Michelle Wie splashed her way around the course on Tuesday, determined to get in a full practice round for the Sybase Match Play Championship.
“I played 18 holes, so that’s good in the rain,” said Wie, seeded eighth in the 64-player event that begins today at Hamilton Farm Golf Club. “I was pretty proud of myself.”
Third-seeded Suzann Pettersen drew Hall of Famer Juli Inkster, and fourth-seeded Yani Tseng of Taiwan will play Wendy Ward.
Wie, a 20-year-old Stanford student, is set to open play against 50th-seeded Stacy Prammanasudh. Wie won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico in November for her first LPGA Tour title and has two top-six finishes in six events this year.
“I’m just trying to become the best player I can be,” said Wie, trying to fill the void left by the retirements of Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam. “I’m working as hard as I can to win tournaments and to play well and to be that dominant player. Everyone is vying for that spot now and everyone is working extra hard.”
The top 32 seeds selected their opponents in a blind draw on Tuesday.
Top-ranked Jiyai Shin will face South Korean compatriot Kyeong Bae. Shin took over the top spot when Ochoa retired three weeks ago after the Tres Marias Championship.
“Match play is fun, but if you lose, you go home,” Shin said.
Second-seeded Ai Mayazato, the Japanese star who has won three of the first six events of the season, will open against Jeong Jang.
Hamilton Farm also was the site of match-play events in 2005 and 2006. Marisa Baena won in 2005, and Brittany Lincicome took the 2006 title, beating Wie, Ochoa and Inkster in the final three matches. In 2007 at Wykagyl in the tour’s last 64-player, match-play event, Seon Hwa Lee beat Miyazato in the final.
Lincicome, coming off a playoff loss to Se Ri Pak on Sunday in Mobile, Alabama, in the rain-shortened Bell Micro LPGA Classic, will open against Beatriz Recari.
Pak will play Azahara Munoz.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
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