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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Saturday, January 15, 2005

Wie will deservedly be back

 •  Wie's second round scorecard

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Babe Didrikson Zaharias can rest in peace. The no-girls-allowed crowd can heave a sigh of relief. And those who would say "I-told-you-so" about a 15-year old playing the PGA Tour can renew their chant ... at least for another year, anyway.

History — and making the cut in a PGA Tour event — eluded Michelle Wie for another year in the Sony Open in Hawai'i, where she struggled to a 4-over-par 74 round and two-day 149 that fell seven strokes short of her goal of making the cut.

That it was hardly the sequel to the remarkable 2004 PGA debut she, or the legions who followed her quest at Waialae Country Club, wanted was evident in the pained gasps that greeted her triple-bogey 7 on the sixth hole yesterday, and the way galleries subsequently thinned out.

The three-putt adventure scuttled her hopes for a "miracle" finish that would have threatened the late Didrikson Zaharias' 60-year old standing as the only female to make the cut in a PGA Tour event.

A disappointment? Surely, given the expectations and, indeed, the untethered hopes going in. But the two-day showing was no embarrassment, and certainly no reason for the high school sophomore to give up her assault on golfing convention despite the suddenly emboldened critics.

Wie should no more abandon her pursuit of golfing excellence on the highest levels than the 14 PGA Tour professionals she out-shot this week. Six former Hawaiian Open or Sony Open champions also missed the cut. You can bet they will be back. So, too, should Wie. Older and wiser to be sure.

Watching her attempt to choke back a tear on arrival at the seventh hole, and then come out ripping with her tee shot, you got the distinct impression this week's disappointment will further stoke her competitive fires, not douse them.

"I definitely want to play next year," Wie said. "I just want to have another chance at it because I know that I can do better than this."

Which is the way it should be, as long as it is her choice and passion. If anything, the disappointment of 2005 underlined just how remarkable a feat it was in '04 for her to shoot an even-par 140 that missed the cut by a stroke.

If '04 was an experience to encourage and inspire Wie, then this year's showing was one to take notes on and learn from for years to come.

This was a 36-hole lesson in patience and shot-making that Wie won't soon forget after she returns from what she promised would be some "retail therapy." As such, she figures to learn more from it than any junior tournament she might win.

Here, in unforgiving conditions, against the best players on the planet, and in front of the golf world, her deficiencies were exposed and lessons given urgency. Which isn't how it would have been if she was whipping up on a bunch of 14- and 15-year-olds.

But it would be a reach to play more PGA events beyond the hometown Sony until she posts some wins on the LPGA Tour, where she next picks up a club in a tour event, Feb. 24 to 26 in the SBS Open at Turtle Bay.

In the meantime, the Sony Open should have a place on her calendar for next year, when she could fulfill that date with history.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.