KOCHI, Japan - Nervous at the start but encouraged by a couple of late birdies, Michelle Wie was five strokes off the lead in a men's event Thursday and optimistic about making the cut.
The 16-year-old Hawaiian was followed by huge galleries in her opening round of 1-over 73 at the Casio World Open on the Japanese tour.
Wie had an bad start with three bogeys on the Kochi Kuroshio Country Club course. After starting her round on the 10th hole, she regrouped with birdies on the sixth and seventh holes.
"Coming back like that will give me confidence for tomorrow," she said. "It's good to know I can do that even when I'm not playing that well."
Two Japanese players, Toshimitsu Izawa and Yoshiaki Kimura, shared the lead at 68.
Wie, the second woman to play in a Japanese men's event, was the big draw. Defending champ David Smail, by contrast, was followed by a handful of spectators.
The $1.7-million tournament, the next-to-last event on the tour, is Wie's first since she was disqualified last month for taking an improper drop in her pro debut at the LPGA Tour's ADT Championship.
Wie, who played in a group with Japanese veterans Taichi Teshima and Shinichi Yokota, is making her sixth start in a men's professional event. She failed to make the cut in three PGA Tour starts, a Nationwide Tour event and a Canadian Tour event. This is her first tournament in Japan.
Sophie Gustafson missed the cut in the 2003 Casio tournament.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN: Australia's Robert Allenby, who won the event in 1994, overcame a hand injury and shot a course-record 9-under 63 for a one-stroke lead after the first round at Fingal, Australia.
Allenby, who said inflammation in his right hand was so bad four days ago that he could hardly pick up a club, was one ahead of American Spencer Levin's 64. Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy were tied for fourth a stroke back. SOLHEIM CUP: Helen Alfredsson will captain Europe in 2007 against the defending champion United States, the Ladies European Tour announced. Alfredsson, a former major winner who played in the inaugural Solheim Cup in 1990, replaces fellow Swede Catrin Nilsmark. The biennial event will be at Halmstad, Sweden, in 2007.
