[ SONY OPEN ]
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Carlos Franco hit his drive on the 15th hole during the first round of the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club yesterday.
Franco takes
first-round leadHis 7-under 63 is good
for a two-shot advantage
over Jesper ParnevikHAWAII NEWS
Wie wows the crowd
Michelle Wie's big drives may bring all the boys to the yard at this week's $4.8 million Sony Open in Hawaii, but it was veteran Carlos Franco who led the charge in the first full-field event on the PGA Tour.
The 38-year-old -- who calls Miami and Asuncion, Paraguay, home -- opened with a blistering 63 early and sat back as those teeing up in the afternoon made a mild run at him. At the end of the day, his 7-under effort stood, as he held a two-shot lead over Jesper Parnevik (65), and a three-stroke advantage over Ted Purdy, Craig Barlow, Aaron Baddeley, Donald Luke, Stephen Ames and David Ishii, who won the Hawaiian Open in 1990.
Ishii wasn't the only past winner here crowding the leaderboard. Defending champion Ernie Els was one of 17 golfers who fired a 3-under 67. Other former winners here at Waialae in that crowded group are Jim Furyk (1996 Hawaiian Open), John Huston (1998 Hawaiian Open) and Paul Azinger (2000 Sony Open).
Corey Pavin, who won the Hawaiian Open in 1986 and '87, and 2002 Sony Open champion Jerry Kelly were part of a group coming in at 2-under 68. In all, 58 golfers shot 1 under or better. The projected cut would be at even-par 70, which would leave Wie on the outside of the ropes come the weekend.
Parnevik, who went as low as 6 under on his back nine, was more in awe of Wie than he was his own solid 65.
"For Michelle to just come out here, she probably could have shot even par, I'm sure," Parnevik said. "It's amazing. If she would happen to make the cut, I think it's probably one of the biggest sports miracles in sports, period. I don't know if you would agree, but it would be hard to explain."
While Wie garnered most of the attention en route to a stellar 72, it was 1990 Hawaiian Open winner Ishii who crafted the better round. His 4-under 66 was reminiscent of younger days for the 48-year-old, whose only tour victory was here at the Waialae Country Club.
Ishii was in the group ahead of Wie, who had a huge gallery following her threesome. It included Mauna Kea Resort teaching pro Kevin Hayashi -- that's Uncle Kevin to Wie -- who helped steady the teen sensation. Ishii said he took note of the 14-year-old's progress, while maintaining a good rhythm of his own. He finished his round with five birdies and one bogey to be in contention for the first time in years.
"We kept looking back to see how they were doing," Ishii said. "We heard a few roars, so somebody must have been hitting it close and making birdies back there. (My round) was great for me.
"There was no wind the first nine holes. The back nine, it started to blow, you know, just a gentle, almost trade-like wind, but a little different angle. I think the afternoon they will have a little more wind than we had in the morning."
That proved to be the case, with only Parnevik and Baddeley mounting a real challenge to Franco's 63. Franco managed one eagle and five birdies in relatively calm conditions. He only used his driver four times, relying more on the 3-wood and his iron play to keep inside the tight Waialae fairways. Franco, who finished 94th on the money list last year, was pleased with his efforts.
"When you play well, everything is good," Franco said in somewhat broken English. "My mental only today is play golf, looking for the fairway, looking for the green and shoot a couple of birdies."
Times have been hard for Franco since being named the PGA Tour's rookie of the year here in Hawaii in 1999. He had three wins that campaign, his first full season on tour, and another in 2000, but since then, he has managed only three top-10 finishes. Keeping his tour card this past year was a real challenge.
"Yeah, you know, I'm looking again for rookie, I hope," Franco said. "Not really happy (last year), but it was OK. Save the card is very important. Every year many young players come on strong. And old ones too, unbelievably strong. This is the golf game. When you lose the focus, you lose everything.
