Unforgiving 9th green bites Wie at the turn

By MARK CRAIG, Star Tribune

Last update: June 27, 2008 - 7:56 AM

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Michelle Wie was 1 over par through eight holes, and then essentially out of the championship 413 painful yards later when she tapped in for a quintuple-bogey 9 on the par-4 ninth hole during Thursday's first round of the U.S. Women's Open at Interlachen Country Club in Edina.

"Nine was just like a blur," Wie said after shooting an 8-over 81. "I had trouble counting how many strokes I had."

Wie's woes began with a drive into the rough. Blocked by trees, she hacked out to about 50 yards from the green. Her third shot came out hot and ended up behind the green, which is the worst place on the golf course to be because the bowl-shaped green slopes hard from back to front.

"It looks like a Pringles chip," said Wie, the 18-year-old former amateur phenom who is attempting to bounce back from a horrendous 2007 season.

Wie duffed her fourth shot and putted her fifth shot off the green and down the hill in front. She watched her sixth shot roll back to her, chipped her seventh shot 5 feet past, missed the downhill putt coming back and then tapped in.

After three practice rounds, the entire field knew not to get behind the green on No. 9. Louise Friberg, who bogeyed that hole from the left side of the green during a 4-under 69, was asked how scary it is behind that hole.

"I don't know," she said. "I haven't been there, and I'm not planning on being there, either."

Defending champ closes strong

Cristie Kerr's title defense began with a 25-foot birdie putt that looked a lot like the 72 holes she played at Pine Needles in 2007. "Yeah, it sort of felt like that," Kerr said. "It was kind of cool, actually."

Kerr played the next 14 holes in 2 over before birdies on Nos. 16 and 18 left her at 1-under 72. "I want to defend this title more than anybody who has ever defended it," Kerr said. "But you can't win it on the first day. So I feel pretty good about where I am."

Ochoa's conservative start

No. 1-ranked Lorena Ochoa, who has six victories and a major title this season, couldn't remember the last time she went 13 holes without a birdie. "No idea," she said after notching 10 pars and three bogeys before sinking a 5-foot putt on the par-3 14th for her first birdie.

"It's just too hard to believe. Beautiful conditions and actually the greens were soft. They put some water on them last night. I didn't play aggressive enough. I started thinking more aggressively on maybe the sixth or seventh hole."

Ochoa birdied three of the last five holes, including the par-5 18th to get back to even par for the first time since the sixth hole.

Davies rolls to 3 under

Veteran Laura Davies, the 1987 U.S. Women's Open champion, hasn't won an LPGA Tour event since 2001. But she is in contention this week after shooting a 3-under 70, her lowest round in the U.S. Women's Open since firing a 68 in the third round in 2002.

Davies, who is playing in her 23rd consecutive U.S. Women's Open, said Interlachen plays to her strengths because of its five par-5s and her experience in the 2002 Solheim Cup that was held there. "It's the best chance for a U.S. Open for me," said Davies, 44.

Quick hits

• Plymouth resident and LPGA Tour veteran Michele Redman had the first swing on the 10th hole Thursday morning. She went on to shoot 1-over 74, with one birdie and one bogey.

• In one of the stranger pairings, amateur Alexis Thompson, the youngest player in the field at 13, beat Inver Grove Heights' Martha Nause, the oldest player in the field at 53, and 51-year-old Sherri Turner. Thompson shot 75, followed by Turner (76) and Nause (78).

Michael Rand and Chip Scoggins contributed to this notebook.

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