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Wie makes pro debut at Samsung, trails Annika by six
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-14 09:16
It was a sobering reminder that while Wie has the richest endorsement
contracts and all the attention, Sorenstam has the most trophies.
The 35-year-old Swede didn't see it that way.
"Honestly, I didn't feel like I'm here to prove anything.," Sorenstam said.
"I know where I am on the money list. I'm here to reach my own goals, play my
own golf. I see this as an opportunity to win this tournament for the fifth
time."
Sorenstam had a one-shot lead over Gloria Park and Cristie Kerr, who played
with Wie and welcomed her to the professional ranks with four birdies on her
first five holes.
Kerr has been playing practice rounds with Wie since the Hawaii sensation was
13, and she knew what to expect -- not just the prodigious tee shots, but the
media hype around it. Even before she stepped onto the first tee, Kerr asked
that a TV crew be moved outside the ropes. And though she was five shots better
than Wie, she was impressed.
"I came out here straight out of high school," Kerr said. "My first shot, I
think I shanked it, or I at least hit it poorly. She striped it down the middle.
It was fun to watch."
Wie wound up in a tie for 12th among the 20-player field, dropping shots on
two of the last five holes with a tee shot that caromed off the trees on the
14th, and hitting twice into bunkers on the closing hole.
It was steady, not spectacular. Even so, Wie showed she belongs.
"We have the best 20 players here, and she's one of them," Lorie Kane said
after a 66.
Bighorn doesn't draw large galleries to the hilly course tucked in the
foothills of the Santa Rosa mountains, although most of the fans took spots in
the scrub brush and cacti to watch Wie launch her professional career.
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