Wie (79) Is at Her Worst in Hawaii

After Michelle Wie signed for her highest score on the PGA Tour, one that sent her to the bottom of the leaderboard Thursday at the Sony Open, she struggled to keep her voice steady while explaining what went wrong.

Three double bogeys. Two three-putts. And late in a blustery round at Waialae, one shot was so off-line that her agent held up his leather-bound notebook to keep the ball from hitting him in the head, leaving a dent in the cover.

Unable to stop the slide in gusts up to 35 mph, Wie stumbled to a nine-over-par 79 that left her ahead of only one player, Jimmy Walker, with virtually no hope of becoming the first woman in 61 years to make the cut on the PGA Tour.

“Today it was like, wow,” she said. “It’s like, I can’t believe I’m doing this bad.”

And as the 16-year-old got up from her chair, she finally figured out what would make it all go away.

“I want some chocolate,” she said.

Rory Sabbatini birdied five of his last seven holes for a five-under 65 and had a one-shot lead over David Toms and K.J. Choi.

Wie’s fourth start on the PGA Tour -- and third straight appearance in the Sony Open -- quickly turned into her worst on a wind-swept day along the Pacific Ocean. She missed a 2 1/2 -foot par putt on her third hole (No. 12), shot 42 over her first nine holes and ended her long day by missing a six-foot birdie.

Wie, who shot 72-68 and missed the cut here by one shot two years ago, had never shot higher than 75 in her three previous PGA Tour events, and the 79 matched her highest score in eight tournaments against the men. At age 13, she shot 79 in the second round of the Bay Mills Open on the Canadian tour.

“It was just a combination of bad shots that turned out to be really bad, and just a lot of wasted strokes out there,” Wie said. “It was not my day.”

Expectations were higher than ever that Wie would get to play all four rounds, having come close at the John Deere Classic in July and at the Casio World Open in Japan.

Sabbatini and Toms said she was being too hard on herself.

“I played Bay Hill a couple of years ago, I shot 89 the first round, and I was in the top 80 in the world ranking,” Sabbatini said. “Is that embarrassing for the tournament director? I don’t think so. Things like that happen. That’s just part of competitive golf, and she’ll get over it.”

Toms paid more attention to the crowd than the score.

Fans were six-deep behind the 10th tee when Wie teed off, and they lined the fairways to see all 79 shots.

“If it was dead calm today, do you think she would be doing that?” Toms said. “I think she would be playing well.”