The confident pursuit of a Grand Slam gave way to frustration as Annika Sorenstam tried to make up ground and instead went backward in the US Women's Open.
First came a tee shot into the rough and a dubious decision to go for the green. That was followed by another bad tee shot into rough so deep she had to lay up twice on the par-5 17th. Her shocking finish ended with a conservative play off the 18th tee, leaving her a 4-wood up the hill toward the green.
Three holes. Three bogeys.
PHOTO: AP
When the damage was done, Sorenstam found herself six shots behind Nicole Perrot of Chile, a surprising leader on a Friday filled with wild swings of momentum.
"Sometimes you just can't analyze things," Sorenstam said after a 4-over 75. "You've got to drop it and move on."
Perrot, a 21-year-old from a country of just 58 private golf courses, shot her second straight round of 1-under 70 by saving par with a 10-foot putt on the 14th and staying clear of trouble down the stretch. At 2-under 140, she was the only player under par after two rounds at Cherry Hills.
PHOTO: AFP
While Sorenstam showed she is not invincible, 15-year-old Michelle Wie had a scrappy 1-over 73 that left her at 142 and in the final pairing with Perrot.
"I could have shot some ridiculous numbers today, but I kept my head and I made a couple of good par putts, and I think that kept me going," Wie said.
Lorena Ochoa, who didn't make a par on the back nine until the 17th hole, closed with a bogey for a 3-under 68 and joined Wie at 142. Rachel Hetherington (69), Angela Stanford (74) and 18-year-old Paula Creamer (69) were another shot behind.
No one had a day quite like Creamer.
She was 6 over through four holes when she played her next nine holes in 8 under par, including an eagle on the par-4 10th by holing out from the fairway. Despite playing with an upset stomach, she found herself tied for the lead.
She gave it back with three straight bogeys -- two of them three-putts that nearly brought her to tears -- and only avoided a fourth bogey by making a 25-foot putt on the 18th hole.
"If someone told me I'd be in this position after two rounds, I'd take it," Creamer said.
If anyone said Sorenstam would bogey her last three holes, finish six shots behind and run her streak to 21 consecutive par 5s without a birdie, they might have been accused of breathing too much mile-high air.
Visibly rattled after she finished her round, she was asked whether she could still win.
"Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah," Sorenstam said, almost offended by the question. "Thirty-six holes is a lot of golf left. Six strokes is nothing. I have to play good golf, there's no doubt about it. But I'm a fighter. I'm not going to give up until the end. There's a long way to go."
And she has a lot of ground to make up.
Not many people know Perrot, who had never shot better than 78 in two previous trips to the US Women's Open, and has never finished higher than seventh in her two years on the LPGA Tour. But she won the US Junior Girls four years ago, and nearly won the US Women's Amateur later that summer.
She makes an aggressive pass at the ball and shows steely nerves over her putts. Perrot is not willing to look too far ahead to the weekend, especially with 20 players within five shots of the lead.
"You just keep playing shot by shot," she said. "You get in your moment. You have to accept it. That's the key to the sport, is learning to accept what happens."
Six birdies, four bogeys, one double bogey, an eagle, a trip to the top of the leaderboard and one trip to the bathroom to throw up: To say the least, Paula Creamer packed a lot into her second round at the US Open on Friday.
When it was all over, Creamer had a wild round of 2-under-par 69, good enough to finish at 143, just three strokes out of the lead.
"Anything can happen out there, and I'm a prime example of it," she said.
The 18-year-old Californian, who won at Q-school last year to earn her tour card, has been more than comfortable in this, her first year as a pro.
She has one win, one second and a pair of third-place finishes, including one at the LPGA Championship two weeks ago.
Nothing, however, compared to her round Friday. After starting with a bogey and a double, she looked to her caddie and said she was hitting the ball too well to be scoring so poorly.
Then, she proved it -- making six birdies and an eagle over the next nine holes -- the eagle came when she holed an 8-iron from 132 yards on No. 10 -- to get a share of the lead.
DAVIES DECLINE
Laura Davies reached into her bag and pulled out the driver, drawing cheers from the gallery.
Though she said early in the week that there was no point in hitting driver on Cherry Hills' opening hole, Davies took a lash at the 313-yard par 4 anyway. With no hope of making the cut and little chance of cracking 80 for the second straight day, Davies figured it was worth a shot.
"Absolutely. I was hitting driver on every hole except 7," Davies said.
And she kept hitting that driver.
"This afternoon was irrelevant. I needed to shoot 66 and that wasn't going to happen," Davies said. "I'd rather miss the cut by 10 than by one."
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was