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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 1:59 p.m., Friday, June 8, 2007

Bogey from rival helps Wie make LPGA event cut

By Doug Ferguson
Associated Press

HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. — Michelle Wie avoided missing her first LPGA event cut since 2003 after Karen Davies bogeyed her final hole today at the LPGA Championship.

The top 70s and ties made the cut and Wie spent most of the day at the cutoff mark after starting in the morning.

Davies was in a group tied for 56th, which represented the cutoff mark, heading into the par-4 18th.

Davis bogeyed to fall into a tie for 70th, allowing the 17-year-old Punahou graduate and 14 others to make the cut.

Wie bogeyed her last hole for a 2-over 74 that left her at 3-over 147, 11 shots behind leader Suzann Pettersen.

Pettersen appears to have put a major collapse behind her. Ten weeks after she self-destructed down the stretch in Kraft Nabisco Championship, Pettersen birdied three of her last four holes just in time to escape the heat, posting a 5-under 67 to take a one-shot lead over Karrie Webb.

"I forgot about that a long time ago," Pettersen said of her collapse in California, where she played her last four holes in 4 over to finish one shot behind Morgan Pressel. "I didn't look at it as a collapse. I looked at it as what I can do different, so I do stronger when I get to the next tournament and I'm in the same situation."

All that mattered at broiling Bulle Rock was finding some shade.

With temperatures in the 90s and no cloud cover, players who teed off in the afternoon carried umbrellas to shield the sun and guzzled water to keep hydrated. Pettersen teed off early and was at 8-under 136 before the course started to cook.

"I was lucky being on this side of the draw," the fair-skinned Norwegian said. "Already on the front I was heating up pretty bad, and on the back nine, there are some places that just seem to be sheltered from the breeze. So it's boiling."

Pettersen has the lead, but that's about it. Webb continues to hit the ball so well that she was slightly disgusted with her 69.

Big-hitting Brittany Lincicome shot 69 and was two shots behind with former U.S. Women's Open champion Birdie Kim (71). The group at 5-under 139 included Pressel (71) and Annika Sorenstam, who birdied her last two holes for a 69.

Kimberly Kim, a 15-year-old former Big Island resident now living in Arizona, shot a 4-over-par 76 and missed the cut by two strokes. Kim finished tied for 93rd and was the only amateur in the field.