Wie’s Future Has Plenty of Questions

Michelle Wie withdrew from the Ginn Tribute on Thursday in South Carolina 16 holes into her first professional round since dual wrist injuries sidelined her after the Sony Open in Hawaii. There, she missed the two round cut by 14 shots and later cited the wrist problem as the main cause for her poor performance. Reports from her camp — albeit rare — in the winter indicated that Wie would be looking to make a return to golf in time for the LPGA Tour's second major championship, the McDonald's LPGA Championship, which begins on Thursday in Maryland.

Her handlers (and presumably Wie) made some scheduling decisions in March and April that seemed to indicate that Wie would focus more on the LPGA Tour for the remainder of 2007 in an effort to regain confidence and become more tournament tested before she headed to Stanford in the fall. Wie committed to play in the Ginn Tribute and LPGA Championship. Her coach, David Leadbetter, publicly said that Wie was looking to focus on winning on the LPGA Tour. (That statement was later questioned, refuted, denied, and accepted.)

Although getting information from the Wie camp was difficult and sometimes cryptic, every indication given to the public was that Wie had finally heard her critics. She would stop making forays into the gender-bending experiment that had consumed her early professional career. She would use this time to learn to win like her rival Morgan Pressel had, and then return to her higher aspirations when she had learned to dominate on the LPGA Tour. It sounded great.

Things seemed to change just a few short weeks ago, though. The message had changed from the Wie team and they announced that Michelle had accepted a sponsor's exemption to play in the PGA Tour John Deere Classic in July in Illinois. There went the idea that Wie would avoid the PGA Tour spotlight for a season. She was still going to make her now annual trek to TPC Deere Run to try to make a PGA Tour cut.

That should have been an indication that the priorities for Michelle Wie and her handlers were not as clear as David Leadbetter may have led us to believe. It was not as clear of a sign, though, because Wie has somewhat of a relationship with the Deere event and the Sony Open. Wie's acceptance of the exemption may simply have been a continuation of this symbiotic relationship with the Deere — she gets a crack at history on a course she seems to like and the Deere becomes especially relevant for the third straight year. It was not like she was agreeing to play a six tournament PGA Tour schedule, right?

Then this week came and the buildup for the return of Wie began. It was billed as the biggest story of the week — even above the much more important story of Lorena Ochoa's first showdown with Annika Sorenstam since overtaking the number one ranking in women's golf.

Wie was saying all of the right things leading up to the Ginn Tribute. She missed playing and was looking forward to getting back on track. She thought the Tribute was more important than attending her high school graduation. The wrist was doing better, the training and practice were paying off, and she would be back in form soon (she hoped). We all bought it — even Michelle.

Then she showed up on Thursday to the golf course. Her wrists were bandaged. She apparently looked exhausted and distant on the practice range. It was almost as though she was trying to let everyone know that she really was not feeling this. Perhaps it was a way of subtly rebelling against her camp. Maybe it was because she wanted to provide a built in excuse for what followed — something I'm not sure even she could have predicted.

The round itself has been documented very well. Dispatches from Ron Green, Jr. and Eric Adelson of ESPN discussed the borderline illegal influence from B.J. Wie on club selection, hazard options, and other golf advice.

Chris Higgs, LPGA COO, apparently approached Wie's agent Greg Nared for "no particular reason" and not too long thereafter, Wie withdrew likely upon the suggestion of her parents and agent. Wie apparently wanted to finish out the round, probably not aware of the Rule of 88, which is now in the vocabulary of every golf fan.

In the post-round press conference, LPGA media officials basically told everyone, including Wie, that she withdrew because of her wrist not quite having healed. Wie agreed with the assessment, but then said that she would ice down her wrists, get back to practicing, and try to work on some things in preparation for the LPGA Championship. It was a boggling plan of action for someone suffering from a wrist injury.

The reasons for the withdrawal and the injury Wie recovered from are especially confusing considering the prominence of the story of Denis Watson, the newly-crowned Senior PGA Champion. In a tournament in 1985, Watson struck a covered tree root while playing and it caused a wrist injury. That injury then proved to be much worse, resulting in nerve damage, years of rehab, nearly 10 surgeries, and a 23-year drought in winning. Watson, though many years Wie's elder, proved that rehabbing an injury fully would be a much better decision than toiling for two decades in a desperate effort to recover for lost time.

Wie and her handlers apparently disregarded that example and medical advice and entered into the Ginn Tribute because of the machine that is Michelle Wie. She is a multi-millionaire teenager without a single professional win. The most important thing about her professional career right now is maintaining the hype surrounding her fantastic abilities until she actually is given a trophy that validates them at the professional level. The only way to do that is for Michelle to play — for better or worse — in order to keep her name on our tongues.

That's where this whole thing makes me sick. We are on the verge of seeing the demise of a tremendous talent before that talent ever begins to peak. Michelle Wie's parents, her sponsors, and agent entered her into this event. They all prepped her to say the right things and present the media-warming image. They probably knew she was not 100% recovered, or at least were willing to make us wonder that just in case there was some rust on the ol' clubs. Then, they — along with the LPGA Tour — may have suggested to her that it was a good idea to quit because otherwise the machine would have to be shut down for a year. She was then told by all parties to over exaggerate the state of her injury as a poor excuse for either her play, coming back too soon, or any number of other things.

Do not think for a single moment, though, that Wie does not own some responsibility for what happened this week. She could have said no. She could have said she was not ready, took the week off to rest and prepare, and then show up at Bulle Rock with the same level of expectations she had this week — tepid excitement. No one would have judged her if she had missed the cut in Maryland with that extra week to heal out of the spotlight. In fact, we all probably would have been pretty sympathetic. But she was convinced that she should play and take whatever comes with her performance.

Now the Wie reputation is further damaged. The Wie family and her handlers look like a group of greedy people that are pushing a 17-year-old girl too far. The LPGA looks like they are at least somewhat complicit in making too much effort to ensure that Wie could still compete on their Tour this year. All in all, a lot of people look bad because of this situation.

We've seen parents take their child prodigies too far before, though. That story, while sad every time, has been told several times. Jennifer Capriati. Ty Tryon. Sean O'Hair — although he has risen above his Draconian father — is an example.

The real story here should be the actions of the LPGA Tour. There are a lot of unanswered questions about the Tour's role in Wie withdrawing from the Ginn Tribute. How much information did COO Chris Higgs provide to agent Greg Nared? Was the Wie camp aware of the Rule of 88 before Higgs have a conversation with the Wies for "no particular reason?" Even further, did the LPGA join the Wie camp in gently suggesting that Wie withdraw? We don't have answers to these questions, but they are ones that should be asked and the public should receive a response from the LPGA Tour here.

It would not come as a surprise that the LPGA made some kind of effort to make the Wie group aware of the situation on Thursday. They have gone out of their way to change exemption rules so that Wie can play in various tournaments and qualify for the ADT Playoffs. They know Wie being successful on the LPGA Tour would do wonders for ratings, attendance, and interest. It is one thing to make exemptions and special rules for a potential phenom. If complicit in any fashion in the Wie WD, it would be entirely another thing to subvert their own competition rules for her benefit.

I remain without judgment on this issue and I hope a lot of fans will hold back, too, until the LPGA Tour can explain its involvement in this very odd day for the Tour. Still, the LPGA Tour cannot be silent on this story. It has to issue a quick, forthright, and honest response to the questions being raised. If it does not, they invite criticism and controversy that will only prove to be a sideshow to a Tour that has some amazing storylines and fantastic competition. The Tour should cause us to focus on what is happening inside of the ropes, not any potential dealings just outside of them.