"Look at David Duval -- he's No. 1 before in the world and now he don't like to play more. I don't know what happened. You know, golf game keeps you crazy sometimes. You need to go into the fishing. Maybe better. The last three years, I don't know what happened because I lose the focus. I don't know why, but I lose."
Baddeley battled his own brand of focus after losing here in a playoff to defending champion Ernie Els. The big South African rolled in a 45-foot putt on the first playoff hole to send the young Aussie packing. He had three top-10 finishes the rest of the year, ending up ranked 73rd on the money list.
But don't blame Waialae for that.
"I played great here last year," Baddeley said. "It was my first event as an official member. Played great. I came back here with a lot of positives, knowing that I played well here, putted great on these greens. I'm thinking I played well here before, I can do it again. When I talked to Ernie on Wednesday, I told him I would see him Sunday afternoon."
Baddeley is much like Wie in that he was something of a child prodigy himself. While everyone offered an opinion on Wie this day, the 22-year-old Baddeley may have some solid insight of his own.
"It's fine setting goals to win and to want to win," Baddeley said. "But I think for Michelle, if she's just patient and just let's it happen, she'll be more than fine."
Wie felt good about her round. She had three birdies and five bogeys for the day, leaving her nine shots off the pace.
"My game felt respectable," Wie said. "But my score, it felt less respectable. Because how I played was very good, but I don't think the results weren't as good as I wanted to be because the putts didn't drop today. But I felt like I played well."
Sony Open
At Waialae Country Club
Purse; $4.8 million
First round, par-70
Carlos Franco 32-31 -- 63 Jesper Parnevik 34-31 -- 65 Craig Barlow 33-33 -- 66 Ted Purdy 32-34 -- 66 David Ishii 34-32 -- 66 Stephen Ames 35-31 -- 66 Aaron Baddeley 33-33 -- 66 Luke Donald 35-31 -- 66 Tom Pernice, Jr. 34-33 -- 67 Jonathan Byrd 32-35 -- 67 Paul Azinger 35-32 -- 67 Jonathan Kaye 35-32 -- 67 Brenden Pappas 35-32 -- 67 Daniel Chopra 32-35 -- 67 Hidemichi Tanaka 35-32 -- 67 Steve Allan 33-34 -- 67 Harrison Frazar 33-34 -- 67 Jim Furyk 34-33 -- 67 John Huston 33-34 -- 67 Ernie Els 34-33 -- 67 Tim Herron 34-33 -- 67 Retief Goosen 34-33 -- 67 Robert Gamez 34-33 -- 67 Heath Slocum 33-34 -- 67 Hideto Tanihara 33-34 -- 67 John Maginnes 34-34 -- 68 Briny Baird 37-31 -- 68 Pat Bates 33-35 -- 68 Jerry Kelly 34-34 -- 68 Corey Pavin 35-33 -- 68 Michael Allen 35-33 -- 68 John Riegger 34-34 -- 68 Richard S. Johnson 33-35 -- 68 Bart Bryant 33-35 -- 68 Ben Crane 32-36 -- 68 Charles Howell III 