Daly 3 back following 67
Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/225193/
MILAN, Italy — John Daly, the former Arkansas Razorbacks golfer from Dardanelle, shot a 5-under-par 67 Thursday to trail co-leaders Ross McGowan and Marco Ruiz by three strokes after the first round of the Italian Open.
The 609 th-ranked Daly, who hasn’t finished in the top 10 of a tournament in three years, had seven birdies and two bogeys. Daly briefly led with six birdies and a bogey on the first 10 holes. “I moved the ball up in my stance and that was a good day,” said Daly, who had stomach surgery last month. “This is the healthiest I’ve been in more than a year. It was brutal with the pain, and it’s nice to have my swing back.” McGowan had eight birdies, one fewer than Ruiz, who bogeyed the 12 th. Mark Foster, Marc Warren and Hennie Otto were one stroke behind the leaders.
LPGA Wie struggles to 75
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — The booming drives were there, but more often than not Michelle Wie didn’t know where they were going in her first round on the LPGA Tour since February. The best scores belonged to just about everyone else — a course record-tying 8-under-par 63 by Scotland’s Mhairi McKay, and a potential battle looming between top-ranked Lorena Ochoa and No. 2 Annika Sorenstam in the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill. Once the most heralded young player in the women’s game, Wie managed only one birdie in a zigzagging 4-over 75 on a soggy day, even as the River Course yielded its fourth 63 in six years, 64 s to Sorenstam and Sun Young Yoo, and 65 s to Ochoa and Diana D’Alessio.
While 90 players in the field of 144 shot par or better, Wie was lucky to get off as easily as she did. She pulled her drive on the par-5 seventh, and only a tree kept it from flying out of bounds. She hit into the greenside rough on the par-3 13 th and it kicked onto the green. She hit her drive way right on the wide-open par-4 14 th and another tree knocked it down.
Wie had only two reasonable birdie putts all day, making a 5-footer and missing from 15 feet, but several times made par-saving putts from 3 to 5 feet.
Sorenstam had seven birdies in a bogey-free round.
Ochoa, a three-time runner-up here, had an eagle, six birdies and two bogeys in her first event since her winning streak was halted at four last weekend. She moved into a tie for third with D’Alessio with three consecutive birdies on the back nine, just before a par-par finish.