SINGAPORE, Feb 28 ― Defending champion Michelle Wie pulled out injured on the back nine of her first round at the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore today while Amy Yang's bid for back-to-back LPGA wins ended after three holes.
Defending champion Wie was clearly off the pace early on the first day of the US$1.5 million (RM6.1 million) event, carding a double bogey on the eighth and a triple bogey on the ninth on her way to shooting 44, eight over par, on the front nine.
The 29-year-old stood at 10 over par for the day and last in the 62-player elite field when she quit on the 15th tee with the latest in a succession of injuries to plague the former world number five.
Wie, the 2014 US Women's Open champion, was making only her second LPGA Tour start since undergoing surgery in October to alleviate pain in her arthritic right wrist that had caused her to withdraw in pain during last year's British Open.
The 29-year-old South Korean Yang won her eighth professional title five days ago at the LPGA Thailand but she made a bogey five on her second hole and double-bogey six on the third before withdrawing through illness, with the LPGA Tour confirming later she had been suffering with flu. ― AFP
