E-Mail This Article to a Friend Four (and fore) score What to do on Independence Day BY CARLY CARIOLI

To see the Red Sox this Fourth of July, you’d have to be in Atlanta (game time, if you’re ponying up to the bar or dragging the TV out to the barbecue, is 1:05 p.m.), but the 14-year-old Hawaiian golf prodigy Michelle Wie is competing in South Hadley. And after some speculation that Aerosmith would perform with Keith Lockhart on the Common, they’ve decided to sit out, but Eric Clapton, despite hailing from that land from which we gained our independence, will cap his Tweeter Center set with celebratory fireworks. In other words, even without the home teams, there’s still plenty to do in Boston on the Fourth.

No matter what, the comforting rituals of Boston’s Independence Day celebrations continue unabated. On City Hall Plaza, the official flag raising begins the day at 9 a.m.; at 9:40 a.m. there’s a short parade along Tremont Street to Bromfield Street, Washington Street, and then Court Street, with at 9:45 a.m. a "Halt for Honor" at the Old Granary Burying Ground for a laying of wreaths on the graves of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, and Peter Faneuil. At 10 a.m., the traditional reading of the Declaration of Independence takes place back at City Hall Plaza. For more information, call (617) 227-1528 or visit www.bostonharborfest.com.

Usually, no one does the entire Freedom Trail in one go, but if you’re dying to, Boston by Foot offers the full three-hour red-line guided-tour extravaganza, "Footloose on the Freedom Trail," for $12. It leaves at 9 a.m. from the State House steps on Beacon Street; call (617) 367-2345, or visit www.bostonbyfoot.com. And if the Trail gets you in a mind to exercise your First Amendment rights, note that the Institute of Contemporary Art’s "Vita Brevis" project is sponsoring Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla’s public-art project Chalk along the Beacon Street mall on Boston Common. The gist of this one is that they’ll provide a dozen pieces of giant chalk sticks (five feet long!) for your spontaneous writing and drawing needs. That’s from 1 to 7 p.m.; call (617) 266-5152.

At 11 a.m., Old Ironsides goes for her annual two-hour spin to Castle Island — for a 21-gun salute — and back; the ship is then open for tours from 2 to 3:50 p.m. You can travel in her wake on a cruise sponsored by the USS Constitution Museum; it boards at 10 a.m. at Pier 1 at the Charlestown Navy Yard and returns by 1 p.m. Tickets are $60; call (617) 426-1812 extension 108.

On the other hand, if you hanker to sit in the oval on the Charles River Esplanade for the Boston Pops’ Hatch Shell concert, you’ll want to spend your morning getting a seat. Post–September 11 restrictions continue this year, which means the oval is protected by security checkpoints, and you’ll need a free wristband (which grants you re-entry throughout the day) for admission. Wristband distribution begins when the oval opens at 9 a.m. — earlier if the line is longer — and recommended line-up time is about 7 a.m.; the oval will likely be full by mid morning. You can bring food and coolers — no glass, no alcohol — but you’ll be searched each time you enter the protected area. Keith Lockhart and the Pops go on at 8:35 p.m. (including a performance with the "POPSearch 2004" winner; see "State of the Art," opposite), followed by fireworks at 10:35 p.m. Visit www.july4th.org for details and stipulations.

While Aerosmith are busy not playing the Hatch Shell, Clapton will be mowing down classic-rock fans at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, with steel-guitar wunderkind Robert Randolph and the Family Band opening; that’s at 7 p.m., and tickets are $45 to $95; call (617) 931-2000. Farther out, it’s July fore! in South Hadley, where you can catch the final round of the 59th annual United States Women’s Open, the biggest women’s-golf event of the year. Reigning amateur champ Michelle Wie — who at age 14 finished in the Top 20 at three pro events this year and is being touted as the future Tiger Woods of ladies’ golf — is in competition. (Headline we didn’t write but the Open did: "Wie Will Be Here for You.") That’s at the Orchards, 18 Silverwood Terrace, on the campus of South Hadley College in South Hadley. Tickets are $30; call (800) 315-OPEN.