Tavatanakit leads; Wie West tumbles
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Michelle Wie West tumbled out of the ANA Inspiration on a hot, breezy afternoon in the desert. Patty Tavatanakit held onto the lead.
Playing for the second straight week after a 21-month break, Wie West followed an opening 2-under 70 with a birdie-less 79 to miss the cut in the first major championship of the year.
“Wasn’t a good day,” Wie West said. “Got a little mucky from the first hole. Was right up against a tree. … I feel like I’ve had some really good moments and some really bad moments. Definitely a lot of positives to take from and definitely have my work cut out for me.”
The long-hitting Tavatanakit took the lead with an opening 66 and shot a 69 in 97-degree afternoon heat to reach 9 under, a stroke ahead of Shanshan Feng.
“I didn’t want to take it the way that like, `Oh, I’m leading a major championship,’” Tavatanakit said. “I just wanted to look at it as it’s another round, it’s another tournament, even though it’s a big tournament.”
Tavatanakit holed out from 115 yards for eagle on the par4 15th on her first nine, with the ball flying into the hole.
“I thought it was just a good shot,” Tavatanakit said. “I thought it hit the pin and went somewhere else. No one clapped, there are no fans. We couldn’t figure it out. It was so bright we all couldn’t see. I walked up and looked in the hole and I was like, ‘Oh, it went in.’”
The 21-year-old former UCLA player from Thailand missed the cut last week in Carlsbad in the Kia Classic with rounds of 71 and 79. She tied for fifth in February in the Gainbridge LPGA for her best LPGA Tour finish.
Wie West bogeyed the first three par 5s — the lowlight a 100-yard drive into a left-side tree on No. 9. With only maskless father B.J. following her with no spectators at Mission Hills, she opened with bogeys on Nos. 1-3 — a day after making long birdie putts on each of them to start her back nine.
The 31-year-old Wie West returned to competition in Carlsbad, missing the cut with rounds of 81 and 74. She was playing for the first time since marrying Jonnie West, the son of basketball great Jerry West, in August 2019 and giving birth to daughter Makenna last June.