Park Continues on Mission With a Desert Birdie Storm

Soon now, somebody is going to have to tell Grace Park where she is, that she’s not playing in the Bob Hope, even though her scores might remind everybody of what happens in those birdie playpens down the road.

Park followed up her first-round 62 with a five-under-par 67 Friday and opened a four-shot lead at 15-under 129 after 36 holes of the $825,000 Samsung World Championship at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert.

Park said she’d had a conversation with herself before her round Friday, about whether she could find another 62 out there.

“I told myself, ‘Why not?’ I feel like I can birdie every hole on this course.

“It’s always hard to follow up a round like I had Thursday, but I played very solid.... Five under, I’ll take that.”

Park leads Shi Hyun Ahn and Karen Stupples by four shots, and Annika Sorenstam by five.

Even so, Sorenstam said, there’s still a long way to go.

“It’s not always so easy being in the lead,” said Sorenstam, who shot a 68 and is tied for fourth with Cristie Kerr, Catriona Matthew and Lorena Ochoa. “Grace has 19 people chasing her.”

Sorenstam would have been a shot nearer, but she three-putted the 18th for a bogey and blamed her so-so back nine for not closing the gap.

“That left a little sour taste in my mouth,” she said. “But it’s in me, I’m capable, I know that.”

It was hot Friday, but the players were even hotter and 19 in the field of 20 shot par or better, the exception being Jennifer Rosales, who had a 73.

“You can’t slack off,” Park said.

Michelle Wie, who shot an even-par 72, described her round as “sad,” and said that her putting remained in the rut it had been in Thursday. Even a late-afternoon session on the putting green Thursday didn’t help, she said, adding that she hadn’t had much chance to work on her putting in Hawaii because the greens were being aerated.

“The ball kept finding ways not to go in,” Wie said, “You have to get over that because it’s all about momentum.

“If I just made all the putts, I can shoot six or seven under. I’m going for low scores. I’m going to be playing pretty aggressive. My mind-set is to try to shoot 54, to try to birdie every hole.”

Wie-Sorenstam was an attention-getting pairing Thursday and Wie gets another high-powered partner today in Laura Davies. Wie is in 19th place, 17 shots behind Park and one ahead of Davies.