PALM DESERT, Calif. — Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie finished strong yesterday, leaving bright smiles on their faces for entirely different reasons at the Samsung World Championship.

Wie recovered from a miniature meltdown and battled back to break par.

Sorenstam, as she has done so often in her Hall of Fame career, blew away the field in the final hour at Bighorn with birdies on four of the last five holes for a 6-under 66 to build a four-shot lead.

The only birdie putt Sorenstam missed down the stretch was a 12-footer at the 17th, which hung on the edge. She finished at 15-under 201 to lead Gloria Park, who shot a 68.

"I finished a lot better than yesterday," said Sorenstam, whose back-to-back bogeys at the end of the second round knocked her out of the lead. "The previous two days, I haven't made anything, and I missed little putts. It really leaves a sour taste in your mouth, especially when I feel like I'm playing so well."

Wie missed some little putts, too, but they weren't for birdie.

She missed a 4-foot comebacker for par on the second, then took three putts from 5 feet for a double bogey on the next hole that sent her to the middle of the pack in the 20-player field.

For the 16-year-old from Honolulu, it began to look similar to the final round at the U.S. Women's Open, where she missed several short putts on her way to an 82.

Unlike Cherry Hills, she showed some fight.

Wie didn't drop a shot the rest of the way, escaping from the bushes — no bees, this time — with a par and finishing with a birdie for a 1-under 71.

At 10-under 206, she is five shots behind.

"I didn't play as well as I wanted, but I played really strong over the last couple of holes, and hopefully I can carry that on tomorrow," Wie said. "It felt good that I brought it back."

Even so, with the No. 1 player in women's golf in total control of her game, it appears the best Wie can do is play for the size of her first paycheck.

"If I feel like I played my best, I will be happy with that," Wie said. "Obviously, if I won, that would be my dream. But I'm just going to take whatever happens."

Wie wasn't alone in her struggles.

Grace Park had a two-shot lead to start the third round, fell behind when Sorenstam birdied three straight holes early, then disappeared with an adventure into the desert on the par-3 eighth that gave her a quadruple-bogey 7.

Sorenstam shined from start to finish, with a small hiccup in the middle. A bending 18-footer on the 14th hole put a sparkle in her eyes, and she began firing at flags and pumping her fists when more birdies fell.

Putting is all that has held Sorenstam back this week, but she was determined to play with more feel. From about 25 feet away on the second hole, she built up enormous confidence watching that birdie putt drop.

"I wasn't expecting that," Sorenstam said. "I said to my caddie, 'It's turning around. I'm going to make some now.' "

She still had a few glitches in the middle of her round, three-putting the ninth and 11th greens for bogeys, and missing a 6-footer on the par-5 12th. But the 18-footer on No. 14 got her going again.

Wie would like to have done things differently on the par-5 third.

"The third hole was pretty stupid," she said.

Her tee shot landed on a mound on the back side of a bunker. Instead of laying up in the fairway, she thought she could hit 3-wood from 220 yards onto the green, but topped it so badly that the ball squirted toward the desert sand, resting against the inch-high collar of grass. From there, she hit into a tongue of grass in the bunker, and chipped to 5 feet for a chance to escape with par.

But her putt caught the right lip and went 3 feet by. After marking her ball, the bogey putt caught the lip again and went another 3 feet by. Wie turned and looked toward a stunned gallery, searching for help.

"I didn't want to write anything on my scorecard until I made a birdie," Wie said.

She got out the pencil on the par-3 sixth with a 10-foot birdie, then did well to avoid another big number when her approach with a 5-wood on the par-5 seventh went left of the green into a bush.

She took an unplayable lie, but saved par with a 15-foot putt.

The 15-footer for birdie on the 18th wasn't bad, either, putting her into the second-to-last group with Catriona Matthew of Scotland, who shot 71 and was at 209.

TV:

7 A.M., NEWS 8;

8 a.m., Golf Channel

LEADERBOARD

ANNIKA SORENSTAM 64-71-66—201

GLORIA PARK 65-72-68—205

MICHELLE WIE 70-65-71—206

HONOLULUADVERTISER.COM

Go online for periodic updates of Michelle Wie's fourth round in the Samsung World Championship. She tees off at 5:35 a.m. Hawai'i time today.

Also online, see the Michelle Wie special section and more photos.

MICHELLE WIE ROUNDS (70-65-71—206)

Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Out 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 In Total

Yardage 405 395 473 447 367 157 470 162 449 3325 397 419 508 187 354 538 140 411 355 3300 6634

PAR 4 4 5 4 4 3 5 3 4 36 4 4 5 3 4 5 3 4 4 36 72

ROUND 1 4 3 5 4 4 3 4 3 4 34 3 4 4 3 5 5 3 4 5 36 70

ROUND 2 3 4 4 4 3 3 4 2 4 31 4 3 4 3 4 5 3 4 4 34 65

ROUND 3 4 5 7 4 4 2 5 3 4 38 4 4 4 3 4 4 3 4 3 33 71

Sources: Samsung media; lpga.com