PEBBLE BEACH Charlie Wi was born in Seoul but spent much of his childhood in Los Angeles. And it was in Long Beach where Wi remembers first playing against Tiger Woods.
Wi was 13, Woods was 9, and Wi remembers Woods being angry when he didn't birdie a particularly long par 3.
"He got so mad. That always stuck with me, 9 years old at El Dorado" golf course, Wi said. "He probably doesn't remember, but I was going, 'Man, come on.' "
It was a trip down memory lane for Wi because he is at Pebble Beach, 40 years old now, without a PGA Tour win but with the second-round lead at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
Wi shot a second-round 69 Friday at the Pebble Beach course and has a two-round score of 12-under-par 130, good for a three-shot lead over second-place Dustin Johnson, the 2009 and 2010 winner of the Pebble Beach pro-am, after his 72 at Spyglass Hill.
Woods, who has 71 career victories compared to Wi's zero, is tied for 17th, six shots behind.
Instead of sharing happy memories about the good old days at El Dorado, Woods spoke about jamming his right wrist on the eighth hole of his round of 68 at Monterey Peninsula's Shore Course.
"It hurt like (heck) when I did it," said Woods, who is playing his first PGA Tour event of the season. "Once I popped it back in, it was good. It was just a joint. No big deal.
"The problem was I was in a divot on an uphill slope, and it was a tough combo."
Woods was as low as 7-under during the day and tied for 10th at one point.
He said he was happy with how he was hitting the ball.
"I just didn't give myself the exact right looks today," he said. "I was above the hole or had some downhill breaking putts. I just needed to leave myself below the hole."
It took Woods 33 putts to finish Friday's round. He said he needs to do better than that.
"I need to make a couple of putts to get on a roll," said, Woods, who plays at the Pebble Beach course today.
On a day when sunshine gave way to a light rain, Wi's round was punctuated by the kind of mind-bending, crowd-popping shot more associated with Woods. On the par-4 13th hole, Wi slammed a wedge 118 yards and into the cup for an eagle-2.
Wi described the shot without braggadocio. "I was fortunate enough to have it go in," he said.
This is Wi's 163rd career PGA Tour start, and he said that even though he might have beaten Woods when he was 13, he has doubted himself.
"A lot," he said. "When things don't go well, I always got down on myself very easy. I feel like I'm getting over that hump."
There's a reason Wi is leading here so far. He's tied for first in fairways hit. He's third in putting.
He also is not suddenly brimming with confidence.
"The next two days are going to be very tough because there are going to be a lot of demons and doubts," said Wi, who plays at Spyglass today.
But still, though he's in first place and six shots ahead of Woods, Wi was honest.
"I wish I was Tiger Woods," he said. "But I'm not. I'm Charlie Wi."
In other developments:
The last time Woods played Pebble Beach was the U.S. Open in 2010, when he bogeyed five of his opening 10 holes to fall out of contention. His game was in disrepair at the time. It now is on an upward swing, and the putting is all that controls how quickly he gets back to his winning ways.
"I'm hitting good putts," Woods said. "I'm not displeased with my putting at all. If we were putting smooth greens, it would be a totally different deal."
Johnson was caught off-guard by the rain in the worst way. He stood in the fourth fairway at Spyglass in a short-sleeve shirt, hands in his pockets, as his caddie sent a friend running up the hill to the parking lot to retrieve his rain gear.
Johnson was tied for the lead with back-to-back birdies to close out the back nine at Spyglass.
He bogeyed the par-3 third hole from about 12 feet away just behind the green, then three-putted for bogey at the par-3 fifth.
"I played really well yesterday. I played good today," Johnson said. "I just (threw) away some shots. I hit some poor pitch shots, just really bad."
Johnson will have a chance to make up ground today at Monterey Peninsula, which has produced the lowest scores this week.
Phil Mickelson struggled in sunshine. In rain, he ran off five birdies for a 65 at Monterey Peninsula that put him five shots behind.
"I don't know what happened, but I started to play a lot better and make some birdies," said Mickelson, a three-time winner at Pebble. "In the perfect conditions, I struggled.
"But to play these golf courses in such great condition either way has been a lot of fun."
Mickelson plays the Pebble Beach course today.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read more articles by Diane Pucin


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