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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 12:12 p.m., Saturday, June 26, 2004

Wie advances to Public Links championship

Advertiser Staff

Defending champion Michelle Wie, 14, won quarterfinal and semifinal matches today to advance to Sunday's final in the 28th U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship in Williamsburg, Va.

Wie will play Ya-Ni Tseng of Chinese Taipei in a 36-hole final. Tseng defeated In-Bee Park of Eustis, Fla., 1-up, in today's other semifinal match.

Last year in Palm Coast, Fla., Wie, then 13, became the youngest to win an adult USGA women's open event.

Today, Wie defeated Jenna Pearson, 5 and 4, in a quarterfinal and beat Angela Park, 2-up, in the semifinal. Both matches were scheduled for 18 holes.

In the semifinal, Angela Park of Torrance, Calif., led 1-up after the third hole, but Wie tied with a birdie the next hole (par-4, 359-yard fourth).

Wie was 2-up after seven, and made the turn after nine holes, leading 1-up. Angela Park squared the match with a birdie on the 13th. But Wie birdied the next hole (par 4, 372 yards) to go 1-up. Both birdied the 16th (par 4, 350 yards). Wie closed out the match when she parred the 17th (par 3, 177 yards) while Angela Park bogeyed.

In her quarterfinal against Pearson of Wheaton, Ill., Wie assumed control early. Wie birdied the third (par 4, 342 yards) and fifth (par 5, 498 yards) for a 2-up lead. A Pearson bogey on the sixth (par 4, 402 yards), a Wie birdie on the eighth (par 5, 503 yards) and another Pearson bogey on the ninth (par 3, 153 yards) gave Wie a 5-up lead after nine holes.

In other quarterfinal matches, In-Bee Park defeated Brittany Lang of McKinney, Texas in 22 holdes, Tseng defeated Hannah Jun of San Diego, 7 and 5, and Angela Park beat Nara Shin of Chula Vista, Calif., 4 and 3.

In match-play competition, players go head-to-head on each hole. A player wins a hole by using fewer strokes to complete the hole. If both players use the same amount of strokes to complete the hole, the hole is halved, meaning no one wins the hole. A 5-and-4 victory means a player won five more holes than her opponent and clinched the victory because the match had only four holes left to play.