Sour 16 for Wie

MOUNT PLEASANT — The Nike 1 golf ball with the big 'X' drawn on the side bounded across Palmetto Isle Drive and bounced off a shiny silver Chevy Cobalt parked on the other side of the street.

Michelle Wie's tee shot on the third hole at RiverTowne Country Club then rolled back across the road — and straight down the drain.

It was an apt metaphor for the teen sensation's return to competitive golf, which ended prematurely Thursday in a bizarre scene at the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika.

Wie, playing tournament golf for the first time since January, was 14-over-par and in danger of being disqualified from LPGA-sanctioned events for the rest of the year when she withdrew from the tournament after playing 16 holes.

The 17-year-old's much anticipated return — she had not played since injuring her left wrist when she fell down while running in early February — turned into a disaster that included trips into the woods and chest-high cord grass, a triple-bogey six and a quintuple-bogey 10.

"It's all a blur," a stoic Michelle said when it was over. LPGA star Annika Sorenstam, host of the tournament, called the day's developments "a bummer."

"I'm sorry for her," said Annika, who herself is coming back from a neck injury. "I know what it's like to be injured. I guess mine healed better than hers."

Wie, who teed off on the 10th hole at 7:26 a.m., shot a 7-over 43 on the front nine and had just bogeyed the seventh hole — her 16th hole of the round— when she talked briefly with her manager, Greg Nared, and then told an LPGA official, "We're not going to play anymore."

She shook hands with her playing partners, Janice Moodie and Alena Sharp, boarded a cart and sped off, leaving her partners to play the final two holes, and a lot of questions in her wake.

Wie blamed the withdrawal on "issues with my wrist." She was nursing a sore right wrist when she missed the cut at the PGA Sony Open in January, then injured her left wrist in the running accident. She had both wrists taped on Thursday, and ice on her left wrist after the round.

"It felt good when I was practicing, but I kind of tweaked it in the middle of the round a little bit," she said. "So, just taking caution measures and I know what to work on. The only way to go from here is up, so I'm feeling pretty good about it."

But Wie had been on site at RiverTowne hitting balls for almost two weeks, and showed no sign of obvious distress during her round. Another factor could have been the LPGA's "88 rule," which disqualifies non-LPGA members from tournaments for a year if they shoot a round of 88 or higher during an LPGA event. Wie turned pro in October 2005, but is not a member of the LPGA Tour. She was playing in the Ginn Tribute on a sponsor's exemption.

At 14 over after 16 holes, Wie was in definite danger of shooting that 88. Her manager, Nared, spent most of her last two holes on his cell phone — and talking with Wie's father, B.J., who walked the course with his daughter — before the withdrawal decision was made.

"That's the farthest thing away from me thinking about," she said. "I don't think about shooting 88. That's not what I do. I try to play the best golf I can, and unfortunately I was not able to do that because I had issues with my wrist."

Her day had already begun to seriously unravel on the par-3, 194-yard 14th hole, where she shanked her tee shot right into the woods. She took an unplayable lie, went back to the tee to hit her third shot and pushed it right into a tree. After taking a free drop from the cart path, she pitched on and two-putted for a six, putting her 7 over.

At 16, she fanned another drive way right into tall clumps of cord grass, took another unplayable lie — she yelped "Ow!" as she made her way through the sharp-edged grass — and made another bogey.

The drain shot on the 473-yard, par-5 third hole finished her off. Wie hooked her provisional drive far left after the first shot disappeared down the sewer. She had to go back to the tee to play her fifth shot, needed two more shots to hit the green and 3-putted for a 10, putting her 12 over.

"It was actually quite funny," she said. "I was going to crawl down the drain and prove that it was in bounds, but I couldn't fit into the drain."

But Thursday's setback to her promising career, already beset by questions about her determination to play in men's events and to go to college at Stanford in the fall, is no laughing matter. Wie said she wants to play in the LPGA's second major of the year, the McDonald's LPGA Championship, next week near Baltimore. The U.S. Women's Open is later this month.

"The last thing I want to do is not play next week," she said. "I'm really excited to be back in the game and play in tournaments again. I'm going to re-analyze it and kind of try to be smart about it."