no escaping the water on her tee shot at No. 3, and she holed a 10-footer to save bogey. Then came a par save from the bunker on No. 4.
But it only got worse, with consecutive double bogeys.
She hooked her tee shot on the fifth hole into a creek some 40 yards left of the fairway, next to the seventh green. She twice hit trees along the right rough on No. 6, then found another bunker on the par-3 seventh.
And when she got her first crack at a par-5 at No. 9, she hit a wild slice that went off the property and into a canal lining Waialae Country Club.
The gallery was the largest on the golf course, but it was a quiet crowd.
And there was little emotion from Wie, who trudged along with stooped shoulders, occasionally shaking her right wrist, tightly wrapped because of an injury. The speculation turned from whether she could make the cut to whether she would withdraw.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
