Wie exits, makes respectable showing
HONOLULU (AP) — Chad Campbell and Jim Furyk each shot 3-under 67 on Friday and were tied for the lead at the Sony Open going into a weekend that again will not include Michelle Wie.
But as always, she kept it entertaining.
With a 5-foot putt on the 18th hole for her seventh birdie of the round, the 16-year-old finished with a 2-under 68 to match her record from two years ago as the lowest score by a woman competing on a male tour.
Even so, she was at 7 over and missed the cut by four shots. And at the end of two days, all she could do was wish everyone else well on the weekend.
"Play well tomorrow," she told Camilo Villegas, the Colombian rookie who shot 64 to finish two shots off the lead.
Asked the reason for an 11-shot swing over two days _ she opened with a 79, her worst score on the PGA Tour _ the high school junior replied, "I think I was possessed out there yesterday."
"If the tournament had started today, I would have done a lot better," Wie said. "Today, I felt more relaxed. It was a reach to make the cut. I tried to make as many birdies as I could and see where it takes me."
One person of note did make the cut, which was at 3-over 143.
David Duval, who made only cut last year while dealing with injuries and the birth of his first child, coped with a back injury and birdied the last hole for a 68 to finish on the number.
"I played as well as anyone once I got through eight holes and figured out how to stand and swing," said Duval, who was 5 over through his first eight.
It still wasn’t quite as good as Campbell and Furyk, who came to Waialae in a different frame of mind.
Campbell, coming off a winless year on tour, took the last two months off and showed up in Hawaii ready to go.
"I didn’t do much, started practicing a little bit the last few weeks, but didn’t really play that much at all," said Campbell, who joined Furyk at 6-under 134. "That made it really good to come out here and be refreshed and stay patient during my round."
David Toms had a 69 and was another shot back.
Stuart Appleby switched islands, but that didn’t seem to matter.
Coming off his third straight victory at Kapalua, he scrambled to a 66 and was among those at 136, giving him a good chance going into the weekend.
As the afternoon group of players teed off in the PGA Tour’s first full-field event of the year, the attention shifted to Wie – not whether she would make the cut, but simply where she would finish.
Playing for the fourth time on the PGA Tour, she was in second-to-last place after the first round. She wound up in a tie for 117th, ahead of 18 men. Only 11 scores were better than her 68 on a blustery afternoon.
Wie started strong with an approach into 6 feet for birdie at the tough second hole, but her round began to slip away on No. 5. She had a 12-footer for birdie, ran it 2 1/2 feet by and missed the par putt to fall to 1 over on her round.
Everything changed at No. 8 when her approach stopped 3 feet away. She holed a 15-footer for birdie on the ninth hole, and hit a beautiful shot _ a low punch with a 3-iron that started left and faded toward the flag _ into 15 feet for another birdie on the par-3 11th. Then came a 9-iron into 8 feet for her fourth birdie in five holes.
The exception was No. 10, where a putt from off the green caught the back lip of the cup.
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