It's not so easy being the big 'Wiesy'

Michelle Wie seems intent on proving it’s not easy being a teenager.

The latest chapter of teen angst came Thursday when the 17-year- old Wie suddenly withdrew late in her first round in the Ginn Tribute at RiverTowne Country Club in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

The official reason for her withdrawal after 16 holes was that she “tweaked” the wrist injury that sidelined her from competition since January when she missed the cut in the PGA Tour’s Sony Open by 14 strokes.

She had certainly played as if something were wrong, making a triple-bogey on a par-3 and a quintuple bogey 10 on an easy par-5 where her first tee shot literally went down a storm drain on a neighborhood street.

Wie’s game is obviously not as sharp as it once was – she hasn’t broken par in a women’s event since last summer – but it’s not as bad as what was on display Thursday morning.

Walking eight holes with Wie, I saw her hit one spectacular shot – an approach shot to within a foot of the hole at the 18th.

Otherwise, she continually lost tee shots to the right (except for a wickedly ugly hooked second tee shot at the disastrous par-5 third where she made 10), was usually shorter off the tee than her playing partners and rarely hit a shot that sounded crisp.

That’s not the Michelle Wie who has six top-five finishes in major championships.

It was so bad that Wie was flirting with losing her privileges on the LPGA Tour this year. Because Wie is not an official tour member, she would have been disqualified from further competition this year had she posted a score of 88 or higher Thursday.

When she withdrew Thursday, she was 14-over par with two watery holes to play. Two pars would get her in at 86. In other words, there was little margin for error.

Wie seemed surprised when her manager, Greg Nared, stopped her as she walked to the eighth tee (her 17th) Thursday. She seemed intent on finishing her round, but Nared and Wie’s parents had been talking for a couple of holes and Nared had been on the phone with LPGA officials.

They knew the 88-stroke rule was in play and there’s no way Wie could post a number that would essentially gut her season before it started. She would have been able to play in the U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles and the Women’s British Open because she had qualified for those events run by different organizations.

Otherwise, her remaining LPGA starts this year would have been zapped. Wie isn’t making multi-millions from Nike and Sony and others to sit at home. If you were managing Wie’s career, you’d have made the same decision allowing for the fact she hadn’t played in almost four months while letting her wrists heal.

There was more at stake than one tournament. Michelle Wie is a business and a brand as much as she’s a golfer.

It has not been easy for Wie. Though players publicly say they like her playing in LPGA events because of the attention she brings, tour insiders will tell you there’s an undercurrent of animosity among some players toward her.

Wie has chosen a unique path, testing herself in men’s events while playing only a few women’s events (she’s limited to seven per year on the LPGA Tour until she becomes a member). She is winless in 34 starts in women’s events and has never made the cut in a PGA Tour or European Tour men’s event.

She has had rules violations in competition and one of her playing partners, Janice Moody, questioned during Thursday’s round whether Wie’s father, B.J., had offered her advice after she hit a ball into trouble on her first nine holes.

She said swing coach David Leadbetter was “misquoted” last month when he said Wie would not continue playing against the men. Leadbetter was not misquoted – he said so this week - and was just kept out of the loop on Wie’s plans and, therefore, made to look foolish.

Wie left the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic on a stretcher last summer after the heat wore her down and the public fascination of her efforts against the men has begun to dull.

Now she pulls out of Annika Sorenstam’s tournament citing injury but says she expects to play the LPGA Championship next week, knowing what she needs to work on in her swing.

It all looked so easy a year or two ago.

But now, it’s not so easy being the big Wiesy.

Ron Green Jr.