LPGA WAL-MART NORTHWEST ARKANSAS CHAMPIONSHIP

Wie here, there 1 shot off lead

Michelle Wie talks with her caddie as they walk up the 1st fairway Friday afternoon during the first round of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.
Michelle Wie talks with her caddie as they walk up the 1st fairway Friday afternoon during the first round of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.

ROGERS -- It only appeared that Michelle Wie was in two places at the same time on Friday.

Make no mistake: Wie was definitely live and making her presence felt in Arkansas, shooting a 5-under round of 66 to put her one shot off the lead after the first round of the LPGA Northwest Arkansas Championship at Pinnacle Country Club.

Viewers of Live with Kelly and Michael might have thought otherwise, with Wie's "prerecorded" appearance on the show seeing air time late Friday morning in Arkansas and across the nation.

It's been that kind of hectic week for Wie, 24, the U.S. Women's Open champion who made a series of promotional appearances in New York City before arriving in Arkansas on Thursday.

"I was really happy about this late afternoon tee time," Wie said Friday.

Wie and her partners teed off at 1:25 p.m. Friday (she gets an 8:25 a.m. tee time today) and Wie said it was a good thing because all the excitement of the week was starting to take its toll.

"Definitely running on fumes right now," Wie said after her round, during which she birdied four of her final eight holes to finish tied with Alejandra Llaneza, one shot behind leader Alena Sharp. "I think it definitely struck me on the back nine."

Wie, who won the U.S. Open on Sunday in Pinehurst, N.C., shot a 1-under 35 on the Pinnacle front nine, but she cranked it up on the back side. Her birdie on the 18th put her in a tie with Llaneza.

Sharp used a four-birdie stretch midway through her morning round to post a 6-under 65 after starting on No. 10.

Wie was erratic with the driver, hitting 7 of 13 fairways, but she offset her wildness off the tee by hitting 14 of 18 greens in regulation. Birdie putts on the 11th and 12th took her to 3 under before her tee shot on the par-3 15th landed 2 feet from the hole, leading to an easy birdie.

"I just feel comfortable out there and I'm trying to keep improving a little bit every day and still working on a lot of things, but I'm trying to get better," said Wie, who is No. 7 in the world rankings but No. 1 on the LPGA money list.

World No. 1 Stacy Lewis (Arkansas Razorbacks), playing one group ahead of Wie, bogeyed two of her first four holes before making birdies on Nos. 6 and 9 to get back to even. A blast from the fairway bunker on No. 9 led to a tap-in birdie and she headed to No. 10 with confidence. Lewis managed one birdie on the back side at the par-3 11th where her 8-iron hopped around the hole.

"I had to make a little bit of an adjustment hitting out of the fairways," Lewis said. "The grass is just really long. They haven't been able to get the mowers out there, so I had to hit shots a little bit differently than I wanted to."

World No. 2 Inbee Park, the tournament's defending champion, shot a 2-under 69 and sits in a tie for 25th place with 17 others.

Lift, clean and place rules were in effect Friday after recent rains in the Rogers area, which led to clean lies and soft greens. Llaneza, a five-time Mexican Junior National champion, said she wasn't feeling great on the range but didn't mind the conditions once she got on the course.

"It was easy to go at pins and just be aggressive, and luckily I was able to stay aggressive all day," said Llaneza, who is 96th on the money list in 2014 with $35,810. "I just stayed patient and stayed with my game plan and hit some good shots that my caddie and I had to figure out."

Gaby Lopez (Arkansas Razorbacks) is playing this weekend on a sponsors exemption. Lopez, a junior All-American, finished with a 1-under 70 in her second appearance at the Northwest Arkansas Championship after missing the cut a year ago.

"I felt very confident and very comfortable with my game today," Lopez said. "I just need to follow my golf plan and just commit to every single shot and stay patient. I think staying patient is going to be the key."

Lopez's former Arkansas teammate, Emily Tubert, is playing in her first professional tournament this weekend at Pinnacle and finished with a 3-over 74 in her opening round. She was paired with Natalie Gulbis and Pernilla Lindberg, but Gulbis withdrew with a hip injury, leaving Tubert and Lindberg as a twosome.

Turbert got off to a 1-under start after three holes thanks to a birdie on No. 2. Back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 4 and 5 and another on the 7th took her to 2 over before a birdie on 15 got her to 1 over.

Tubert, who will be a participant in this fall's Big Break series on the Golf Channel, caught a bad break on the 16th when her tee shot hit a tree before landing in a hazard, leading to a double-bogey six.

"I didn't even consider that tree in play and hit it perfectly," said Tubert, who hit six of 13 fairways. "I'm just going to enjoy it tomorrow, straighten out the tee ball a little bit and have some fun."

Gulbis was one of two notable late defections from the tournament. A wrist injury forced former U.S. Open champion Paula Creamer, the 12th-ranked player in the world, to withdraw. She was paired with Wie and So Yeon Ryu.

Sports on 06/28/2014

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