KAHUKU — As if the last seven years of drama and trauma weren't enough, Michelle Wie's debut as an LPGA member yesterday included blowing by everybody but Angela Stanford and Yani Tseng in the first round of the SBS Open in Hawai'i.

Wie closed with a flourish, birdieing the final three holes to fire a 6-under-par 66. The Punahou graduate is a shot behind Stanford, who tied the tournament record with a 65 at Turtle Bay's Palmer Course. Wie shares second with Tseng, the 2008 Rookie of the Year who beat her in the final of the 2004 U.S. Women's Public Links.

Wie's victory at the 2003 U.S. Women's Public Links, at age 13, remains her last win. This is her 48th LPGA start — she began on the tour at age 12 — but first since earning fulltime LPGA playing privileges in December.

"I think automatically you feel like you're more ... not accepted, but you're more part of something," Wie said of her card-carrying status. "They've always been nice to me and they still treat me really nice and all that, but it's a different feeling, like you're part of something — part of an association, part of a legacy. So I guess that feels a little bit different. Other than that, it's pretty much the same."

The Stanford sophomore celebrated her homecoming — and freedom from the necessity of sponsor's exemptions — by shooting her lowest competitive round since the 2006 Evian Ladies Masters. Not coincidentally, that was the last of her 13 top-10 LPGA finishes.

She was second here in 2005 and has won $800,000-plus since turning pro later that year, just before her 16th birthday. Wie fired three straight 70s that year at SBS, then became the first female to advance to a U.S. Open sectional qualifier when her 72 was good enough to win the local qualifier at this course.

Yesterday beat all that, and probably most expectations, by a bunch.

"I haven't played in Hawai'i in a really long time," said Wie, who tees off at 7:20 a.m. today. "I guess I do have a lot (of local knowledge) from back then, but the thing I felt really comfortable with today was the fact that I was playing in front of a home crowd.

"There were so many familiar faces out there and to see them rooting me on and just to know that they've been rooting me on for the last how many years? I just felt really comfortable playing in front of them, so I'm really grateful and happy to see all of them."

So grateful she scattered eight birdies — including all four par-5s — and two bogeys across the Palmer Course, dropping putts from 6 inches to 30 feet. Her last three birdies were all the result of sand-wedge approach shots.

Turtle Bay brought it on yesterday as the LPGA opened its season playing through wind and rain and dark of night. Stanford, Wie, Tseng, Kyeong Bae (67) and Japan's Momoko Ueda (68) delivered the most impressive scores; Wie, Ueda and Angela Park (69) were the only golfers to break 70 in the afternoon.

Stanford teed off just after the sky fell in the morning — five very wet times. Tseng got caught in the "huge rain" and Bae, who went out second just after 7, caught the bulk of the early morning deluge. "Just play," grinned Bae, who turned pro in 2000 at age 15. "Rain, windy or chilly, whatever."

Stanford, the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year in 1999 when she was at Texas Christian, was the only golfer to get to 7-under when she birdied her final hole from 8 feet. Despite gusts up to 25 mph, she hit every green in regulation but one, and was close to bogey just once, sinking a 9-footer to save par.

"I've always kind of struggled playing this golf course so I really wanted to be more patient today and be aware of the fact that I could shoot at some flags and some I needed to play more conservatively to the middle of the greens," said Stanford, 31. "I feel like I was starting out in the right frame of mind."

Stanford finished top six in her final six events last year, including two wins, to rise to eighth in the Rolex World Ranking. She hasn't finished higher than 14th in four previous tries at Turtle Bay, although she was seventh last year at the final Fields Open in Hawai'i and fourth at the inaugural LPGA Kapalua Classic.

Hawai'i's wind hardly fazes Stanford, who grew up in Texas and "always liked crazy weather in college because I knew it eliminated half the field." It is not the same with the world's best female players, but Tseng also prefers that it keep blowing — the wind is predicted to be up to as much as 45 mph the next two days — and believes it separates those who are patient and able to work the ball.

Tseng, who turned 20 last month, is ranked second in the world after Lorena Ochoa. She finished eighth here last year in her first look at Turtle Bay and her 66 yesterday looked awfully easy, with four tap-ins for birdie in the midst of wacky weather.

"It was like summer today," Tseng said. "Big rain and after two minutes it was sunny. So actually it was a little bit tough the first three holes ... a little bit wet, but it was all perfect."

Former Rainbow Wahine Cindy Rarick, in her 25th year on tour, shot 77 as did Turtle Bay's Dorothy Delasin. Kapalua's Morgan Pressel shot 73. The cut comes at the end of today's second round, with the top 70 and ties playing tomorrow's final round. First prize is $180,000.

PARTNERSHIP OFFICIAL

The LPGA and JoongAng Broadcasting Corporation yesterday officially announced a five-year partnership that names J Golf the LPGA's official Korean media rights partner starting next year. The announcement was made by LPGA Commissioner Carolyn F. Bivens in Los Angeles.

The Seoul Broadcasting System, title sponsor of this week's SBS Open at Turtle Bay, has held the Korean rights for 15 years. This is the final year of its contract with the Turtle Bay event.

Bivens was asked yesterday, "With the last of SBS, is the LPGA looking to come back to Turtle Bay in the future?" Her answer, as it was Wednesday at Turtle Bay, was: "We are still engaged in conversation."

J Golf will have exclusive broadcast rights within South Korea for nearly all LPGA Tour events through 2014. JBC also will underwrite an event from 2010 to 2014 in Southern California and assume title sponsorship rights to this year's Phoenix LPGA International. JBC also has the rights to create and operate the official Korean-language Web site of the LPGA.

The overall media rights investment in the LPGA over five years is the largest in LPGA history.

NOTE

Angela Park's team won the Pro-Am with a score of 54. Her "amateurs" included 18-year-old pro Tadd Fujikawa and actual amateurs James Park, Yukio Hayashi and Ken Tachibana.