Golf: Winds buffet record hopes

NEW YORK: Brett Quigley, Stewart Cink, Tom Byrum and Hank Kuehne fired four-under 66s to share the first-round lead at the Sony Open golf tournament in Hawaii while champion Ernie Els and teenager Michelle Wie were buffeted by yesterday's gusty winds.

South African Els, trying to become the first player to record three successive wins in this tournament, made a stuttering start with a one-over 71 at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu.

Hawaiian schoolgirl Wie, 15, struggled in the difficult conditions, carding 75 to be in a tie for 119th place.

World No 1 Vijay Singh, who led through three rounds at last week's Mercedes Championships before a last-day collapse, had a bogey at the first but an eagle at the ninth helped him return a 69. "An under-par score will be good for today," said Singh, who dominated last season by winning nine events and more than US$10 million ($14.35 million).

"The whole course was tough today with these winds. It's very hard to keep the ball in play. The winds are causing havoc out there."

But Cink and Byrum had little trouble as they registered bogey-free rounds. By contrast, Quigley rode a rollercoaster to the top of the leaderboard, carding six birdies and two bogeys.

"I need to learn to be more comfortable in the lead and the only way to do that is to get there more often," Cink said.

Jonathan Kaye, who was second at the Mercedes event, US Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman and Britain's Justin Rose were among a pack of nine players on 67.

Despite the presence of Singh and Els at the first full-field event of the season, it was Wie who attracted huge galleries as she tries to become the first female to make the cut at a PGA Tour event since Babe Zaharias in 1945.

She grabbed the golfing spotlight here last year when, aged 14, she shot a second-round 68, the lowest score by a female competing against men. But she still missed the cut by one stroke.

Wie now has to come up with something special to realise her dream of a top-20 finish.

She stumbled through her first nine with a double bogey, two bogeys and only one birdie. She also began her inward half with successive dropped shots.

"A couple of holes were super hard," Wie said.

"I hit some really good shots but they just didn't turn out right. I tried to hit low under the wind but sometimes it's tough."

- REUTERS