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79 Gives Wie Unplayable Lie for Making Cut at Men's Sony Open

Posted on: Friday, 13 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Philadelphia Daily News

Jan. 13--Michelle Wie signed for her highest score on the PGA Tour, one that sent her to the bottom of the leaderboard yesterday at the Sony Open in Honolulu, and struggled to keep her voice steady while explaining what went wrong.

Three double bogeys. Two three-putts. And late in a blustery round at Waialae, one shot was so off-line that her agent held up his leather-bound notebook to keep the ball from hitting him in the head, leaving a dent in the cover.

Unable to stop the slide in gusts up to 35 mph, Wie stumbled to a 9-over 79 that left her with virtually no hope of becoming the first woman in 61 years to make the cut on the PGA Tour.

All that spared her from last place was Jimmy Walker, who shot 80 in the day's final group.

"Today it was like, 'Wow,' " she said. "It's like, 'I can't believe I'm doing this bad.' "

And as the 16-year-old got up from her chair, she figured out what would make it all go away.

"I want some chocolate," she said.

The course played nearly two shots over par, so it was no picnic for anyone. Rory Sabbatini birdied five of his last seven holes for a 5-under 65, giving him a one-shot lead over David Toms, K.J. Choi, Charles Warren and Jeff Gove.

Wie, who turned pro 3 months ago in a hotel behind the 10th green, never had shot higher than 75 in her three previous PGA Tour events, and the 79 matched her highest score in eight tournaments against the men. At age 13, she shot 79 in the second round of the Bay Mills Open on the Canadian tour.

"It was just a combination of bad shots that turned out to be really bad, and just a lot of wasted strokes out there," Wie said. "It was not my day."

Expectations were higher than ever that Wie would get to play all four rounds, having come close at the John Deere Classic in July and at the Casio World Open in Japan.

Noteworthy

The Kraft Nabisco Championship clarified its criteria, allowing teenage sensations Michelle Wie and Morgan Pressel to play in the LPGA's first major of the year, March 30 to April 2 in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Wie and Pressel, along with former Duke star Brittany Lang, now are eligible because each finished in the top five at an LPGA major last year.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Philadelphia Daily News

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Source: The Philadelphia Daily News

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