Michelle shows she can play men's game

Michelle Wie was understandably nervous before testing her golf skills alongside the men on the US golf tour.

However, the 14-year-old local girl's two-over-par 72 in the opening round of the Sony Open in Hawaii was pretty impressive.

Wie, the third woman in less than a year to play a tour event after Annika Sorenstam and Suzy Whaley, is a hugely talented amateur. And, despite her nerves, from the first tee shot, she drove the ball prodigious distances. She also hit more than 60 per cent of greens in regulation.

"I think I played pretty good today," she said. "My driver was very good.

"I found the fairways a lot. I thought my irons would be a little bit closer to the hole but they were on the green so I was happy." The teenager averaged 278 yards on her measured drives, hitting two of them more than 300 yards.

If Wie had a flaw, it was that she did not hit her approach shots close enough. She will need to work on that aspect of her game to make the cut later today.

Wie dropped a shot on the opening hole and dropped another shot on the fifth.

But she hit back with a birdie three on the next hole but dropped another shot on the parthree seventh.

After birdies at the ninth and 12th to get back to level par she dropped shots at the next two holes and then parred the remainder to finish nine behind leader Carlos Franco, of Paraguay.