Wie finds her form at LPGA event

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (AP) -- Michelle Wie is playing her best golf of the year. Christina Kim might be, too.

Kim birdied the 18th hole Friday to take a one-stroke lead over the 18-year-old Stanford student and three others at the State Farm Classic.

Kim, who shot a 63 the day before, made 68 to keep her edge at 13 under.

Wie shot a 65, playing aggressively and counting on her short game and the forgiveness of the wide-open Panther Creek Country Club course.

"I've had two solid rounds but I'm still a shot behind. I need to go lower over the weekend," she said. "There's a lot of birdie opportunities out there today that I missed. So tomorrow and Sunday I just need to get the rest."

Kim, the first-day leader bogeyed the par-5 sixth hole and saved par on her opening hole only after finding the green with her second shot from behind a line of trees well off the fairway.

"It was quite a struggle, I thought," Kim said. "I shot a nine under (Thursday) and it's always hard to follow that."

Wie opened her round with an eagle on the par-four 10th hole, dropping her second shot just past the cup and then watching it roll back in before trading high fives with caddie Tim Vickers and playing partner Allison Hanna-Williams.

A similar shot Thursday landed her an eagle, too.

"I hit a really good shot and it was like, wow, it went in again," she said. "This makes my life really easy."

The gallery following her, the tournament's largest, oohed and ahhed over her long drives, and her ability to bail herself out of the rough.

On the par-five 13th hole, Wie drove for the green on her second shot, finding instead deep rough 20 feet to the right and down a hill. A soft pitch to within a few feet of the cup helped her save par.

She landed just off the fairway on 14 and 15, too, only to salvage par on both.

Kim finished second last year at the State Farm to Sherri Steinhauer, losing on Steinhauer's birdie putt on her last hole.

She said that on Thursday it seemed like she would "just blink" and the ball would fall in the cup.

Teeing off late on Friday, Kim said she watched the leader board and felt the pressure when Sherri Turner charged out to 12 under and, for a time, the lead.

"You knew that yesterday wasn't a fluke," Kim said.

Turner, Ji Young Oh and Yani Tseng, a second-year pro from Taiwan who won the LPGA Championship this year, finished the day tied with Wie at 12 under.

At 51, Turner is the tournament's oldest player and plans to retire at the end of the season. She hasn't won an LPGA event since 1989, has had only two top-10 finishes in the past six years, and said she considered skipping the State Farm.

Last year's State Farm Champion, Steinhauer, shot a 71 in the second round but couldn't overcome her first-day 75 and didn't make the cut.

Other players who won't be playing Saturday and Sunday include Nancy Lopez and Michelle McGann.

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