Appleby one of three in PGA lead

Michelle Wie opened with her worst score on the PGA Tour at 9-over 79.
HONOLULU (AP) -- Stuart Appleby switched islands, but not his position atop the leaderboard, scrambling to a 4-under 66 on Friday to join PGA Tour rookie J.B. Holmes and Jerry Smith as the early leaders through two rounds of the Sony Open.
Coming off a playoff victory in the Mercedes Championships on Maui, Appleby took only one putt on each of his first seven holes in blustery conditions at Waialae Country Club -- six of them to save par -- and finished at 4-under 136.
Holmes had chance
Holmes won the PGA Tour qualifying tournament last month, the first player since Willie Wood in 1983 to go straight from college to winning Q-school. He had a chance for the outright lead until missing an 8-foot putt, but settled for a 66 to get his season off to a good start.
Smith birdied his last hole, the par-5 ninth, for a 67.
Rory Sabbatini, who led after the first round with a 65, was among the late starters.
As the afternoon group of players teed off in the PGA Tour's first full-field event of the year, the attention shifted to 16-year-old Michelle Wie -- not whether she would make the cut, but simply where she would finish.
Playing for the fourth time on the PGA Tour, the junior at nearby Punahou School opened with her worst score on the PGA Tour at 9-over 79, leaving her in second-to-last place. Early projections put the cut at 2 over par, meaning Wie would need at least a 63 to have a chance.
Better in practice
Her best score at Waialae during weeks of practice was a 64, and the course record of 62 was last matched a year ago by Ernie Els.
Wie started strong with an approach into 6 feet for birdie at the tough second hole, but her round began to slip away on No. 5. She had a 12-footer for birdie, ran it 2 1/2 feet by and missed the par putt to fall to 1 over on her round.
Appleby has won at Kapalua three straight years, although he didn't play the Sony Open last year because his wife was in Australia expecting their first child. This is a different test, and Appleby pushed his way to the top with one save after another, one of them for bogey when he hit his tee shot into the water.
Waialae is a tiny, traditional layout with tight fairways and small greens, vastly different from the expansive Plantation course on Kapalua last week. Els in 2003 is the only player to win both Hawaii events in the same year.
"It's smaller targets off the tee and smaller greens," Appleby said. "But the type of golf you have to play -- controlling the ball, controlling the flight -- is very, very similar."
Others
Jerry Kelly, who won the Sony Open in 2002, had a 69 and was at 137, along with K.J. Choi (71), Steve Jones (68) and Dudley Hart (68).
Defending champion Vijay Singh made birdies on the two par 5s for a 69 and was at even-par 140.
Singh and Appleby played the first two rounds together, a coincidence considering they were in the playoff at Kapalua last week. Appleby won by making a birdie on the 72nd hole, then making birdie on the par-5 18th with a bunker shot to 2 feet, while the 42-year-old Fijian missed a 9-foot putt.
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