WITH Annika Sorenstam on course for an unprecedented grand slam of major championships, it seemed that there was only one story in town at the US Women’s Open.
Now there are two: the second going by the name of Michelle Wie, who has put herself firmly in contention to become the youngest winner in the tournament’s 60-year history and the first amateur since Catherine Lacoste in 1967.
After rounds of 69 and 73 over the fearsomely difficult Cherry Hills Country Club course, the 15-year-old Hawaiian schoolgirl held the clubhouse lead on 142, level par, and was talking confidently of maintaining her challenge for the most coveted trophy in women’s golf. “I feel like I’m ready (to win),” she said. “I’m playing well enough and if I play a little more consistently, I’ll have a good chance.”
And while other, more seasoned players may rarely get into such a frame of mind, Wie, with the honesty of youth, simply points out that, with the way she is playing, she has every right to feel confident. “If I never think I’m ready, then I can never win,” she said. “I have just got to think positively.”
As Wie was finishing her second round, Sorenstam, who had a stuttering first round of 71, was just setting out on hers and was one over par at the turn.
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Wie arrived on the back of a runners-up finish at the LPGA Championship two weeks’ ago — the second of the year’s majors — and on a tight and difficult course that lies in the shadow of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, proved exactly why she draws the galleries like virtually no other player. While Sorenstam goes about her business with frightening efficiency, plotting her way around like a chess grandmaster, Wie has the ability to take the breath away.
Once known primarily for her exceptional long game — she was driving the ball 300 yards as a 13-year-old — she gave the perfect demonstration of a player who is also fast developing a tremendous all-round game. Never was that better illustrated than over her closing five holes of the first round, the last three of which had to be finished yesterday morning because of storms the previous evening.
At the 14th, she was forced to lay up from heavy rough, but saved par with a fine chip to within tap-in distance. At the par-three 15th, she got up and down in two from a greenside bunker, and at the par-five 17th almost holed her third shot, the ball spinning back from 12 feet beyond the flag.
But it was at the 18th, an uphill par four of 459 yards that slopes heavily from right to left, that she truly came into her own. Undeterred by the narrow landing area and unafraid of water on the left, Wie took a driver where many, Sorenstam included, chose fairway woods, and hit a massive drive into the perfect position for an approach to an elevated green that sits fully 80 feet above the fairway. Her six-iron second shot finished 15 feet from the hole and the birdie putt missed by only a couple of inches.
With little time to catch her breath, Wie was soon back on the course. She found the going much tougher, but had several good birdie chances that narrowly slipped by. But after bogeying the 8th, her 17th, she hit an outstanding seven-iron shot to within two feet at the last to finish with a birdie.
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Laura Davies, Wie’s playing partner and a former champion of the tournament, imploded, finishing the day on 23 over par after rounds of 84 and 81. It was not pretty to watch.