Wie, 14, routinely outdrove playing partners Clarissa Childs and Charlotta Sorenstam by a wide margin, but watched birdie putt after putt slide by.

"It wasn't a great round. It wasn't a terrible round. It was just an OK round, just kind of hacked your way through 18 holes," said Wie, who will tee off at 7:50 a.m. Hawai'i time for today's second round. "When I first started off I didn't really feel any adrenaline like when I go into tournaments and I am in that tournament mode."

It was Wie's first tournament action since the Kraft Nabisco Championships six weeks ago.

"It's been kind of a long time since I played in a tournament so I kind of lost like what it feels like, just like the whole touch about a tournament," Wie said. "I didn't know when to concentrate, stuff like that. I started to get the hang of it by like the 13th hole."

She made the turn in 1-over, then bogeyed the par-4 12th when she pulled her second shot.

Wie parred the 13th and 14th, then birdied the par-5, 458-yard 15th (chipping to 4 feet) and the par-4, 410-yard 16th (hitting a 7-iron to 9 feet).

A bogey on No. 17 dropped her back to 1-over.

"The two birdies I made were really ... important because if I didn't make those two birdies I don't know what would have happened," Wie said.

Kang shot a 6-under 65, riding a pinpoint 60-degree wedge to a series of short birdies and grabbing a one-shot lead.

Annika Sorenstam, the winner in two of four previous starts, opened with a 69.