KOCHI, Japan — Hawai'i's Michelle Wie shot a 1-over-par 73 today, trailing leaders Toshimitsu Izawa and Yoshiaki Kimura by five strokes after the first round of the Casio World Open.

Wie, only the second woman to play in a Japanese men's event, teed off from the 10th hole at the par-72 Kochi Kuroshio Country Club and bogeyed the par-4 16th hole when she three-putted.

She bogeyed Nos. 2 and 3 before recovering with back-to-back birdies on the sixth and seventh holes.

"Coming back like that will give me confidence for tomorrow," Wie said. "It's good to know I can do that even when I'm not playing that well."

Wie's first birdie of the day came when she hit a sand wedge from 100 yards that landed 4 feet from the hole on the par-4 sixth hole.

On the par-5 seventh, she drove into the rough, but blasted out with a 5-wood and then hit a sand wedge to 4 feet from the hole before making the birdie putt.

"I wanted to be a little higher (on the leaderboard)," Wie said. "But considering how I struggled in the middle I'm pretty happy with the round I had. Hopefully, I can come back tomorrow and play a better round."

The 16-year-old Punahou student is making her sixth attempt trying to make the cut in a men's professional tournament. She has failed to make the cut in three PGA starts, a Nationwide event and a Canadian tournament.

Sophie Gustafson missed the cut in the 2003 Casio tournament, the only other time a female player has appeared in a top Japanese men's tour event.

Huge crowds followed Wie. By contrast, defending champion David Smail had only a handful of fans following him.

The $1.17 million tournament, the next-to-last event on the Japanese men's tour, is Wie's first since she was disqualified last month in her pro debut.

"I felt a little nervous off the tee," Wie said. "But being nervous like that can be a good thing."

Because of a backlog of players, Wie had to wait 40 minutes after her first nine holes.

"I never had to do that before," she said. "I missed a couple of 4- or 5-foot putts that I should have made."

The Japan Golf Tour contributed to this report.