RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Michelle Wie has put herself in position to make history today as much by avoiding the big number and bad streak of holes as by playing good golf at the LPGA's first major of the year.

In other words, by not acting her age.

The 16-year-old cut a shot off her deficit in yesterday's third round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship, firing a third-round 73 at Mission Hills Country Club to close to three back of leader Lorena Ochoa, who has led this tournament since an opening-round 62. Ochoa had a 74 yesterday.

"We were joking around out there and I was telling my caddie, sometimes you don't realize she (Wie) is 16," Ochoa said. "I don't think we all realize she's only 16. She has a great game and it's great all she has done at 16 years old. I really admire her game and her being out here."

This morning, at 6:41 a.m. Hawai'i time, Ochoa, Wie and Natalie Gulbis tee off in the final group. All are looking for a win to break through a different barrier.

Gulbis, 23, eagled the ninth from 140 yards out yesterday to share low-round honors with Hee-Won Han at 68. Gulbis is five back, has worked her way up to 12th in the Rolex World Rankings, has 15 Top-10 finishes in the past year and has her own calendar, but has yet to win in five years on tour.

Ochoa, the 2003 Rookie of the Year and fastest in LPGA history to win $3 million, has had her own problems closing lately. She has won three times, but five runner-up finishes and a 72nd-hole meltdown at the U.S. Women's Open in the last year have kept her frustrated on the cusp of golf greatness at age 24.

It has not hurt her popularity at home in Mexico, where her talent and sweet nature have made her a national hero. Still, each disappointment has become harder to swallow for Ochoa, the world's sixth-ranked golfer. Today, she will be the oldest player in the final group and the only one with an LPGA victory, though she has never won a major.

"When you're playing a major and trying to win a tournament, things are going to happen, especially on this course," Ochoa said. "If you come in the rough or in the bunker, you can have a bogey out there. It's like, be patient, accept whatever happens and be really focused. That's the plan, be patient out there and enjoy it."

Wie insists she is enjoying every moment of the week off from her junior year at Punahou. This is her 27th LPGA tournament and first major as a pro. She has five top-three finishes in her last eight starts, including a second at last year's LPGA Championship and third at the Women's British Open — both majors. She was second in the World Rankings to Annika Sorenstam until falling off the list this week because she is one short of the minimum 15 events the past two years.

But Wie, too, for all her 16-year-old golf sophistication, has never won. And she also had a final-day meltdown at last year's U.S. Women's Open, while playing in the last group. She said she tried to force things that day, and promised it won't happen again.

"I think that if I'm destined to win, it's going to happen," Wie said. "If I'm not, I'm not. I mean, I'm just going to not really try to force things. I'm just going to try my hardest. It might seem like I'm forcing something, but I'm just going to try to play along and see what happens."

She and Ochoa lead this elite pack because they have done just that the past two days after opening with low rounds. Friday's wind and cold weather bumped the average score nearly a shot higher, to 74.552. Swirling wind and tough course conditions drove the scoring average to nearly 75 yesterday, with only seven sub-par scores.

Wie and Ochoa have rolled with the punches and connected every time they found an opening. Ochoa's defining moment yesterday might have come at the par-4 first hole where she pulled her drive into the rough, needed four shots to reach the green — "bad drive, bad second shot, bad chip" — and slam-dunked an eight-footer for bogey.

She got up and down from the bunker to birdie the next hole and dropped a 25-footer on the ninth to transform a four-bogey day into a 2-over score that kept her cushion. "I think if this is my bad round," Ochoa said, "I'm in good shape."

Wie was just as upbeat, calling it a "solid round" with five hours full of good two-putts on a "bad break kind of day."

"I was like two feet from being perfect on every hole," she said. "Two feet too long, two feet too left, two feet too right. My game still feels very solid right now and I'm ready for tomorrow."

She did not have a realistic chance at birdie until the 15-footer she drained on the 14th. The hole before was her moment of truth. She hit her drive into Mission Hills' massive rough, then launched a low shot off her 9-iron into the left rough. The grass grabbed the face of her lob wedge on the next shot, which landed in the bunker. She blasted out to 18 feet, then drilled in the bogey putt to salvage momentum out of misfortune.

"It was hard to make birdies out there, very tough," Wie said. "Looking back at it now, or even like for people watching TV at their homes, it looks like, 'Oh, come on, you can make birdies.' The pins weren't really that tough. They were mostly in the middle, kind of. But it was very tricky when you were actually in the situation. I think I did very well by not losing a lot of shots."

NOTES

Michelle Wie has an interesting take on playing in the final group.

She, Lorena Ochoa and Karrie Webb were followed by nearly 1,000 spectators at some points yesterday. The gallery included NFL icon Jerry Rice, who flew in just to watch Wie and had to leave after seven holes. Both are managed by the William Morris Agency.

Wie also played in the final group Friday, purely due to the luck of the draw (pairings are not made by score until the third round) and also had the largest crowd, with up to 300 people. By means of comparison, Hall of Famers Webb and Juli Inkster were followed by about 40.

"I think it was very good that I played in the final group today, and I played in the final group yesterday," Wie said. "So tomorrow is going to be my third day playing in the final group. So, you know, I think I'm all ready for the final-group thing."

Natalie Gulbis shares third place with Shi Hyun Ahn and rookie Seon-Hwa Lee, who was runner-up at February's Fields Open in Hawai'i. Wie finished third that week, in her only other LPGA appearance of 2006.

Defending champion Annika Sorenstam had a 73 yesterday and is nine back in her quest for a successful start to her stated goal of winning the Grand Slam. Morgan Pressel made one of the day's biggest charges, rallying from a 76, which had her tied for 20th Friday, to a 70, which moved her into a share of eighth. Paula Creamer, the 2005 LPGA Rookie of the Year, went the other direction. Creamer was tied for fifth after two rounds, but shot 79 yesterday and dropped to 23rd.

Wie played in the final group on the final day in the 2003 Kraft Nabisco Championship, finishing ninth. She took fourth the following year and was 14th last year.

Through 54 holes, Lorena Ochoa has 80 putts and Michelle Wie 95. Wie has hit 83 percent of the greens in regulation (45 of 54) while Ochoa is at 67 percent (36 of 54). Both are averaging just under 270 yards on their drives, but Ochoa is 6-under on the par-5 holes and Wie just 2-under.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.