One shot tells you all you need to know about Michelle Wie's nightmarish opening round yesterday in the Sony Open in Hawai'i:

An errant shot air-mailed the eighth green and nearly plunked her agent, Ross Berlin, in the gallery. Berlin said he dove out of its path, shielding himself with a leather notepad upon which the ball left an imprint as Wie bogeyed the hole.

Yes, it was that kind of a day for the 16-year-old Punahou School junior who shot her worst round in three years at Waialae Country Club with a 9-over-par 79 that makes it unlikely she will survive today's 36-hole cut. Her previous high was a 75 in last year's opening round.

The top 70 players — and ties — in the 144-player field after today will make the cut and play in the last two rounds. Wie is tied for 142nd place.

Wie, who missed the cut by one stroke as a 14-year-old in 2004, had hoped to use her home professional debut to become the first woman since Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias in 1945 to make the cut in a PGA Tour event.

Wie, who said her goal is a 9-under 61 today, looked at the challenge philosophically. "If I do the opposite of what I did today, I think I'm pretty set."

Wie turned professional shortly before her 16th birthday in October with endorsement deals reported to be worth nearly $10 million and has had her problems getting going. She was disqualified in her October debut at the Samsung World Championship in California and bogeyed the last two holes to miss the cut at the Casio World Open in Japan in November.

Berlin, who heads up Wie's account with the William Morris Agency, and watched the round along with representatives from Sony and Nike, would not comment.

Asked if Wie's novelty could be wearing off for tournament officials if her scores continue to escalate, tournament leader Rory Sabbatini said, "Is that embarrassing for the tournament director? I don't think so. Things like that happen and that's just part of competitive golf and she'll get over it and she'll come out and she'll learn a couple lessons from it and make her a better golfer for it."

Yesterday, Wie's early struggles — a bogey and two double bogeys in the first six holes — took the air out of a supportive gallery that showed up in advance of her 8:40 a.m. tee time and lined the course.

Her first tee shot on the 10th hole (her first of the day) drew an enthusiastic: "You go, girl!" from the crowd. But three holes later, when Wie suffered her first double bogey, the crowd had gone silent as she struggled with her putter.

"I guess there were a lot of turning points in the round and I don't think I got the momentum in any turning point. It was not my day," Wie said.

Wie's anguished body language — head down, hands on hips and grimace much of the day — told the story as her tailspin began early and continued throughout the nearly five-hour round that ran the gamut of conditions from cold and rainy to warm and gusty.

"You knew it was going to be a tough day with that weather," said David Leadbetter, Wie's swing coach. "I mean 40 mph (gusts). You've got to be on your 'A' game with that and she wasn't."

So prolonged were Wie's struggles that when she finally earned her first birdie on her 12th hole of the day (the course's par-4 No. 3 hole) she raised her arms in triumph and smiled for the first time in two hours as the gallery applauded enthusiastically.

"It was just a combination of bad shots that turned out to be really bad and just a lot of wasted strokes out there," Wie said.

Still, said Chris Couch, who played in the same threesome, "She handled it like a pro. She'll come back stronger."

Told after her post-match interviews that she nearly beaned her agent, Wie said, "Oh, no, I almost hit Ross."

It was that kind of a day.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.