Wie shoots 6-under 66, closes to 4 back of lead

By Patti Myers
Special to The Advertiser

Michelle Wie shouts to her ball to "get in the hole" as she watches her near ace on the par-3 fifth hole during the third round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Associated Press

She wanted to jump in the lake. Not any lake, but the one alongside the 18th green at Mission Hills Country Club in the Southern California desert.

Wie may get that chance today.

As the youngest player to make the cut at an LPGA event, the 13-year-old Punahou School eighth-grader is playing in the final group of the LPGA's first major tournament — the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Yesterday, Wie fired a 6-under 66 to climb past Se Ri Pak, Lorena Ochoa, veterans Laura Davies, Donna Andrews and Michelle Redman to earn a spot in the final group.

She'll play with leader Patricia Meunier-Lebouc (8-under) and two-time champion Annika Sorenstam (5-under) in the fourth round of the 72-hole event.

"I hope it will be a reality,'' she said of the tradition of the winner jumping, diving, wading or dunking into the lake, which began with Amy Alcott's first swim in 1988. "They (her parents B.J. and Bo) always said you set the highest goals that you can set and if it doesn't come true, that's OK. You need to get close to it."

To Wie, it may be just another vacation on the Mainland, but to her parents, it's the chance of a lifetime for their only daughter.

As the galleries swelled along the Dinah Shore Tournament Course, Wie surged ahead with ease. She started at 2-over following rounds of 70-74, but focused on making birdies on the advice of her father, her caddy for this week. She knocked in six birdies on the first 11 holes, missed two putts for birdie on the back 9 and parred her way home.

Her mother was so nervous, her hands were shaking as she walked outside the ropes, stopping every few yards to watch in wonder. Her father was so emotional he'd drop to his knees when a putt lipped out.

Michelle says she's getting used to it. She says she's the calm one who often tells her father to "chill."

"They're both the chokers of the family," she said.

"I've never seen anything like this before,'' said her mother, Bo. "It's great to see all the people. It's amazing."

Added BJ: "I just encourage her to swing hard and we weren't concerned about technique. We wanted to make birdie on every hole. Today, we focused to make birdie and on this course she can."

But, does Dad/caddy think she can win?

"Why not,'' he said. "She told me it's easier than courses she's played in Hawai'i. There's a gentle breeze like we have in Hawai'i — tradewinds. This is only 6,500 (yards) and she never used more than a pitching wedge on a second shot on the par 4s. The greens are tough, but lengthwise, she can do it here. At home, she's 13 — a very young kid — but out here she plays like an LPGA player."

Yesterday, Wie, who has played in three LPGA events on a sponsor's exemption, said she was confident that she was in charge on the course, calling the shots.

"I don't really put pressure on myself,'' she said. "It's just a game. You have to hit the ball good, putt well, chip well, everything. It's just a game."

Round by round, Wie showed her strength off the tee. On Thursday, she shot even-par 72, then followed with a 74 on Friday to easily make the cut.

Yesterday, she tied an LPGA record with her 66 as the lowest score by an amateur in any LPGA event (others are Carole Semple-Thompson in the first round of the 1994 U.S. Open and Caroline Keggi at the 1988 Nabisco Dinah Shore).

The record was "nice" as she put it, but the birdies she left out there — including one from six feet on 18 — would have been better.

"It's killing me right now," she said. "I could have been second, I think.

"My driver has been going farther and farther each hole, so by the 16th (390-yard par 4) I flew the tree over on the right and it ran about 310 (yards). I was really surprised."

Despite the growing achievements in her young career, she admitted she surprised herself this week.

She's playing in a major tournament on national TV in the same group as the leader and the top player in the world.

"I never really realized I would play as good," she said. "And I just keep on going. My game is getting better and better every day. And I think today nothing was really weak."

Her coach Gary Gilchrist of the David Leadbetter Golf Academy in Florida said Wie has big goals and a big game.

"She wants to be one of the best in the world and getting to another level is important to her,'' he said. "She blew me away the first time I saw her. So every time I go to a tournament I'm expecting something to happen out of the ordinary and that's what's happened this week."

At the age of 13, Sorenstam was a 45-handicapper in Sweden. Meunier-Lebouc was just being introduced to the strange game of golf in France.

"I cannot relate at all," Sorenstam said of Wie. "She's playing at a totally different level than I did at that age."

Sorenstam, meanwhile, had putting problems and finished with a 71 in her bid to win the Kraft Nabisco a third straight time.

Meunier-Lebouc, who began the day with a two-shot lead, led by as many as five shots on the back nine before bogeys on 16 and 17 brought her back closer to the field.

She missed an 8-footer for birdie on 18 to finish with a 2-under 70 that left her at 8-under on a course she hadn't seen before this week.

"I'm very happy and at the same time scared," Meunier-Lebouc said. "That's the best, actually. That's why I'm here."

Meunier-Lebouc has won five times on the European tour and once last year on the LPGA Tour.

Two behind Wie at 2-under are Davies and Pak, both of whom are a Nabisco victory short of a career grand slam.

Associated Press contributed to this report.