Michelle Wie and Ai Miyazato might look like Mutt and Jeff as they walk Mission Hills Country Club together the first two rounds of this week's Kraft Nabisco Championship. Wie, the 19-year-old Punahou graduate, is nearly a foot taller than the 5-foot-2 Miyazato, who is four years older.

Still, they have much in common. Both have earned millions of dollars on and off the golf course. They are among the most recognized faces in women's golf worldwide and have learned to live in the media fishbowl the last seven years. Both came to the LPGA with "potential" printed in large imaginary letters across their foreheads.

Both have learned that, despite all they have accomplished, they still have the potential to fail.

This is Wie's 50th start on the LPGA tour, and Miyazato's 82nd. Neither has won and that's about all they hear no matter where they go or what they do.

They go off the 10th tee tomorrow morning at 5:01 a.m. Hawai'i time, and start on the first tee Friday at 9:56 a.m. There is little doubt they will have the largest following at the LPGA's first major of the year. Both intrigue spectators and draw monstrous media attention.

Wie is making her third start of the season after spending most of the first three months of the year finishing her fourth quarter at Stanford. She is 19th on the money list, thanks in large part to her runner-up finish at the season-opening SBS Open at Turtle Bay; that was the 14th top-10 finish in her LPGA career and fifth second-place finish.

Miyazato has 21 top 10s, and two seconds as an LPGA member. She won nine times on the Japan LPGA in 2004 and 2005.

Both are still looking for the breakthrough win that will silence their critics, and dealing with "failure" in their own way. Wie's 2009 mantra is not to look back.

"I still want to play really great. I want to win, but I can't really control that," Wie said yesterday. "All I can control is how I play and how hard I try. So I'm just focusing on that, so it's a lot easier for me."

The tournament will be shown on ESPN2 tomorrow and Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. It moves over to CBS for Sunday's final round, from 9 a.m. to noon. Lorena Ochoa is defending champion.

NOTES

Kapalua's Morgan Pressel got a mention on the Golfweek Web site, after losing two caddies since the offseason. Her new hire, for two weeks, is Barry Cesarz, who usually carries Donald Trump's bag.

Cesarz said yes to Pressel, even though it meant missing Trump's club championship. Trump gets a bye in the first two rounds, putting him straight into semifinals at his Trump International, where Pressel often practices.

"Ownership has its privileges," Cesarz told Golfweek. "I got a better offer. He understands."

The magazine also caught some of Michelle Wie's Stanford classmates in the gallery last week in Phoenix. Two of Wie's friends wore T-shirts with "M Dubs" on them.

"I have a lot of nicknames, actually," Big Wiesy said. "I've heard Wieminator, Wiesel. You can do a lot with the name Wie."