33-35 -- 68 Mark Hensby 35-33 -- 68 Kevin Na 35-33 -- 68 Andre Stolz 35-33 -- 68 Boyd Summerhays 35-33 -- 68 Russ Cochran 35-34 -- 69 Jeff Brehaut 35-34 -- 69 Brian Gay 35-34 -- 69 Fred Funk 36-33 -- 69 Vijay Singh 34-35 -- 69 Woody Austin 34-35 -- 69 Brad Lardon 35-34 -- 69 Jason Dufner 35-34 -- 69 Todd Fischer 34-35 -- 69 Chad Campbell 34-35 -- 69 Chris Riley 35-34 -- 69 Peter Jacobsen 35-34 -- 69 Kenny Perry 34-35 -- 69 Jason Bohn 35-34 -- 69 Tjaart Van der Walt 35-34 -- 69 Ron Castillo, Jr. 37-32 -- 69 Tripp Isenhour 33-36 -- 69 D.J. Brigman 33-36 -- 69 Cameron Beckman 35-35 -- 70 Pat Perez 36-34 -- 70 Davis Love III 35-35 -- 70 Duffy Waldorf 35-35 -- 70 David Branshaw 33-37 -- 70 Kris Cox 36-34 -- 70 Craig Bowden 36-34 -- 70 Scott Simpson 35-35 -- 70 Olin Browne 33-37 -- 70 David Peoples 36-34 -- 70 Brett Quigley 34-36 -- 70 Joe Durant 35-35 -- 70 John Cook 34-36 -- 70 Brent Geiberger 37-33 -- 70 Jeff Maggert 36-34 -- 70 Zach Johnson 35-35 -- 70 Tom Carter 38-32 -- 70 Ken Duke 34-36 -- 70 David Morland IV 37-33 -- 70 Ryan Palmer 33-37 -- 70 Hunter Mahan 36-34 -- 70 Bobby Kalinowski 34-36 -- 70 Blaine McCallister 36-35 -- 71 Notah Begay III 36-35 -- 71 Frank Lickliter II 36-35 -- 71 Craig Stadler 33-38 -- 71 Loren Roberts 35-36 -- 71 Stuart Appleby 37-34 -- 71 Bob Burns 33-38 -- 71 Ben Curtis 37-34 -- 71 Darren Clarke 34-37 -- 71 John Senden 37-34 -- 71 Dan Olsen 36-35 -- 71 Vaughn Taylor 37-34 -- 71 Arjun Atwal 35-36 -- 71 Lucas Glover 39-32 -- 71 Joe Ogilvie 36-35 -- 71 Danny Briggs 37-34 -- 71 Chris Smith 38-33 -- 71 Shigeki Maruyama 36-35 -- 71 Patrick Sheehan 36-35 -- 71 Bo Van Pelt 35-36 -- 71 Chris Couch 33-38 -- 71 Wes Short, Jr. 37-34 -- 71 Rich Barcelo 36-35 -- 71 Roger Tambellini 38-33 -- 71 Rod Pampling 34-38 -- 72 Grant Waite 35-37 -- 72 Esteban Toledo 36-36 -- 72 Tommy Armour III 34-38 -- 72 Jeff Sluman 37-35 -- 72 Craig Perks 39-33 -- 72 Yusaku Miyazato 38-34 -- 72 Michelle Wie 36-36 -- 72 Omar Uresti 36-36 -- 72 Tom Lehman 36-36 -- 72 Shaun Micheel 36-36 -- 72 Dean Wilson 37-36 -- 73 Matt Kuchar 38-35 -- 73 Scott Hoch 38-35 -- 73 Kenichi Kuboya 37-36 -- 73 Hirofumi Miyase 38-35 -- 73 Kevin Muncrief 37-36 -- 73 Brian Bateman 39-34 -- 73 Brian Kortan 36-37 -- 73 Gene Sauers 37-36 -- 73 Adam Scott 37-36 -- 73 Carl Pettersson 35-39 -- 74 Spike McRoy 38-36 -- 74 J.P Hayes 37-37 -- 74 Steve Flesch 39-35 -- 74 Roland Thatcher 39-35 -- 74 Jonathan Ota 37-37 -- 74 Greg Meyer 38-36 -- 74 Skip Kendall 38-36 -- 74 Todd Hamilton 40-34 -- 74 Guy Boros 41-34 -- 75 Tetsuji Hiratsuka 41-34 -- 75 Kevin Hayashi 36-39 -- 75 Tim Petrovic 38-37 -- 75 John Morse 41-35 -- 76 Myung Jun Park 39-37 -- 76 Scott Hend 38-38 -- 76 Tom Byrum 37-40 -- 77 Dave Eichelberger 39-40 -- 79
