Golf: Teenager Wie Makes Mark With Big Boy

As Gloria Steinem is fond of saying, "Some men just don't get it." One suspects that Ms Steinem's knowledge of professional golf may be less than encyclopedic but she seems to have a startling insight into the mind of the modern professional.

Take the Australian Stuart Appleby. Or rather take his ever improving swing - which was good enough last week to win the £730,000 first prize at Hawaii's opening event of the 2004 US tour - and leave his somewhat less impressive public-relations skills.

Asked by the Hawaiian press on Wednesday how he thought the 14-year-old amateur Michelle Wie would perform at this week's Sony Open, Appleby replied that "two nice scores in the eighties" would be realistic. Not to pick on the Australian, who seems as amiable and hard-working as they come, but this was the verbal equivalent of taking four putts from two feet.

Putt No1: The condescending tone. "Two nice scores in the eighties"? Since when has any score in the 80s been nice for any player who is good enough to be teeing it up in a top-class PGA event? Of course, Wie is not the first classy female golfer to be met with scepticism from her male brethren. Annika Sorenstam endured similarly misplaced condescension when she announced she intended to play the PGA tour's Colonial tournament last year.

Putt No2: Wie is the local hero. Even though Appleby genuinely believed the teenager would finish her first appearance in a PGA event 20 over par, would it have hurt to have given her a little more encouragement?

Putt No3: After all, it's not as if she can't play. In a practice round with Ernie Els earlier in the week, she broke par around the tight Waialae club's 18 holes. Her personal best around this, her home course, is 65.

Putt No4: The clincher. It's just as well Appleby is a brilliant golfer because on current form he won't be anywhere near the top of Soothsayer's annual order of merit.

Wie didn't shoot a "nice" 80-something in her first round, she shot a decent 72, which left her two over par and tied for 105th place - ahead of 30 men, among them the PGA tour event winners Scott Hoch and Adam Scott, and only one stroke behind a certain Stuart Appleby. Carlos Franco of Paraguay led after his seven-under 63.

Later Wie pronounced herself satisfied with the way she played but disappointed with her score. "The outcome wasn't as good as I wanted it to be because the putts didn't drop. But I felt like I played good. I felt like I belonged."

Wie certainly looked like she belonged as she strolled nervelessly around Waialae, chat ting amiably with her two playing partners between shots, showing off her classic swing and perfect etiquette.

The statistics also gave solid backing to the teenager's contention that one day she will be playing regularly on the men's tour. She had three birdies, hit drives an average of 278 yards and finished second in driving accuracy.

More tellingly she was able to shrug off a string of four bogeys in the middle of her round and finish with birdies at two of the last four holes - suggesting she might have the necessary mental strength to succeed in the professional game, whatever the sex of her competition.

However, that's for the future. Wie's immediate goal was to make last night's 36-hole cut. "I played the first round very cau tiously, aiming for the middle of greens and two-putting. To make it to the weekend I am going to go for every flag," she said, with quiet self-assurance.

After her first-day performance, nothing appears beyond the talents of Michelle Wie, not least making the cut and achieving a respectable finish in the 2004 Sony Open. A couple of nice scores in the 60s ought to do it.