THE booming drives were there. But, more often than not, Michelle Wie did not know where they were going in her first round on the LPGA Tour since February.

The best scores, as usual, belonged to just about everyone else. There was a course record-tying 63 by Scotland's Mhairi McKay, and a potential battle looming between Lorena Ochoa (65) and Annika Sorenstam (64) in the Michelob Ultra Open.

Once the most heralded young player in the women's game, Wie managed just one birdie in a zig-zagging four-over 75 on a soggy day at Kingsmill in Williamsburg, Virginia.

While 90 players in the field of 144 shot par or better, Wie was lucky to get off as easily as she did.

She pulled her drive on the par-five seventh, and only a tree kept it from flying out of bounds. She hit into the greenside rough on the par-three 13th, and it kicked onto the green. She hit her drive way right on the wide open par-four 14th, and another tree knocked it down.

'I felt like I was hitting the ball pretty well,' she said, considering the rust.

Wie could have at least been encouraged by her putting. She had only two reasonable birdie putts all day, making a five-footer and missing from 15 feet, but several times made par-saving putts from three to five feet.

She insisted: 'I'm not far off.'

ASSOCIATED PRESS