Wie finished at 1-over 285 to share low amateur honors at the women's major with 17-year-old Paula Creamer, and was 11 strokes behind winner Meg Mallon.

"I didn't play the way I wanted to, but I'm still happy how I finished," Wie said. "I did a lot better than last year (tied for 39th) and I got an exemption for next year."

Wie, a Punahou School sophomore, entered the tournament amid some controversy because she received the special exemption from the USGA.

"There's always critics with everything," Wie said. "I think it's really great for me, it's a lot easier, there's no more controversy, because they know I earned it."

Wie started the final round at 1 under and six strokes behind leader Jennifer Rosales. But Wie opened with a bogey and had another bogey on No. 6, putting her at 2 over for the round at the turn. She finished with her first over-par round of the week, including another bogey and a birdie on the back nine.

"I wasn't thinking about low amateur, I was thinking about the trophy," Wie said. "And it was kind of impossible after a while, but I felt like I just wanted to finish in the red numbers, which I couldn't do. But I was really trying to go under par. But it all didn't work out. I didn't make a lot of birdies today. I only made one, that's unusually kind of iffy for me."

It was her only round of the tournament without a double-bogey.

"I'm really glad about that," Wie said. "It could have been double-bogeys today, but I made it up. I didn't make any doubles, so I'm really happy."

Wie did take with her another learning experience.

"I learned how to hit more fairways," she said. "You can't hit stock shots all the time. You have to learn how to move the ball around, and sometimes you have to hit it low, sometimes hit it high."

And she'll have good memories of the large galleries that followed her during the tournament.

"The whole purpose of the USGA is to get more people into golf," she said. "And I think that it's great, those young people following, and they're awesome, and you hope they can play golf and have fun."

Creamer rolled in a 6-foot birdie putt at the final hole to shoot a 1-over-par 72 to tie Wie and professional Patricia Meunier-Lebouc, who earned $60,602.

The teens' finish fueled speculation that Creamer and Wie are bound to be rivals on tour someday.

"Sure, there is going to be some kind of rivalry, sometime, sooner or later, but we're really good friends," Wie said.

They were teammates on the winning U.S. Curtis Cup team.

"Off the golf course, we're very good friends, and I don't sense any kind of rivalry," said Creamer, who lost in a playoff to Cristie Kerr in an LPGA event two weeks ago. "But on the golf course, we want to beat each other."

Their 285 totals were two shots off the championship's record for scoring by an amateur. Grace Park's 283 set the mark at Old Waverly in 1999.

Sixteen teens teed it up this week at Orchards Golf Club with six making the cut.

Wie is scheduled to play in the LPGA Evian Masters in France, starting July 21.