Sorenstam & Jones top leaderboard

Annika Sorenstam is comfortable with her game, which means everyone else at the Kraft Nabisco Championship is probably playing for second place.

The most dominant player in golf shot a 3-under 69 Friday to move into a tie for the lead with 45-year-old Rosie Jones after two rounds of the first LPGA major of the year. Sorenstam did it in her typical fashion, playing with methodical consistency on a day when other players couldn't help but make mistakes.

"I'm right where I want to be and excited about that,'' Sorenstam said. "I'm playing well and I couldn't have asked for a better start.''

Sorenstam, trying to win her fifth tournament in a row, overcame a bogey on the first hole by playing the last 12 holes in 4-under to post her score early, before the wind stiffened and scores began inching upward on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club.

She had the lead to herself until Jones, playing in one of the last groups of the day, birdied the 18th hole to tie her at 5-under 139.

"I'm desperate,'' said Jones, who is retiring at the end of this season and has never won a major title. "I want to win a major as bad as Annika wants to win her fifth in a row. She'll have other chances, I've got a lot more riding on it.''

Teenage phenom Michelle Wie was one of the day's casualties, hitting it out of bounds into someone's backyard on the 16th hole for one of two double-bogeys on her way to a 74 that left her at even par, five shots back.

"Today my bad shots were just horrible,'' Wie said. "I'm kind of disappointed right now.''

First round co-leader Mi-Hyun Kim was in third, a stroke back, while defending champion Grace Park and Reilley Rankin were another shot behind after shooting 68s, the low rounds of the day.

Sorenstam has a lot at stake in the season's first major. She's already won twice this year and is trying to win her fifth tournament in a row over two years to tie a record set by Nancy Lopez in 1978.

More importantly, she needs to win the first major to keep alive her goal of winning all four major championships in one year -- something no other player in women's golf has done.

It's no wonder she had to fight getting ahead of herself on the course during the first two rounds.

"Everything is just looking really good so, of course, I get a little anxious and I just have to pinch myself and say, 'Hey, this is a tournament, play your game and go easy and hit one shot at a time,''' Sorenstam said. "The only way for me to handle this is to keep saying it over and over again.''

Sorenstam's only real trouble came on the first hole when she hit it in the left rough, chunked it on and three-putted from 40 feet for bogey. But she came back to string three birdies in a row to end the front nine, including a blast from the bunker on the eighth hole that went in as she sank to her knees and raised her arms in glee.

Sorenstam made two more birdies on the back nine before hitting a pitching wedge into a greenside bunker on the 15th hole and making bogey.

Sorenstam's 69 was a big improvement over the 76 she shot in the second round last year, when the pressures of her public pronouncement that she had a goal of winning all four majors seemed to hurt her game.

She was never in contention in last year's tournament, won by Grace Park, but there's little doubt she will be among the leaders on Sunday on a course that rewards those who stay patient.

"I feel a lot better than last year, but again, it's a long ways to go so anything can happen,'' she said. "I really don't want to predict anything.''

Wie, meanwhile, had a large gallery following a threesome that included LPGA pinup girl Natalie Gulbis, and was in contention much of the day. But she was undone by double-bogeys on the seventh and 16th holes, and needs to shoot something like the third-round 66 she had here two years ago as a 13-year-old to get back in the mix.

"I'll try to shoot for that tomorrow,'' she said. "I feel good about my game, but I have to play better.''

Wie wasn't even low amateur, or low teenager. That honor belonged to Morgan Pressel, the 16-year-old who played in the U.S. Women's Open at the age of 12.

Pressel was 4-under on the back nine before running into trouble and finishing with a 73 that left her at 1-under for the tournament.

Divots: Karen Stupples, who shared the first round lead with Rosie Jones and Mi Hyun Kim, shot a second-round 80, but still managed to make the cut. ...The 18th hole was shortened to about 470 yards on Friday, in hopes that players would be tempted to go for the large green that is surrounded by water. Not one player tried, though, including Wie, who had 210 yards to the pin but said she chose to lay up because she was between clubs. ... Nancy Lopez shot a 79 and missed the cut at 12-over, but still got a big ovation from the crowd at the 18th hole despite hitting it in the water.

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