Sunday, June 29, 2008
EDINA, Minn. (AP) — Even in some of her lowest moments in golf, Michelle Wie never had so little to gain.
She had to return to Interlachen at dawn Saturday to play one hole of the rain-delayed second round at the U.S. Women’s Open, no chance of making the cut or even breaking par.
From an elevated tee, she gazed down at a gorgeous view of the sun casting its morning light on the ninth fairway. But when play resumed, her tee shot strayed some 30 yards to the right into the shadows of the trees.
Such is the plight of someone who once brought so much sizzle to her sport.
What looks like hope can turn so quickly into hardship.
Wie went from finishing second in a 36-hole qualifier for the U.S. Women’s Open to opening with an 81 and making the news that night only because of a quintuple-bogey 9 that all but ended her chances.
One week after her best finish on the LPGA Tour in two years, she had another weekend off.
“It doesn’t feel like I played that bad,” Wie said after scrambling for a par on No. 9 from about the same position where she made her quintuple bogey on Thursday.
The wrist injuries that made a wreck of her 2007 season have just about healed.
Wie showed no sign of pain for two days at Interlachen, and any questions about her power might have been answered on the 17th hole. With the tees moved up to make it play 405 yards, Wie smashed a driver over the bunkers and had a 52-degree sand wedge left to the green.
For someone whose psyche was so fragile last year, confidence is slowly being restored. Even after opening with an 81, she was 1 under for the second round until the storms rolled in Friday afternoon and stopped her momentum.
But the next month is critical.
The 18-year-old from Honolulu was once somewhat dismissive of the LPGA Tour. Now she’s desperate to join it.
Wie has only three sponsor’s exemptions left this year, and she likely will need to finish in the top 10 at all of them to earn the equivalent of 80th on the LPGA Tour money list and get her card. Otherwise, Wie could be headed to the first of two stages of qualifying.
“I think the qualifying conflicts with school, so I probably won’t go to that,” Wie said earlier in the week, noting it was tough to take one week off at Stanford last fall to play in a tournament.
However, her father made it sound as though Q-school was a distinct possibility.
“What other options do we have?” he said.
The only time Wie had to qualify for a regular LPGA Tour event was the Takefugi Classic in 2002 when she was 12.
Exemptions started pouring in after that, and Wie brought so much excitement to the LPGA Tour that rules were changed to allow her to play as often as possible.
She remains one of the biggest attractions in women’s golf. There is no shortage of tournaments that would love to have her. Why not spend another year taking exemptions?
“This is no longer the right time for that,” B.J. Wie said. “That was for high school, not college. We extended that one year because of the injuries.”