Michelle Wie is

disqualified for
not signing her

Round 2 card

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
You have to feel sorry for poor little rich kid, Michele Wie.
Here she was in the LPGA Tour's State Farm Classic turning the clock back a year or two to when she was the most exciting young female golfer in the world.
With rounds of 67 and 65 she was in contention in a big way.
Now comes the shock news she was disqualified retrospectively for failing to sign her second-round scorecard. This information did not become readily available until AFTER Michelle had played her THIRD round.
So what are the LPGA Tour officials playing at? I am too far away from the "scene of the crime" to give you a definitive answer to that one.
"I don't know why or how it happened," the 18-year-old Wie, who had obviously broken down in tears when told she had been disqualified, told reporters.
Wie would answer no further no questions before leaving the clubhouse at Panther Creek Country Club with her parents and drove away.
Sue Witters, the LPGA's director of tournament competitions, disqualified Wie in a small office in an LPGA trailer at the course after asking her what had happened.
"She was like a little kid after you tell them there's no Santa Claus," said Witters in a rather unkind, unfeeling and certainly unsympathetic description of Wie's grief.
Michelle obviously had a chance of the $255,000 winner's purse or the $155,252 second prize. That would have put her comfortably within the top 80 money winners for the year -- and virtually guaranteed her a place on the LPGA Tour next year.
She shot a solid 67 on Thursday, then a 65 on Friday that tied her with Tseng, the woman who rallied to beat Wie in the final of the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links in 2004.
Wie told reporters that after she finished her round Friday, she left the tent just above the ninth green where players sign their scorecards. She was chased after by volunteers working in the tent, who pointed out she hadn't signed.
Wie returned to the tent and signed the card, and "I thought it would be OK," she said.
But Wie, according to Witters, had already walked outside the roped-off area around the tent. At that point, the mistake was final, Witters said.
Witters said she and other Tour officials didn't learn about the mistake from volunteers until well after Wie teed off Saturday morning, so they let her finish the third round.
"Is it real?" Tseng asked reporters just after Wie's disqualification became known.
"She was one shot off the lead, she was going to help boost the ratings," said Christina Kim, who entered play Saturday as the leader before falling back to 12 under and a tie for seventh. "She was the player to beat this week."
LPGA veteran Betsy King, working as a TV analyst at the State Farm tournament, said that she personally always had her caddie stand over her as she turned in her scorecard, making sure nothing had been missed.
Tour officials weren't sure whether Wie's caddie accompanied her into the scoring tent.
Wie said she usually signs her scorecard immediately, and had no idea why she didn't Friday.
"Hopefully it won't happen again," she said.
Tour officials and other players, while sympathetic, said the signature rule is at the heart of golf's honour system.
"Bottom line, we are held accountable to maintaining our scorecards and making sure that we attest the scorecard," Kim said. "But it's such a shame."

Just as the R&A had an internal inquiry after the scorecard bungle which led to the Open disqualification of Mark Roe and Jesper Parnevik a few years back, the LPGA Tour should conduct their own behind-closed-doors investigation on this incident which does not reflect well on the tournament administration set-up..

The first thing the recorder should have done when Michelle Wie handed over her scorecard was to check for two signatures at the bottom of it, one by Michelle and one by the playing partner who marked her card.

LPGA Tour Scoreboard

STATE FARM CLASSIC

Panther Creek CC, Springfield, Illinois

Par 213 (3 x 71)

198 Ya-Ni Tseng (Kor) 66 66 66
200 Katie Futcher 70 64 66
201 Ji-Young Oh (Kor) 66 66 69, Hee-Won Han (Kor) 69 71 61
203 Stacy Prammanasudh 69 66 68, Na Yeon Choi (Kor) 67 67 69
204 Wendy Doolan (Aus) 67 68 69, Kyeong Eun Bae (Kor) 68 67 69, Christina Kim 63 68 73
205 Jee Young Lee (Kor) 65 70 70, Sherri Turner 66 66 73, Sun Young Yoo (Kor) 64 69 72, Beth Bader 70 66 69
206 Jane Park 70 66 70, Jin Joo Hong (Kor) 69 68 69, Anna Grzebien 69 70 67, Kristy McPherson 65 71 70, Charlotte Mayorkas 70 67 69, Kris Tamulis 67 69 70, Jimin Kang (Kor) 67 70 69, Carri Wood 70 66 70, Alena Sharp (Can) 68 70 68, Erica Blasberg 70 66 70, Hee Young Park (Kor) 72 66 68
207 Heather Young 70 69 68, Ai Miyazato (Jpn) 67 72 68, Mikaela Parmlid (Swe) 73 66 68, Becky Morgan (Wal) 70 69 68, Eva Dahllof (Swe) 68 67 72, Meredith Duncan 69 72 66
208 Lisa Strom 68 71 69, Wendy Ward 73 66 69, Sandra Gal (Ger) 69 68 71
209 Jill McGill 68 70 71, Angela Park 72 68 69, Diana D'Alessio 69 70 70, Kim Hall 69 69 71, Seo-Jae Lee 70 68 71, Marisa Baena 67 69 73, Sarah Kemp (Aus) 70 71 68, Shanshan Feng (Chn) 70 70 69
210 Young-A Yang (Kor) 68 69 73, Il Mi Chung (Kor) 73 68 69, Paige Mackenzie 74 67 69, Moira Dunn 71 68 71, Karine Icher (Fra) 69 71 70, Marcy Hart 68 71 71
211 Gloria Park (Kor) 69 68 74, Michele Redman 71 69 71, Dina Ammaccapane 72 68 71, Hye Jung Choi (Kor) 70 68 73, Katherine Hull (Aus) 68 70 73
212 Sarah Lynn Sargent 69 72 71, Hannah Jun 71 70 71, Michelle Ellis 73 66 73, Soo-Yun Kang (Kor) 72 69 71, Tracy Hanson 70 68 74, Angela Stanford 70 68 74, Russamee Gulyanamitta (Tha) 69 69 74
213 Candy Hannemann 71 70 72, Virada Nirapathpongporn (Tha) 74 66 73, Anja Monke (Ger) 66 71 76, Audra Burks 66 73 74, Brittany Lang 71 70 72, Ashli Bunch 68 72 73, Lorie Kane (Kor) 72 68 73
214 Jennifer Rosales (Phi) 68 73 73, Anna Rawson (Aus) 70 71 73, Chris Brady 70 71 73
215 Na On Min (Jpn) 74 67 74, Na Ri Kim (Kor) 74 66 75, Birdie Kim (Kor) 70 69 76
216 Leta Lindley 72 69 75
NOTE: Michelle Wie disqualified