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July 14, 2005 | Last update 9:28:59 PM
Wie three wins away from Masters invite at men's Pub Links
by RUSTY MILLER, Associated Press
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LEBANON, Ohio (AP) -- Michelle Wie is three match-play victories away from a likely invitation to Augusta National.
The 15-year-old high school junior-to-be birdied three of the final five holes and beat Jim Renner 3-and-1 in her second match of the day Thursday, advancing to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur Public Links.
Wie, the first female to qualify for a men's U.S. Golf Association championship, rolled to a 6-and-5 victory over C.D. Hockersmith of Richmond, Ind., in her morning match.
Followed by a gallery of several hundred people -- there were no more than a handful of friends and family with any other group on the course -- Wie always seemed to hit her best shots when needed the most.
Every year since 1989, the winner of the Public Links has gotten an invitation to the Masters. Wie went through qualifying in hopes of earning a spot in the Masters.
Renner missed birdie putts of 6 feet on each of the first two holes as Wie escaped all square. She never trailed, going 3-up at the turn by hitting an 18-foot birdie putt at the ninth hole.
Renner, a junior at Johnson & Wales University in Miami and the reigning NAIA medalist, won holes 10 and 12 to narrow the gap, but Wie, using a 3-iron, hit a 220-yard shot at the 13th hole to 15 feet and then rolled in the difficult downhill putt to push the lead back to 2-up.
At the par-4 15th, Renner's second shot ended up 4 feet away while Wie was in heavy rough left of the green. But she hit a flop shot that rolled in, with the crowd roaring its approval. Renner had to hit his birdie putt to avoid losing the hole.
At the 17th, Wie hit into a fairway trap and then blasted out to just short of the green, and from there she chipped to 5 feet.
Renner hit his 8-iron second shot over the green and into a large lake. He was forced to take a drop, chipped onto the green and then conceded Wie's birdie putt and the match.
Wie advances to play Clay Ogden, a BYU junior who defeated Andrew Black of Chattanooga, Tenn., 3-and-2 in another round-of-16 match.
If Wie were to win her match with Ogden, she would play in the semifinals on Friday. The championship is a 36-hole match Saturday.