By Hank Kurz Jr.

Associated Press

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — The booming drives were there, but more often than not, Michelle Wie didn’t know where they were going in her first round on the LPGA Tour since February.

The best scores, as usual, belonged to just about everyone else — a course record-tying 63 by Scotland’s Mhairi McKay and a potential battle looming between Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam in the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill.

Once the most heralded young player in the women’s game, Wie managed just one birdie in a zig-zagging 4-over 75 even as the River Course yielded its fourth 8-under 63 in six years, 64s to Sorenstam and Sun Young Yoo as well as 65s to Ochoa and Diana D’Alessio.

While 90 players in the field of 144 shot par or better, Wie was lucky to get off as easily as she did. She pulled her drive on No. 7, and only a tree kept it from flying out of bounds. She hit into the greenside rough on the par-3 13th, and it kicked onto the green. She hit her drive way right on the wide open par-4 14th, and another tree knocked it down.

Still, she took the half-full approach to her first round on tour since the Fields Open in Hawaii, where she made the cut but finished in a tie for last, 20 strokes off the pace.

“There were a couple of shots here and there where I felt like, if I play a couple more tournaments or had more experience under my belt, it would come out a little differently,” she said. “But, like I said, I’m hitting the ball solid. I just have to work out a couple of other things.”

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