Wie fires up a clunker in return
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 yesterday 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 at Williamsburg, Va.
Once the most heralded young player in the women's game, Wie managed just one birdie in a zigzagging 4-over-par 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.
European - John Daly shot a 5-under 67 to trail co-leaders Ross McGowan and Marco Ruiz by three strokes after the first round of the Italian Open in Milan.
US Open qualifying - Kirk Hanefeld, director of golf at The International in Bolton, and Steve Alminas of East Longmeadow, who recently turned pro, each fired 1-under 69 at Longmeadow CC to reach the US Open sectional qualifier the week of June 2. Also advancing was Rick Fleurry of West Springfield with a 71.
