Ochoa leads Tour Championship; Wie drops out

Michelle Wie is gone, putting all the attention on Lorena Ochoa's player of the year fight with Jiyai Shin at the LPGA Tour Championship in Richmond, Texas.

Wie withdrew from the season-ending event Thursday because of a sprained left ankle, hours after Ochoa shot a 6-under 66 to take a 1-shot lead over Reilley Rankin.

The 20-year-old Wie, fresh off her first LPGA Tour victory last week at Ochoa's tournament in Mexico, shot a 72 in the afternoon. She limped through her round on the gimpy ankle that she sprained during the Solheim Cup in August, went for treatment afterward and withdrew about an hour later.

"I wanted to do everything I could do to fight through the injury," Wie said in a statement. "It bothered me last week in Mexico, but I was able to play through the pain. I realized today that I wouldn't be able to continue to play through it."

Ochoa teed off in the morning, before the wind picked up across the Houstonian Golf and Country Club.

She was 4 shots ahead of Shin (70) on the leaderboard, but the 21-year-old South Korean leads Ochoa by 8 points (156-148) in the race to become the tour's player of the year. To earn the distinction this year, Ochoa must win this week or finish no worse than third and hope Shin places out of the top 10.

Wie drew the largest galleries and she was 3 under through 12 holes. Her ankle gave way on the 13th tee, and she stumbled backward, sliced her tee shot into the rough and took her first bogey.

She bent over in apparent pain on No. 14 and slipped again hitting her tee shot to the par-3 17th. Wie smacked her right leg and yelled an obscenity as the ball sailed right and rolled into the water. She made a double bogey to slip back to even par.

Dubain World Championship: Robert Allenby of Australia shot a 7-under 65 for a 1-shot lead after the first round of the Dubai World Championship, while Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy vied for the European Tour money title. Allenby had 8 birdies and only 1 bogey on the Earth Course, which is hosting the $7.5 million final event of the European Tour season. He was 1 shot ahead of Westwood, Chris Wood and Camilo Villegas, who all shot 66.