U.S. Open kids don’t kid around

CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. – Terry McNamara flagged down LPGA veteran Rosie Jones and reached into her hair with a thumb and index finger.

McNamara, the longtime caddie for Annika Sorenstam, retrieved a small insect that had been taking a tour of Jones’ coiffure as their group ambled around Cherry Hills Country Club on Friday. “Saved her from a beetle,” said McNamara.

It was scurrying little pests of another sort who are stealing the storyline at the 60th U.S. Women’s Open, as a swarm of teenagers is threatening to end Sorenstam’s quest for a third straight major championship.

While the Swede was stumbling along and falling six strokes off the lead held by Chilean native Nicole Perrot, a handful of the record 18 teenagers in the field was attempting to prove that when it comes to kids and women’s golf, the future is now. During various stages of the first two rounds, four different teenagers have held the lead, including three amateurs.

Sorenstam, seeking to become the first player in 55 years to win the first three majors of the year, has yet to hold the lead and trails teenagers Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel. The mostly unproven Perrot is all of 21 and taking it all as it comes under trying Open conditions.

“You never know what can happen,” Perrot said. “Good things or bad things.”

It was largely the latter for the favorite. Sorenstam, 34, bogeyed the last three holes to finish off a sloppy 75 that included 35 putts. Fading late, she dropped into a tie for 22nd at 4 over, six strokes back, though she was hardly sweating things.

“We’ve got 36 holes left,” she said. “Anything can happen.”

In terms of the youth movement up the leaderboard, it already has. Wie, 15, who finished second at the last women’s major championship, is sitting tied for second, two strokes behind Perrot, who has never won on the LPGA Tour. Wie doubtlessly spoke for most of the Romper Room set with respect to winning the event. “I feel like I am ready,” Wie said.

Creamer, 18, who won her first LPGA event last month and graduated from high school later that week, put on a display that made the lighting storm that hit the area look like static electricity. Six over and within two strokes of the projected cut-line, she played her next nine holes in 8 under, highlighted by an eagle from the fairway on the par-4 10th.

Creamer, the youngest winner of a multiround LPGA event in 53 years, was a veritable kangaroo, jumping all over the leaderboard. After a 43-minute weather delay, she bogeyed three holes in a row and finished with a 69 that left her tied for fourth at 1 over.

“I know I can make birdies out here,” Creamer said. “If anything, I proved that I can shoot under par on this golf course.”

Pressel, a 17-year-old from Boca Raton, Fla., is tied for seventh at 2 over after a 73.