HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. — Michelle Wie keeps leaving birdies on the Bulle Rock Golf Course and still is closing on the leaders at the McDonald's LPGA Championship.

Wie went out early yesterday and shot a 4-under-par 68 before lightning and rain suspended play at 1:24 p.m. local time. After a five-hour delay, play resumed until it was halted by darkness.

The 16-year-old, who finished second to Annika Sorenstam here a year ago, is 5-under midway through the LPGA's second major of the year. When Wie finished, she was a shot behind clubhouse leader Dorothy Delasin, who represents Turtle Bay and played with Wie the first two days.

Delasin got as low as 10-under with four straight birdies, but played her final seven holes in 4-over. She was overtaken by Pat Hurst, who moved to 8-under with birdies on two of her first three holes before players were taken off the course.

By the end of the long day, Delasin was the clubhouse leader at 6-under 138. Wie is in a group tied for second.

There were 70 players who did not complete yesterday's second round.

Going into the weekend Wie is lurking, and still searching for those birdies that keep sneaking away. She missed four more very makeable birdie putts yesterday, continuing a frustrating trend that has become more obvious as she continues to contend in prominent events.

Wie, who will be a senior at Punahou in the fall, is playing her 28th LPGA event. She has made the cut in her past 20 — or since she was 13 — and has five top-five finishes in her last seven. In her first two LPGA starts this year she has finished one shot out of playoffs.

Which means that, along with all those pesky missed putts, she must be hitting the ball incredibly well. Wie missed just one fairway yesterday and hit 14 greens in regulation.

"Her swing is great," said her coach, David Leadbetter. "She has hit a lot of good shots and she's in great position for the weekend. ... In the final analysis, she is chugging along nicely."

He blames the missed putts on the vast difference between greens in Hawai'i and on the East Coast. "Even a lot of the PGA pros putt well on the East Coast and not on the West Coast, or vice versa," said Leadbetter, who also works with Ernie Els, Justin Rose and many other male pros.

Leadbetter also cites Wie's age, and wish to keep her life as normal as possible by attending school fulltime, as reasons for the misses. He expects her work on the greens to improve hourly as she plays a full schedule this summer and appears absolutely unworried. Wie is hitting the ball so well even she found it hard to complain.

"I left a lot of putts out there," she admitted. "But I still feel like I'm stroking it really well. These greens are just very tricky. They put the holes in very tricky areas. So I felt like I was playing really well.

"Hopefully I'll get some more putts to drop in. But obviously today I made a lot more putts than I did yesterday. So I think that if I keep this trend going I think I'll be fine."She finished with five birdies yesterday and Delasin had six as they encouraged each other in a go-low battle that got really good as they made the turn. Delasin rolled in four straight birdie putts between 5 and 15 feet at Nos. 17, 18, 1 and 2. Wie bogeyed the 17th, missing an eight-footer for par, then rammed in birdies at 18 (20 feet), 1 (12) and 2 (3).

"Dorothy making a lot of putts, it was like, 'Oh, the ball can go in the hole,' " Wie recalled. "So it gave me confidence too. She played great out there."

Wie teed off early with a gallery of about 100. That grew to nearly 500 in the midst of the battle of the birdies at the turn and was about 1,000 by the time she and Delasin came in. Wie didn't disappoint ... much.

After salvaging a 71 Thursday with birdies on three of her last four holes, she opened with birdie on her first hole (No. 10) yesterday, sinking a nine-footer. But she missed from inside 15 feet on the next hole and would repeat the frustrating feat from inside 10 three more times.

To be fair, Wie also kept herself in contention with four gritty par putts between 3 and 10 feet, the longest bringing an "All right baby," from the crowd. She nearly chipped in to save par on her final hole and had a long birdie putt drop in, then spin out at No. 5.

Since this major moved here last year Wie, who is not an LPGA member, is the only golfer to break par at Bulle Rock all six rounds. She believes her game is more consistent now than a year ago. The only way she can prove that now is to win.

"Last year I played very well here," Wie said. "Ball striking was very good and I made a lot of putts. So hopefully I can change that (putting) from last year to this year. And I feel like I'm just ... I just feel like I'm more mature out there."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.