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HONOLULU -- She added 5 pounds of muscle in recent months and appeared ready to tame the 25-mph trade winds whipping across a Waialae Country Club course where she once fired a 64.
After Michelle Wie blasted her opening drive 274 yards into the wind at No.10 -- past playing partners Chris Couch and Camilo Villegas -- she seemed to have already bottled momentum for a run at making the cut.
But Wie's third Sony Open quickly turned into a mistake-prone first round that resulted in a 9-over-par 79. It was one of her worst scores in a professional event and only an extraordinary reversal can save her from again missing the cut in her seventh try against male pros.
"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.
She managed to hit eight of 14 fairways and struggled to find nine of 18 greens. After a nifty sand save at the par-3 11th, she three-putted for bogey at No.12 and double-bogeyed Nos.13 and 15. By the time she double-bogeyed the par-3 17th, Wie figured par-70 was a pipe dream.
Potential pars quickly inflated into bogeys (she made four). Bogeys became double bogeys (she carded three).
Scoring opportunities?
They were as rare as an order of Ahi tuna.
Her game battered by the wind, Wie made only one birdie for a gallery of about 2,000 that followed her most of the round in her first PGA Tour event as a pro.
"You can tell she had a lot of pressure on her," Couch said. "She's got a long way to go. She's got a lot of learning to do, and as competitive as she is, when she's done we're all going to be in trouble."
Wie and coach David Leadbetter emphasized a game plan heavy on playing mistake-free golf. But after Wie double-bogeyed No.13 by leaving a chip shot short and missing a 5-foot putt, she appeared to start pressing.
"She made a few crucial errors and got into the mind-set of playing to catch up. It's human nature and tough not to do," Leadbetter said as Wie was in the process of double-bogeying the par-3 17th.
"It's a different thought process now. Before it was a case of her just showing up as an amateur. Now she's a pro, she's got endorsements and here to take money out of players' pockets. She's playing in front of her hometown fans, her sponsor. It's a lot of pressure. It's all part of her learning curve."
Wie learned a valuable lesson in damage control as she watched Couch shoot 1-over 71 and Villegas post a 72.
"The guys, even if they do struggle, they always just seem to end it with a bogey or less. I'm thinking a lot about that now," Wie said.
She had another thing on her mind, too.
"I want some chocolate," Wie said with a weary smile. "I'm fried."
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