Page 18 - Aruba Today

A18
SPORTSFriday 29 January 2016
Michelle Wie stung by bee in LPGA
Tour opener in Bahamas
Michelle Wie of the United States tees off in Kuala Lumpur, Ma- ing in making the turn. You
laysia. Wie was stung by a bee Thursday in the season-opening can kind of feel the venom
Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic. kind of spread. But the last
couple holes, it’s feeling
(AP Photo/Joshua Paul) better.”
She struggled with her put-
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas and Haru Nomura. ting.
(AP) — Michelle Wie was “I was waiting to hit my tee “I only missed two greens,”
stung by a bee Thursday in shot and I felt something Wie said. “I just putted hor-
the season-opening Pure sting and it hurt really, re- ribly.”
Silk-Bahamas LPGA Clas- ally bad and I knew it was a Park shot an 80, playing
sic, and second-ranked bee,” Wie said. “I brushed her final four holes in 5 over
Inbee Park withdrew be- it away and the stinger was with a double bogey on
cause of back pain after still in there. We were trying the par-5 15th and three
the second-worst round of to find a tweezer and out bogeys. She will sit out the
her LPGA Tour career. of all the people, our se- Coates Golf Champion-
Wie was stung on the curity guy had tweezers on ship next week in Florida,
palm of her right hand on him, so I got it out.” and hopes to return late
the 16th hole, her seventh She bogeyed three of the next month in the Honda
of the day at the windy first five holes on her back LPGA Thailand.
Ocean Club. She finished nine. “I’ve always had a little
with a 3-over 76 to fall eight “It just kind of felt so swol- lower back problem and
strokes behind first-round len it was kind of hard to some weeks it just gets
leaders Paula Creamer, grip the club. I was hitting bit worse and today hap-
Charley Hull, Alison Lee, the ball so well on the front pened to be one of those
Ashlan Ramsey, Catriona nine and just definitely had days,” Park said. “Hopeful-
Matthew, Mika Miyazato a couple loose ones com- ly, in Thailand I’ll be in really Brown and Loupe had a one-shot lead over five play-
good shape.”
Creamer played a late
three-hole stretch in 4 un-
der, making an eagle on
the par-4 eighth.
“I’ll definitely take it,”
Creamer said. “This golf
course, it’s a great track.
It really does play well. The
wind makes it very difficult,
but these greens, they’re
challenging. The biggest
thing is get it as close as
you can from the fairways
and see what you can do.”
Lee finished with a bogey
on the par-4 ninth after
playing the previous three
holes in 4 under with an
eagle on the par-5 sev-
enth. She is still a student at
UCLA.
“I’m taking four classes
right now,” Lee said. “Each
week, I think, I counted to
about 13 hours of class,
so it’s not too bad. I have
friends in each class that
can give me notes.”
The 46-year-old Matthew
also eagled No. 7. q
Farmers Insurance Open:
Brown handles South to share
the early lead at Torrey Pines
DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Scott Brown and Phil Mickelson
both had reason to believe it could be a long day on
the South Course at Torrey Pines. It turned out just fine
Thursday in the Farmers Insurance Open, especially for
Brown.
Brown hit into a hazard and made bogey on the first
par 5 he faced and was 2 over through six holes. He
finished with eight birdies over his last 11 holes for a
6-under 66, giving him a share of the lead with Andrew
Loupe.
Only it felt much better for Brown because it was on the
South, which played 2½ shots harder than the North
Course where Loupe shot his 66.
“Extremely hard,” Brown said of the South, which al-
ready hosted one U.S. Open and has another coming
in five years. “But it’s fair. It’s just tough. If you’re out of
position, you just have to play for par or bogey and
you can’t make any big numbers out there because as
soon as you get behind the 8-ball, you can’t press and
try to make birdies.”
He did, anyway, including a 30 on the front nine.
ers, including Billy Horschel, who all played the North
Course.
Defending champion Jason Day, who missed the pro-
am because of the flu, made his tee time but not a lot
of birdies. He shot 72 on the North Course. That was one
shot better than Rickie Fowler, who won Sunday in Abu
Dhabi and couldn’t buy a putt on the North Course in
his round of 73.
“Couldn’t get anything going,” Fowler said. “Couldn’t
make a putt. So looking forward to getting on the South
greens, that’s for sure.”
Mickelson, whose last win at Torrey Pines was 15 years
ago, didn’t have the ideal start, either. On the second-
easiest par 4 on the South Course, he hit into a fairway
bunker, caught the lip trying to get out, hit his third shot
just over the green and failed to get up-and-down,
making double bogey.
“I thought anything in the 60s would have been a good
score,” Mickelson said. “It’s a very difficult golf course.
But after doubling the second, I was able to kind of just
keep things calm until I made a few birdies, and it was
a good back nine.”
As significant as his birdies was a par on No. 11, where
his tee shot found a bunker and he escaped with a 20-
foot par putt. Mickelson hit enough good drives to set
up three straight birdies. He reached the 614-yard 13th
hole in two, hit wedge to 5 feet for birdie on the 14th
and an 8-iron to 4 feet on the next hole.
He ended with a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th.
Of the 33 players who shots in the 60s, only 12 of the
scores came on the South Course. K.J. Choi and Ches-
son Hadley each had a 68.
Paul Dunne of Ireland made his PGA Tour debut with a
69 on the South, while 17-year-old Ryan Ruffels of Aus-
tralia opened with a 70 on the North Course in his first
professional event in America. Ruffels, the son of tennis
parents Ray Ruffels and Anna-Maria Fernandez, won
a Junior World Championship at Torrey Pines, and he
beat Mickelson in a practice round last December.
Mickelson figured the South Course would be a good
test for his driver, and he had mixed results.
“It was not what I expected, but better than I’m used
to,” he said. Jimmy Walker was expecting much better.
He was excited about the way he was driving the ball
until a piece of epoxy on his driver came loose during
the pro-am. q