Wie makes the cut

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Michelle Wie, an eighth-grader at Punahou School, hit only four fairways, but compensated with a solid short game to make the cut at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Associated Press

"She's watching Disney Channel," said father, BJ. "That's all she watches. If I turn on Golf Channel, she turns it off."

Wie worked her way through a "really hard day for me — I was struggling with everything" to pull into the Top 20 halfway through the Kraft Nabisco Championship. She is eight behind leader Patricia Meunier-Lebouc and six back of two-time defending champion Annika Sorenstam.

The LPGA's first major of the year, at Mission Hills Country Club, is Wie's fourth LPGA event. She has sponsor's exemptions for five more this year. Her first three LPGA tournaments were last year, when she was 12. She missed each cut.

This morning, she will be among the LPGA elite on network TV (11:30 a.m. channel 4). Wie followed up an even-par 72 Thursday with a 74, despite hitting just four fairways with her drives. She compensated by displaying a deft short game, hitting a wide variety of wedge shots and one-putting six greens — five on the front nine.

"She showed yesterday she is long and her approach shots are accurate," BJ said last night. "Today she showed a strong short game. In two days, she's showed everything but putting. That was better today, but she missed a number of birdie putts."

Wie has yet to hit any iron longer than a wedge on a par-4 hole at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course. It is 300 yards shorter than Pearl Country Club, where she finished fourth in the Hawai'i State Amateur two weeks ago. She got to 1-under par for the tournament yesterday by birdieing No. 2 (504-yard par-5); her second shot was a "soft" 6-iron from some 170 yards.

In the first round, Wie, who is 6 feet tall, averaged 298 yards per drive. Yesterday, that dropped to 262 as she went almost exclusively to 4-wood off the tee to try and find the fairway.

"My yardages were off and I couldn't hit straight," she said. "But I could have done worse."

Her father attributed her problems off the tee to an early start — "Her body wasn't ready for the driver." Wie won't have that problem today and is also eagerly anticipating four cousins driving up from Los Angeles to watch.

They won't be alone. Wie has had large galleries this week and a media swarm at the final green reminiscent of the attention Tiger Woods draws.

It has not hampered her game.

"She's very comfortable with all that," BJ says. "I think she enjoys it."