Wilson’s day filled with golf

SILVIS, Ill. » Yesterday's fog delay at the John Deere Classic meant tee times of at least 2 hours later for the entire tournament field.

For Dean Wilson, that translated into not finishing his first round until 8:30 p.m.

It worked out OK overall for the Castle High grad. He shot 4-under-par 67 and was tied for 13th place going into today's second round at the TPC course.

The only complaint Wilson had was an early tee time today.

"Now it's a mad rush to get home, get some dinner, get some sleep and come out here in the morning," said Wilson, who starts with David Peoples and Robert Damron at 3:15 a.m. Hawaii time.

But Wilson still made time for the driving range last night.

"I just want to take a few swings and get some bad shots out of my system," he said. "Get some good swings in my system, I should say."

He had some yesterday, especially with the putter.

Wilson birdied six holes, with putts varying from 4 feet to 25 feet.

"I'm always pretty consistent with the putter and I made some good ones today," Wilson said.

Wilson, playing the back nine first, birdied Nos. 10, 12 and 14 prior to a bogey on No. 18. He added three more birdies on holes No. 2, 4 and 6 before finishing with his second bogey on No. 9

"I feel fine, I played well today," he said. "I hit a couple of loose shots and I was lucky to get bogey on that last hole. It's a par-5 that they just label a par-4 now."

Wilson tied for 70th here last year.

No injury: Michelle Wie said a slight hip strain from Wednesday's pro-am did not contribute to her 6-over par 77 yesterday.

"It was a little hurting (Wednesday)," Wie said. "I went to the (medical) trailer here ... and it feels really good right now."

Still, there was a swing or two where Wie didn't look as fluid as usual, and seemed a bit off-balance. Playing in long pants -- something Wie doesn't do in LPGA events -- may have factored in, she said.

"I'm not really used to wearing long pants in the heat," she said.

She was in good spirits despite the disappointing score.

"It was my evil twin sister playing," she said, laughing.

Tap-ins: Zach Johnson set a nine-hole scoring record with his 7-under 28 on the front nine. ... J.P. Hayes, who is tied with Johnson, Daniel Chopra and John Senden for first after the first round at 7-under 64, is the JDC 2002 champion. ... Hayes holds the course record of 61, which he shot in 2002. ... Defending champion Sean O'Hair shot 2-under 69 and was tied for 44th. ... Will MacKenzie and Mike Small were both at 4-under after 16 holes when they were pulled from the course because of darkness. The third player in the group, Ron Whittaker, was 2-over. They were to finish their first-round holes today.