Fields Open Thursday, Part Two: 106 Touring Pros Couldn't Match Michelle Wie

Yeah, I just broke my moWietoWieam. For more on the Wie-breaks-70 feeding frenzy at the Fields Open, see Jaymes Song of the AP, Beth Ann Baldry of Golfweek, Ron Sirak of Golf World, Mulligan Stu of Waggle Room, Patricia Hannigan of Golf Girl's Diary, and the discussions at Seoul Sisters. For a broader overview of day one at the Fields, Hound Dog, as always, is the leader.

To put Wie's round in a little bit of perspective, there are 15 players at 68 or better, 30 players who broke 70 along with her, 45 at 70 or better, 61 under par, and 80 at 72 or better. So the course was playing fairly easy. Not for Sakura Yokomine (75), Ai Miyazato and In-Kyung Kim (74), and Cristie Kerr and Natalie Gulbis (73), all of whom will have their work cut out later today to make the cut, along with Suzann Pettersen, Jee Young Lee, Momoko Ueda, and the 16 other players at 72. They're definitely in a "go low or go home" situation. Hope it clarifies the mind.

Because, really, the Ko Olina course sounds like one of the easiest layouts on tour, even with some tricky afternoon wind. Not to take anything away from Jeong Jang's course-record-tying 64, Paula Creamer's 66, or Kelli Kuehne's and Angela Stanford's 67s, but where was everyone else? When the morning groups didn't post all that many fantastic scores--and even Annika Sorenstam, Stacy Prammanasudh, Seon Hwa Lee, Morgan Pressel, and Eun-Hee Ji failed to break 70 from their late-morning slots--you know that there are a lot of people kicking themselves for squandering opportunities. Nothing against my friend Moira Dunn, but if she can go out and shoot a 68 like Hall of Famer Se Ri Pak, new mom Hee-Won Han, and a gaggle of young guns and veterans (well, 8 of them), you know there had to be a whole lot of birdies out there.

So look for many people to tighten up their games later today and the scoring to be much lower. Unlike last week, the tournament organizers are keeping the Thursday pairings together, so the advantage shifts to the leaders in the prime-time morning groups off #1:

Start Time: 8:25 AM
Reilley Rankin
Angela Park
Jeong Jang

Start Time: 8:45 AM
In-Kyung Kim
Angela Stanford
Maria Hjorth

Start Time: 8:55 AM
Young Kim
Se Ri Pak
H.J. Choi

Jang has a real opportunity to distance herself from the field tomorrow with another round in the mid-60s. Still, on a course like this, you're never out of it until you miss the cut and one sub-68 performance in the first two days will likely get you within shouting distance of the leaders heading into Saturday--at which point anything can happen in the late afternoon winds. Friday will tell if Hound Dog's prediction of another final round free-for-all comes true. Here's hoping Jang makes people work to keep pace with her!