Updated at 7:21 a.m., Thursday, August 2, 2007
Wie settles for even-par 73 at Women's British Open
By BRIAN CREIGHTON
Associated Press Writer
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The 17-year-old from Honolulu was 3-under through 10 holes today in the first round of the Women's British Open, trailed leader Lorena Ochoa by one shot, and the wrist injury that has plagued her for months seemed a distant memory.
Then it all changed over the final eight holes.
It took a 20-foot putt at the 18th to keep Wie from finishing over par. Her par 73 left her six strokes off Ochoa's lead.
"Unfortunately, I was unlucky with a couple of bounces and my second shots left some really tough putts," Wie said. "But I'd say it was probably my best since last summer, when I was really playing solidly.
"I feel like I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. My wrist is getting stronger and stronger. I'm just going to be patient with myself and keep my head on, and see where it takes me."
Wie hit a couple of wild drives with her hybrid club on the front nine but got away with them. At the third, she dragged the shot all the way across the adjacent 16th fairway, close to an out-of-bounds fence.
She had planned to play some shots to the wrong fairway as part of her strategy, but not that time.
"That was a missed shot completely," Wie said. "It was not the line where I wanted to hit it."
She still made par, hitting an approach to 25 feet and making two putts.
Wie's worst shot of the day was at the 523-yard 14th, where she drove to mid-fairway and then took out her driver again for the second shot. She hit it to the right and her ball finished in a clump of deep rough, her only bad lie of the day.
It was an achievement to move the ball forward, but it ended up short of the green. From there, she chipped 12 feet short and two-putted for bogey.
The one positive from the hole was that her third shot from the deep rough did not hurt her left wrist.
"I just kind of pitched out of there but it wasn't too bad," she said. "It was a good positive."
On her steadier front nine, Wie hardly missed a thing, saving par from 90 feet with a chip and a 5-foot putt at the second before making birdies at the fourth and fifth on putts of 10 feet and 7 feet.
Wie wedged her second shot to 4 feet at the 10th and sank that to reach 3-under.
Then she went into reverse. She pulled her tee shot at the short 11th, leaving a swinging 35-foot across a green sloping from back to front. It drifted 5 feet below the hole and she missed the return.
As the wind picked up, Wie parred the next two before the wayward driver from the 14th fairway led to bogey. At the 16th, her approach was "a really good 6-iron that just kind of bounced right when it should have bounced left," she said.
She faced a tricky 20-footer that she misread and left 8 feet left of the hole, from where she missed.
"Overall I felt it was a really solid round," she said. "Unfortunately I got some bad breaks."
