What started out as a “random walk” — we decided to head over to No. 10 and follow whatever group was on the tee — turned into us latching onto the No. 1 threesome in terms of fan interest this morning: Annika Sorenstam, Paula Creamer and Suzann Pettersen. We watched Sorenstam hit two bombs to reach the 10th green in two strokes; as we reached the 10th green, we saw a sight we hadn’t yet witnessed: the (arguably) lucky folks with houses right on the course and lawns that creep up to fences no more than 15 or 20 feet from the edge of the green. We chatted with a couple that had been living in one of those houses for 40 years. While the early-morning lawn mowing might be an occasional headache, they said, watching a major golf tournament from their lawn is definitely “one of the perks.” Indeed — particularly when you get to watch Creamer and Sorenstam make birdies, while having the option of retreating to the house for beverages or shelter from the rain.

*The galleries, by the way, thin out quite a bit when it’s not the Sorenstam/Creamer/Pettersen group.

*Still no signs of golfers smoking today.

Just a quick question for golf fanatics out there: when attending a tournament, what is your viewing strategy? Do you prefer to stake out a key hole? Do you like to try to walk along with a particular golfer? Do you mix and match depending on who is making a charge? Do you prefer to work one particular area, giving yourself options within a certain range?

*Timing is everything: Between filing 10 Internet updates and five blog entries today, we had to pick our spots to be outside actually gathering information. We happened to pick hole 9 and Michelle Wie because it was close and she’s well-known. And we were rewarded.

*The hidden ball trick doesn’t work in golf. OK, that photo is actually of Natalie Gulbis on the 18th green. The talented Mr. Jeff Wheeler of the Star Tribune took that shot earlier today.

*Talented Korean golfers are trying to run away with this thing. Ji Young Oh is the leader at 6-under; Song Hee Kim, one of eight players on the board whose last name is Kim, is currently 5-under through 12.

*It’s hot and gorgeous out here.

*The crowd is sizable and appreciative, but there is still plenty of room for fans to maneuver.

*There are three days left and everything will change a half dozen times between now and then.

We’ll be back in the morning with more golf goodness; regular RandBall readers will have one more tasty treat before the NBA draft madness.

*Michelle Wie described parts of her round as “unlucky.” The lucky part: The pre-made scoreboard here in the media room only has scores ranging from 67 to 79. If you worse than that (Wie and a few others), you don’t make it on the big board (despite the repeated urgings of a certain colleague). At least not yet.

*We saw two women smoking in the parking lot, but we are certain they were not players. So far, no players have been seen smoking, which has severely hampered the feature that was suggested.

*The Asian media throng is strong here, and for good reason: Koreans alone account for 32 golfers in this tournament, including the very impressive Ji Young Oh, who is the leader in the clubhouse at 6-under.

*If you didn’t think lunch could consist of soft shell chicken tacos and potato salad, think again.

*Underrated: Paula Creamer. She’s 2-under early and looking strong.

*Our media pass comes with a list of items one cannot bring on the course. One of those things is, “pets.”

We grabbed that image of Michelle Wie as she was setting up to fire the second of her nine shots on No. 9. It’s not quite “inside the ropes,” but we weren’t quite sure we should be doing it (camera phone was on silent, so there was no click), which we offer as an explanation as to why it looks like a 3-year-old took it. And no, we didn’t jinx her. That second shot, a punch out from the rough and under some trees, was probably her best of the entire hole.

Line of the day: Talking to Patrick Reusse after Wie’s blow-up hole, we thought after watching she had only carded an 8. “No, I’m pretty sure they count all of the strokes here. Not like when you play.”

Indeed. It turned out we hadn’t seen a duffed chip.

Let’s go see about lunch, shall we? Regular RandBall readers: Stu’s Hunt Down is up next; RandBall special golf edition readers: something about golf is up next.