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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 12:16 p.m., Thursday, July 13, 2006

Wie headed for weekend off

By Nancy Armour
Associated Press

SILVIS, Ill. — Michelle Wie is heading the wrong way in her bid to make history. Again.

Trying for a fifth time to become the first woman since 1945 to make a cut in a PGA Tour event, the 16-year-old instead found trouble everywhere she turned Thursday in the first round of the John Deere Classic. Off the tee. On the green. In the sand. In the water. In the weeds. And in the woods — several times.

With a 6-over 77, Wie was 13 strokes off the lead and headed for another early trip home. The low 70 and ties will make the cut after the second round Friday and, with half of the field still on the course on a steamy afternoon, 74 players were at 1 under or better.

J.P. Hayes, John Senden and local favorite Zach Johnson were tied for the early lead at 7-under 64. Defending champion Sean O'Hair, Jason Gore and Camilo Villegas were among those with afternoon tee times.

This is Wie's fifth visit to the PGA Tour, where she is trying to become the first woman since Babe Zaharias in 1945 to make the cut. And if ever there was a time the teen phenom was going to do it, this appeared to be it.

She missed the cut at last year's Deere Classic by a measly two strokes, blowing her chance at history with two bad holes late in the second round. A year older and wiser, she came to the TPC at Deere Run playing perhaps the best golf of her career. In the first three LPGA Tour majors, she's finished a combined five shots out of the lead.

She'd already made the cut at one men's event, too, finishing 12 shots off the lead in the Asian Tour's SK Telecom Open.

But Wie got off to a rough start Thursday and could never get herself back on track. She took three drops in her first five holes, hit seven of 14 fairways and made six of 18 greens, only one in her first nine holes.

Heavy fog pushed the start of the first round back by 2 hours and 10 minutes, and about 2,000 fans were lining the 10th hole — her first — by the time Wie and her partners arrived. She was greeted with loud applause, and she responded with an easy smile and wave.

The long par-5 is an easy birdie hole, but Wie had to scramble to make par after pushing her third shot over the green and into the deep grass, leaving her 20 feet from the pin. She hit a nice wedge shot within 3 feet and made it for par, but that would be among the lone highlights of her day.

Things began falling apart on the 11th tee, where a bug hovered as she addressed her ball. Wie is allergic to bees, and she backed away from the ball three times, throwing her head back in frustration the final time.

When she finally did tee off, she pushed her shot so far right it was lost in a thicket of trees and she was forced to take a drop. She had a 20-foot uphill putt for bogey on the par-4, but it stopped right at the edge of the cup and she was forced to take a double-bogey.

Next up was the par-3 12th, another easy birdie hole. But once again, her tee shot sailed to the right, prompting Wie to yell, "Oh, no! You've got to be kidding me!" and pull her baseball cap over her eyes.

Too late. That ball disappeared into trees, too, forcing her to take another drop from about 90 yards out. But she saved a bogey, running that shot 4 feet past the hole and making the putt.

She rebounded with a 12-footer for birdie on 13, and smiled when 16-year-old Spencer Conlin yelled, "Michelle, you're my hero!" as she walked off the green.

"Dude, look at her," Conlin said. "She's out here playing with men in a PGA tournament. And she's half the age of them."

But her recovery was short-lived. Another bad drive on 14 landed in deep weeds, and she had to take another drop, her third.

She went to 4 over with another bogey on 15 when her par putt slid along the left edge of the cup and kept right on going. But she got the stroke back on the next hole, chipping in from a valley about 20 yards behind and to the right of the pin. The crowd whooped and cheered, and a relieved-looking Wie exchanged a fist bump with her caddie.

Once again, though, any momentum she had quickly disappeared. Her tee shot on the par-5 17th hit one tree and then another, landing in deep rough about 10 yards into the gallery. She tried to punch out, but the ball only moved about 40 yards. When she finally did get on the green, she left a 15-foot par putt short.

Wie missed another short par putt on No. 1, looking at the ball in disbelief when it refused to drop as it rolled along the edge of the cup. She groaned and tugged at the bill of her cap.

Wie actually had a chance to make up ground on her back nine. One birdie putt hit the edge of the cup and banged out. Another rolled 3 feet by and she left yet another 4 feet short.

But she found more trouble on her second-to-last hole, landing in not one, but two bunkers.