Wie can play, but
can she turn corner?

George: Kramer, what the hell are you talking about?

SO what's next for Team Wie? It would seem at first glance, at first guess, that it's stay the course. Michelle Wie will probably continue to cherry-pick choice events, continue to launch long drives, continue to do that voodoo that she do.

This, despite the fact that this latest Sony Open in Hawaii showed that she can certainly play with PGA Tour pros -- but isn't as far along as we all once thought.

But, really, what else should she do? Play the junior circuit? It's been made perfectly clear she has less than little desire to do that.

Concentrate on a future career in the LPGA? The ladies league might eventually pay the bills, but that doesn't seem to be what she wants to be known for either.

No, the Tour, the big boys, the guys. The men. That's where she wants to make her cannonball of a splash. But it seems she isn't ready to do that. Not today. Not yet.

We were fooled, a year ago. She was, too. Two 50-plus-foot putts dropping will do that.

"I think last year everything went too easily," Wie said last week after her final round at the Sony Open. "Everything went as planned, especially the second day, when I made every single putt that came to me."

Making the cut? Top 20?

"You know, missing the cut by one last year, I thought I made it so close, I kind of took it for granted that I was going to play better," she said.

Can't blame her. We all felt the same way. Last year's magic inflated everyone's expectations.

But she was exposed this time. And I don't mean that in a bad way or a vindictive way or a mean, told-you-so way (especially since I hadn't told you anything of the sort). I mean we're getting a truer picture this time. And that's a good thing.

And I like what I saw, and I think she did, too.

This year's Sony Open may have been two steps back, but it's a step forward, too. She learned something. About golf. About herself. About this life she's chosen.

I didn't know she would learn anything, in these celebrity entrant events. That was always the criticism about these sponsor's exemptions, that she wouldn't learn anything this way, that she wouldn't develop this way.

But I like the way she responded. I like the way she fought. I liked the way she liked fighting. She's more than talent. That's the best part.

But what now? Well, she's not ready for the big-big-time. We know that now. Maybe even she knows that now.

The question: Does it matter? Does that change anything? What does she do now? Anything different?

Probably not. So maybe she's in limbo now. Kind of an awkward phase now. Not ready for her history-changing arrival to transform the face of golf -- and who knows what that means or if it will happen to the extent some people expect -- too far ahead of the field to know what else to do.

(And that's another thing. Tiger Woods hasn't changed the world. Tiger Woods became a great golfer and he married a Swedish nanny/bikini model, which is a wonderful thing, but it hasn't done much for world peace. So shooting for a similar impact ... well, what is the goal, exactly?)

So how many years as a 'tweener teen? How much time before all her dreams come true?

What does she do in the meantime? What now?

"I just have to work a little bit harder and get my game a little better," she said last week, after missing the cut.

Sounds like more of the same. I don't know what that means. I don't know if it really matters what she does now. She'll be a millionaire eventually, either way. Until then it just takes time.

Maybe in these middle years she really is just having fun and being a kid after all.

There are no answers with a prodigy. That's why her mom and dad are constantly being second-guessed. She'll do what she does. Hopefully we all enjoy it along the way.