Does Michelle Wie make the cut?

San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | 7/29/08 | Tod Leonard

[fhayek]

Michelle Wie returns to playing tournament golf with the professional men this week, and given her propensity to produce drama of all sorts, it should be interesting.

We know this: She'll have somebody baby-sitting her while she signs her scorecard. Wie learned yet another lesson the hard way two weeks ago when she was disqualified from the LPGA Tour's State Farm Classic after forgetting to sign her scorecard after the second round. At this week's PGA Tour Legends Reno-Tahoe Open, it will be the scores on the card that will create the buzz, positive or not.

Wie, 18, is competing on the PGA Tour for the eighth time in four years, and she has yet to make a cut. She said at the season's outset that she would focus on playing against women, but that has changed because she has only one exemption remaining on the LPGA for the year and is at least $80,000 short of earning her card for 2009.

She has yet to gain full-time status on the LPGA since turning pro at 16, when several sponsors awarded her contracts worth $10 million. Those same sponsors have to be wondering what the return on their investment has been, because Wie's pro career has been littered with controversies, criticism and injuries.

Last week, PGA Tour journeyman Jay Williamson told Golf Channel it was “a joke” that Wie was given an exemption for Reno.

“I don't even know who that is,” Wie responded last week in a press conference to promote the tournament. “I don't even read that kind of stuff. People are going to say what they want to say

“People are going to write hateful stuff about me, and that's fine with me. All I can control is how I play. And if I shoot some low scores and win some tournaments, it's going to be hard to write bad stuff about me.”

Hampered by wrist injuries for more than a year, Wie had been in a downward spiral until the State Farm Classic in Illinois two weeks ago. There, she shot 67-65-67 to get to within one stroke of the lead, only to learn after Saturday's round she had been disqualified for signing her Friday scorecard outside the scoring area after a volunteer had to track her down.

“I pretty much went from a really high to a really low in about two seconds flat,” Wie said. “That was a record for me, but I think I learned a lesson, at least while I was 18, not when I'm like 26, or near the end of my career.”

Wie, a freshman at Stanford last year, said she got calls of encouragement from LPGA players, including Meg Mallon and Cristina Kim. “They were talking about their bloopers they made, and people forget about them,” Wie said. “I'm sure a lot of other players have learning experiences like this.”

Wie's agreement to play at the Montreux Golf & Country Club in Reno is consistent with her previous attempts on the PGA Tour. She has played four times in the Sony Open in her home state of Hawaii, twice in the John Deere Classic in Illinois and once in the now-defunct 84 Lumber Classic in Pennsylvania. All are second-level tour events that don't attract most of the top players.

This week, the Legends tournament is going up against the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone in Akron, Ohio, which invites the top-50 ranked players in the world.

Responding to the criticism of Wie's invitation, Legends Tournament Director Michael Stearns said, “At this point, I think Michelle is a great player. She has established herself as one of the more recognizable players of our time ... There are always too many people on the bubble (for exemptions), no matter who it is. There is always going to be somebody there, and the only thing I would like to say is, play better so you won't have that issue.”

[fhayek]

A friend of mine said that the only way she would be on a golf course on Saturday and Sunday is if she caddies. That would, of course, be cruel. She did beat nine guys (including David Duval). She damn well would beat me. She will make money off of this. Still, there doesn't seem to be much point to being a perennial also-ran.