That's what happened when Wie's wondrous golf game met the worst finish of her short career. Wie fired a 5-over-par 76 yesterday for a two-day total of 154. She missed the cut in her first Nationwide Tour event by 12 shots. Brian Wilson and Roger Tambellini shared the second-round lead at 9-under 133.

A month ago, the Punahou freshman missed at the Canadian Tour's Bay Mills Open Players Championship by five shots. Her quest to make a cut on the men's tour will have to wait until she's 14. That would be in three weeks.

Hillcrest Country Club and the players on this PGA developmental circuit beat up on Wie, the first female junior amateur to play a PGA Tour-sanctioned event, while record crowds pulled for her passionately. There were 12,000 fans, most following her, Thursday and another 10,000 yesterday. This event usually draws 10,000 combined on the weekdays.

The Nationwide Tour and Boise brought her here to attract interest they cannot buy and in that capacity she performed admirably. Her scores disappointed no one more than Wie, but she was the first to realize her game grew immensely this week.

"In the right environment to learn she can gain experience because this is a very high level of golf," said her coach, Gary Gilchrist. "But you can only gauge it over a two- to three-year period of time.

"When she plays with the men there are less expectations, she's just doing her best. Yesterday that didn't work out so she's thinking what can I do differently? Hit more fairways and stay patient. That's just what she did."

Yesterday, she came out with a more-lofted driver that allowed her to "shape" shots around Hillcrest's twisting fairways and avoid much of the high rough that riled her Thursday. She hit twice as many fairways (10 of 14).

She had her discouraging moments. On her first hole (359-yard 10th), Wie grabbed her driver while nearly every other golfer hit iron off the tee. "Everything goes," Wie explained. "I'm probably not going to make the cut so why not try for the green?"

She crushed her drive, but directly into the rough behind a tree. Wie bogeyed that hole, three-putted three times and double-bogeyed the 15th when another drive rolled under the fence, "one-16th of an inch from being OB." She would go 21 hours between birdies, from the first hole Thursday to her sixth yesterday.

But she would also birdie two of Hillcrest's three par-5s, two-putting for one, and play her final nine in 1-over.

"I think I just got used to the greens now," Wie said, grinning.

"Today, I think she hit the ball like a PGA Tour pro," father BJ said. "I am very proud of her."

Wie was exuberant when it was over. She waved at the crowd around the final green as it gave her a warm ovation. After lunch she asked The Golf Channel if she could do color analysis from the fairway, and did, then asked on-air if she could go up in the booth.

"I had a lot of fun this week," said Wie, who will play in the LPGA's Safeway Classic next weekend. "Only thing I have to practice a little more and make the putts. I'll make it next time. ... I think I improved a lot from yesterday, and I'm pretty happy.

"I feel very grateful. I really appreciate the fans coming out from the bottom of my heart. It just makes golf much funner."

Boise was ecstatic.

"We love your family here," one man told the Wies. "You have to come back."

Kids watched Wie in awe.

"She's a really good golfer," said eighth-grader Hali Ipaye, whose newspaper class followed Wie for two days. "It's amazing she's only 13 and can drive it 300 yards. I think it's great. All the hype is true.

"And, she seems normal. She'd fit right in with us, really well."

One young father took off work and pulled his 7-year-old daughter out of school to catch an hour of Wie. "Everybody ought to be out here watching this," he said.

Awe was not limited to Wie's peers. "She hits it just like you only she's six inches taller and hits it 100 yards farther," one woman told her husband.

He winced, but kept walking. Wie had him hooked even with her next-to-last-place finish. Amazement overcame disappointment.

Hawai'i's Keoke Cotner (77-72-149) and Parker McLachlin (79-74-153) also did not make the cut.