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McLachlin on fire as Wie flames out

“I think if I played a couple [of men’s tournaments] in a row it’d be a different story, but it’s hard to play one a year, you know.”

— Michelle Wie, US professional golfer

Michelle Wie failed again in her latest bid to make a cut on the PGA Tour, struggling to an eight-over-par 80 on Friday at the Reno-Tahoe Open.

Parker McLachlin was the halfway leader of the US$3 million tournament after matching the course record of 10-under 62 at the Montreux Golf and Country Club for a 36-hole total of 14-under 130.

Wie, who opened with a one-over 73 on Thursday, looked to be in contention to become the first woman since 1945 to make a PGA Tour cut, making the turn at one-over for the day after starting on the back nine.

But the 18-year-old from Hawaii, whose appearance here follows a disappointing disqualification in her last LPGA Tour event for failing to sign her scorecard, fell apart coming home.

After a double-bogey at the fourth hole, she took a nine at the par-four eighth.

The tournament marked the talented teenager’s eighth appearance in a PGA event.

In her last five tournaments against men, Wie has gone a combined 67 shots over the cut.

“I am taking away a lot of good things from this week,” Wie said. “I made some really good putts, some really good drives. I know that there are some things I need to work on, but I feel like I learned a lot.”

Wie also addressed the criticism from those who believe she should stick to women’s events, given her inability so far to make a cut against the men.

“I think if I played a couple [of men’s tournaments] in a row it’d be a different story, but it’s hard to play one a year, you know,” she said.

“I think if I played eight in a row and missed all eight, that’d be a different story,” she added. “But I gave it my best today, and I feel like I did a lot of good things, and hopefully that outshines the ones that I made mistakes on.”

McLachlin, who started the day tied for sixth, zoomed up the leaderboard with a bogey-free round that included 10 birdies.

The 29-year-old caught fire shortly before the turn, nabbing five birdies on a six-hole stretch starting at the eighth.

McLachlin admitted he was “thinking about shooting 59” at the 14th hole.

“I had about a 10-footer there and thought ‘If I birdie the last five, I’ll shoot 59.’ That was the worst thing to think and led to me making par there,” he said.

McLachlin did birdie 16 and 17 before closing with a par.

“That was my best round on tour,” he said.

McLachlin held a four-shot lead over 1987 Masters champion Larry Mize (66), John Merrick (67), Australian Nick Flanagan (65) and England’s Brian Davis (67).

First-round leader Jeff Overton ballooned to a 75 and was 10 adrift.
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