Woe Is Wie

17 Year Old Withdraws Due To Sore Wrist

Southern Pines, N.C. - There was no controversy about rules, no KGB-type conversations with tour officials or agents, nothing funny going on at all – at least in a humorous vain.

There was just a sad 17 year old girl, walking off the grounds of the U.S. Women’s Open, carrying a sore wrist and a shattered "phenom" image with her. Nine holes into the second round at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club, Michelle Wie didn’t come out of her corner.

After hooking a tee shot on No. 1, her 10^th hole, and hitting her second shot out of the rough, Wie tossed in the towel. In the legendary words of Roberto Duran, "No mas."

"I just kind of woke up and it was really sore, but it was OK," a teary-eyed Wie said afterward. "It held up. I just hit a drive off the 17^th tee and I was just, you know, I tweaked it. And then after that, it kind of went downhill. I don’t remember hurting this much again.

"So definitely going to re-evaluate and the last thing I want to do is withdraw, but it left me with no choice."

Things went downhill for Michelle Wie, watching a putt on No. 15 Saturday, after she bogeyed six of her first nine holes. (John Mummert/USGA)

At the same time, it left more questions about Wie’s game, her mental state and her future. It also makes one wonder why Wie, and or her advisors, thought she would be able to compete over four grueling days at a Women’s Open. Late last week, she announced she would not be able to compete at the John Deere Classic because of her wore wrist. That tournament was still weeks away.

But she showed up for the Women’s Open, where dense rough does nothing for sore wrists. Was her withdrawal a foregone conclusion? Or is her wrist a convenient crutch for her discombobulated game?

Wie insisted she was in enough pain to "bring tears to my eyes." At the same time, her rationales and explanations were vague.

"I don’t know what the wrist is thinking or doing every day," she said. "I mean, you know it’s just something, some days it acts up and some days it’s OK.

"But I’m just definitely going to keep my head up and just think good thoughts because hopefully I didn’t do any damage to it. It’s still a work in progress."

A work, yes, but the progress is hard to see.

A year ago, Wie was in the hunt at the Women’s Open at Newport Country Club, tied for first after the third round, eventually tying for third. But her 2007 season has been a soap opera, a series of injuries, uncharacteristic performances and controversy.

First, there was the mysterious left wrist injury, which came shortly after she missed the cut at the PGA Tour Sony Open with scores of 78-76. Eventually, Wie said she cracked a bone in her wrist while jogging.

Then came an extended leave of absence, more than four months of down time to heal. Then came a return that has been somewhat less than auspicious. It started at the Ginn Tribute in North Carolina, where Wie withdraw under suspicious circumstances. She was 14 over par through 16 holes at the time, in danger of invoking the "88 Rule" and threatening her LPGA Tour eligibility.

Two days after the WD, she showed up at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship and began practicing. The odd timeline ticked off the game’s best-known player, Annika Sorenstam, whose name is attached to the Ginn Tribute event. Wie has not apologized.

She finished at 21 over par at Bulle Rock, a performance that included a third- round 83.

She came to Pine Needles with fellow players like Karrie Webb openly questioning how she was being handled by her parents and agents, wondering whether she was in the right frame of mind to play golf.

Wie promptly threw gasoline on the simmering coals by shooting an opening-round 82 on Thursday, then explaining it away by saying, "It’s just a very fine line between shooting 69 and shooting what I shot today."

Perhaps you could hear the cuckoo birds sounding off in the background.

On Saturday, Wie was 6 over par after nine holes, 17 over for the championship, when she cried "Uncle." She has now played a total of five rounds on the LPGA Tour this season and has a scoring average of 78. Her round on Saturday would have been her 23^rd consecutive card in which she has not broken par.

"I definitely have to re-evaluate," said Wie, who planned to return home to Florida to have her wrist re-examined. "I obviously don’t want this to happen again. I’ll definitely think about it and re-evaluate it and keep working on it because it’s a work in progress.

"It’s going to get better, but I’m going to have some good days and I’m going to have some bad days."

The good days seem in short supply. When she returned to playing, Wie said doctors told her that the bones in her wrist had healed but she added, "I have little on-going problems, but it’s still a work in progress.

"(The doctor) said I just have to trust in it and just to really believe that it’s going get better."

Seeing would help believing. In three rounds at Pine Needles, Wie hit four fairways. In three rounds, she hit four greens. If not for some finesse on the greens, her scores would have been worse. At one point, she suggested, she thought she was improving. That’s what’s known in golf as a misread.

"I felt like I was making big progress here when I took off my wrist band (during a practice round), so that’s definitely a positive," Wie said. "But like I said, there’s good days and bad days, and obviously today was not a good day.

"As of right now, I don’t know. I’m definitely going to think about all the options. I don’t want to lay off again, but we’ll have to see."

Right now, the only thing for certain, is that Michelle Wie is a sad 17-year old girl.