Michelle Wie easily advanced to the round of 16 in the Sybase Match Play Championship on Friday, beating Hee Young Park 5 and 4 on a warm, humid afternoon at hilly Hamilton Farm.The eighth-seeded Wie will face 57th-seeded Karine Icher on Saturday morning, with the winner advancing to the afternoon quarterfinals.
"I'm just trying to hit fairways and greens and make some putts," Wie said. "It's definitely a grind out there."
Icher, from France, beat Eun-Hee Ji 2 and 1.
With by far the largest gallery following Wie, the 20-year-old Stanford student took a 4-up lead on the front nine and ended the match with a par on No. 14.
Wie won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico in November for her first LPGA Tour title and has two top-six finishes in six events this year.
"You never know with match play," Wie said. "I'm just going to go out there and play my hardest. ... I put pressure on myself to play the best I can."
