Wie needs huge round to make cut
Michelle Wie’s presence ensured a record first-day crowd at the Omega European Masters – but it is unlikely she will be around to boost the weekend attendances as well.
Blaming a stressful start to the new school year, Wie struggled to an opening 78, seven over par, at Crans-sur-Sierre to lie 12 shots off the lead.
More significantly, the 16-year-old phenomenon was seven shots outside the projected cut mark of level par and therefore in need of a career-best round to survive the halfway cut for the second time in 10 appearances in men’s events.
“Obviously it didn’t go the way I wanted,” said Wie, whose group were timed for slow play after five holes of Thursday’s round. “I think it was very difficult for me after some time off to go back home, start school again for a week and come back and play a tournament again.
“I was very stressed at school. The first week they just dump everything on you and I had to bring all my work here.
“Maybe it was too quick but now I’ve played one round I feel like the next will be a lot better. I felt there were a lot of birdie opportunities out there and I need to make a lot of them today.”
Wie shrugged off the unruly gallery which followed her match but playing partner Nick Dougherty was frustrated by the number of mobile phones and cameras going off as they tried to play.
“It was the worst crowd I have witnessed,” said Dougherty, who has missed the last nine cuts in a row and was one worse than Wie on Thursday.
“But that’s not Michelle’s fault. Everyone wants to see her play but they were poorly behaved. I’d like them to show more respect to the other players, especially as it is the men’s tour.”
English trio David Carter, Anthony Wall and Robert Coles held the first-round lead on five under, Carter’s inward nine of 30 made all the more remarkable by a bad back injury.
“My back was terrible,” admitted Carter, who partnered Nick Faldo to World Cup glory in 1998. “I was walking around doubled up like an old man. It’s thanks to the physios who got me playing.”
Defending champion Sergio Garcia was two shots off the lead after an opening 68, three under par.
“It was a good round,” said Garcia, the only member of the European Ryder Cup team taking part this week. “The golf course is playing tough, quite difficult.
“The course is really firm and with these small greens which have a lot of undulations and fall off from the sides – it is so difficult to get the perfect distance control with the altitude.
“On my front nine I felt I only missed one shot, where I pulled it on the 18th, and only managed to hit three greens. That tells you how difficult it is playing.”
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