Drawcard Wie Walks Tall on the Men's Tour If Not Her Own

When the definitive history of the PGA Tour comes to be written there is unlikely to be much space left for the first round of the 2008 Legends Reno-Tahoe Open in Nevada, but for one man who was there it was a memorable day indeed. "Best Thursday we've ever had," said Michael Stearns, a former sports agent who was hired in February as the tournament director with the simple instruction to turn one of the least talked about events in golf into one of the most talked about.

Mission accomplished. This is an exceptionally busy week, with the Women's British Open taking place at Sunningdale, the US Senior Open in Colorado and the WGC event in Akron - all have higher-quality fields and more at stake in terms of money and prestige, but none has generated the interest of the Reno event.

This was reflected at the Montreux club on Thursday, with record ticket sales, unprecedented galleries and local and national news crews scrambling to get best shots of a teenager who has made Stearns' dream come true. "We have a lot of great players here," he said, diplomatically, after play had ended for the day. "But you could see for yourself that most people had come to see Michelle Wie. They want to be around to see history happen."

They might be lucky yet. After a one-over-par 73, Wie was tied for 77th as the second round started and stood a legitimate chance of becoming the first woman to make the cut at a PGA Tour event since Babe Zaharias did so in 1945. Not that she was ready, after seven previous failures, to look even 24 hours ahead. "I am not going to think about making the cut because if you do, that's all you do. You start thinking about other players, about what position you are in and exactly what you have to do," the 18-year-old said. "All I am going to think about is making more birdies and not making many bogeys."

It will be a remarkable effort if she does make it, but even more so if she can keep her mind solely on events taking place on the course. The teenager, the highest-paid female player in the world ($12m, or some ?6m, last year) despite never having won a professional tournament, has long been a controversial figure . Now she is vilified. Her decision to accept an invitation to play against the men during the same week as the Women's Open has seen her criticized from all sides, from the saintly Annika Sorenstam - "I don't know why she [Wie] continues to do this" - to her own swing coach, David Leadbetter, who suggested she is in danger of becoming a pariah "if she's not careful".

"It's a shock to me . . . that this is happening," Leadbetter added. "I don't think the family has made the right choice. There is definitely more to lose than gain."

BJ Wie, Michelle's father and once eager to talk about his daughter's career, no longer speaks to journalists on the record and declined to discuss Leadbetter's remarks, while the player herself gave an obtuse answer to a direct question: will she fire the coach? "I think a decision is a decision whether it's a wrong decision or a right decision. It is a decision I have made and, you know, I am not going to pull out. I'm not going to second-think my decision," she said, clearly struggling to remember everything she had learned in her media training sessions.

It is one of the great ironies of Wie's story that while her female colleagues grow ever more critical about her playing on the PGA Tour whenever she can, the men have come to accept her, albeit with varying degrees of enthusiasm. "You're in or you're not in. It's pretty simple," said the former world No1 David Duval. "Whether I agree if she should be playing - I think she would be better off on the Futures Tour competing against women - is neither here nor there. The [tournament director] thinks she can bring people in, and that's his job."

Duval finished the first round five shots behind Wie. The PGA Tour stalwart Scott McCarron was three shots back, not that this diminished his enthusiasm. "Great leaders, people who make a real difference, are often unpopular as they go about changing the world. She's a special lady and a great asset to the world of golf."

As the various controversies continue to swirl around Wie, apparently transforming an outgoing teenager into a suspicious pro golfer, one thing seems undiminished since she made her mark in 2004, when as a 14-year-old she missed the cut at the PGA Tour's Sony Open by a stroke: her talent.

After struggling all of last year with injury she has started to play well again. Paired alongside two American journeymen, Jimmy Walker and Scott Sterling, in her opening round, she hit a series of excellent tee shots, albeit shorter than those of her playing partners, and played beautifully around and on the greens.

She twice hit the flagstick with wedge approach shots and had a total of 27 putts - a sign, perhaps, she is close to curing what has always been the most significant weakness in her game. "It was really nice for me and Scott to have people around," Walker said. "Usually, we are out there on the golf course and absolutely no one is watching us."