ASSOCIATED PRESS Honolulu's Michelle Wie reacted after missing a par putt on the fourth hole during yesterday's second round of the LPGA Tour's first major tournament of the season.

Wie slips to 5 back

A 2-over 74 leaves the Honolulu golfer
looking up at leaders Annika Sorenstam
and Rosie Jones

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. » Rosie Jones has been around long enough to know a front-runner when she sees one.

She'll see a lot of Annika Sorenstam today, and Jones knows what to expect.

"She's tough, she's mentally tough," Jones said. "She's definitely the person to beat now and you know it. Just playing with her is going to be tough."

Jones earned that opportunity by making a 7-footer for birdie on the 18th hole yesterday to move into a tie with Sorenstam at 5 under midway through the Nabisco Championship.

The going was tougher for Honolulu's Michelle Wie.

After a first-round 70 left her one stroke off the lead, the 15-year-old Punahou sophomore shot a 2-over-par 74 yesterday and is five strokes behind Sorenstam and Jones.

Sorenstam is going for her record-matching fifth tournament win in a row, and the first of four major championships she has her sights on this year. The 45-year-old Jones, meanwhile, would like nothing more than to win her first major title before she retires at the end of the year.

"I'm desperate," said Jones, who has never won a major title in 23 years on tour. "I want to win a major as bad as Annika wants to win her fifth in a row. She'll have other chances, I've got a lot more riding on it."

Jones said she knew as she stood over her putt on the final hole that sinking it would put her into the final group in today's third round with Sorenstam. For a moment, she thought it might be easier playing in the second group, but discarded that thought after giving herself a quick pep talk.

"I told myself that's why I'm here. That's why I'm doing this," Jones said. "She may be the best in the game, but she's going to still have to beat us."

Beating others hasn't been a problem for Sorenstam, who shot a methodical 69 yesterday to put herself on top of the leaderboard. Sorenstam, who won her last two tournaments last year and first two this year, has a shot at tying the record of five straight wins set by Nancy Lopez in 1978.

"I'm right where I want to be and excited about that," Sorenstam said. "I'm playing well and I couldn't have asked for a better start."

Sorenstam overcame a bogey on the first hole by playing the last 12 holes 4-under-par to post her score early before the wind stiffened and scores began inching upward on the Mission Hills Country Club course.

She had the lead to herself until Jones, playing in one of the last groups of the day, birdied the 18th hole for a 70 that tied her at 5-under 139.

Wie, meanwhile, was one of the day's casualties, hitting it out-of-bounds into someone's backyard on the 16th hole for one of two double bogeys on her way to a 74 that left her at even par.

"Today my bad shots were just horrible," Wie said. "I'm kind of disappointed right now."

First round co-leader Mi-Hyun Kim was in second, a stroke back, while defending champion Grace Park and Reilley Rankin were another shot behind after shooting 68s, the low rounds of the day.

Sorenstam said her biggest problem this week has been having to fight to get ahead of herself on the course.

"Everything is just looking really good so, of course, I get a little anxious and I just have to pinch myself and say, hey, this is a tournament, play your game and go easy and hit one shot at a time," Sorenstam said. "The only way for me to handle this is to keep saying it over and over again."

Sorenstam's only real trouble came on the first hole when she hit it in the left rough, chunked it on and 3-putted from 40 feet for bogey. But she came back to string three birdies in a row to end the front nine, including a blast from the bunker on the eighth hole that went in as she sank to her knees and raised her arms in glee.

Sorenstam's 69 was a big improvement over the 76 she shot in the second round last year, when the pressures of her public pronouncement that she had a goal of winning all four majors seemed to hurt her game.

"I feel a lot better than last year, but again, it's a long ways to go so anything can happen," she said. "I really don't want to predict anything."

Wie, meanwhile, had a large gallery following a threesome that included LPGA pinup girl Natalie Gulbis, and was in contention much of the day. But she was undone by double bogeys on the seventh and 16th holes, and needs to shoot something like the third round 66 she had here two years ago as a 13-year-old to get back in the mix.

"I'll try to shoot for that tomorrow," she said. "I feel good about my game, but I have to play better."

Wie wasn't even low amateur, or low teenager. That honor belonged to Morgan Pressel, the 16-year-old who played in the U.S. Women's Open at the age of 12, and was at 1-under-par.