• Wie DQ’d
• Michelin Championship
Wie DQ’d
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PALM DESERT, Calif. — Michelle Wie’s pro debut made her look like an amateur Sunday when she was disqualified for taking a bad drop from the bushes in the third round of the Samsung World Championship.
Talk about a rude welcome to the professional world.
First, Annika Sorenstam blew away the field to win by eight shots, even with a double bogey on the last hole.
Then, the 16-year-old Wie no sooner had signed for a 74 to finish fourth — $53,126 — that LPGA Tour officials took her out to the seventh hole to discuss a drop she took the day before.
Nearly two hours later, she was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. Because Wie dropped the ball closer to the hole — by 3 inches according to her, by about a foot according to the rules officials — she should have added two strokes to her third-round 71.
Wie hit a 5-wood into a Gold Lantana bush Saturday and was barely able to find it. She told her playing partner, Grace Park, she was taking an unplayable lie, dropped away from the bush, then chipped to 15 feet and made the par. It was a critical par save, and Wie steadied herself to get within five shots of the lead.
Michael Bamberger, a reporter for Sports Illustrated, told tour officials Sunday afternoon that he was concerned about the drop. Rules officials Jim Haley and Robert O. Smith reviewed tape from NBC Sports before taking Wie and caddie Greg Johnston to the seventh green after the tournament ended Sunday.
Lost amid the hype of Wie’s pro debut, Sorenstam showed her star quality at Bighorn by closing with a 3-under 69 on a rainy afternoon in the desert to win by eight shots.
It was the third time this year, and ninth time in her Hall of Fame career, that Sorenstam has won by at least eight.
Sorenstam, who finished at 18-under 270, won for the eighth time this season and earned $212,500 to go over $2 million for the fifth consecutive season and clinch the money title.
Michelin Championship
LAS VEGAS — Wes Short Jr. hit his bunker shot within a foot of the pin, then tapped in for a par on the second hole of a playoff with Jim Furyk to win the Michelin Championship for his first PGA Tour title.
Short, who joined the tour last year as a 40-year-old rookie, raised both arms and beamed after the ball dropped into the cup. He forced the playoff by rolling in a 9-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation.
Short closed with a 6-under 66 and Furyk had a 65 for 21-under 266 totals for three rounds at the TPC at Summerlin and one on the TPC at The Canyons.
