ASSOCIATED PRESS Hawaii's Michelle Wie missed a putt on No. 8 during yesterday's second round of the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Ill. Wie missed the cut by two strokes but finished ahead of 52 golfers.

Wie, Wie, Wie
... all the way home

The golf phenom unravels and fails
to make the cut at a PGA event

SILVIS, Ill. » Michelle Wie spoke for them all as soon as she saw her tee shot at No. 7 heading in the wrong direction.

"Oh, darn!"

She already had captured the crowd and, until a few minutes prior to a double bogey at No. 6, the secret of making it to the weekend of a PGA Tour event.

But she couldn't hold on. The hearts of more than 10,000 fans following the golf phenom from Honolulu sank along with Wie's as her late-round lapses knocked her out of making sports history at the John Deere Classic.

Once again, the cut sliced right through Wie.

This time, she missed it by two strokes, shooting 1-under 141 for the tournament. The cut was 3-under 139.

Two bad holes on her back nine, Nos. 6 and 7 (she began at No. 10), sent Wie packing early for Lebanon, Ohio, and the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championships. She will be playing men again, just not PGA Tour pros like the ones she competed against here in the Quad Cities.

She was trying to become the first woman since Babe Didrickson Zaharias in 1945 at the Tucson Open to make the cut in a men's event. Wie, a 15-year-old Punahou student, also would have been the youngest player to make it to the weekend since Bob Panasik in the 1957 Canadian Open; he was seven days younger than Wie is now.

She was obviously unhappy with the outcome but managed to keep her smile afterward.

"I'm more disappointed in the fact that I was shooting so well and then the two holes just kind of screwed me over," she said.

"I played great on the front nine, but it's the last six that matter," Wie said.

Prior to the double bogey on the par-4 sixth -- her 15th hole of the day -- Wie had made only one bogey in 24 holes.

Her problems on the 367-yard hole began with a 3-wood tee shot that landed in a bunker guarding the left side of the fairway. Her second shot found sand again, this time in a greenside bunker.

After blasting out, she was left with a 20-foot putt for par. She went after it hard and watched as the ball slid five feet past the hole. She missed that one as well and had to settle for a three-putt double bogey.

She said the bad tee shot on the next hole that led to a bogey-5 was not a hangover shot.

"I felt comfortable. ... It was just a bad swing," she said.

Still, she managed to finish ahead of 52 men, who are among the best golfers in the world, and tie for 88th place.

"I finished under par; I guess that counts for something," she said.

Wie, who placed second at the LPGA Championships and 23rd at the U.S. Women's Open last month, had an outside chance going into the 17th hole, but her 14-foot birdie putt barely missed. She would have needed at least another birdie on her last hole to make the cut.

This was Wie's third PGA Tour event. She also played in the 2004 and 2005 Sony Open in Hawaii but did not make the cut either time. She shot a 68 in her second round at Waialae in 2004 but still missed the cut by one.

Playing the back nine first in yesterday's second round, Wie birdied holes No. 10, 12, 14 and 18. She bogeyed 15 and made the turn at 4-under overall. On 12 she chipped in from the rough 45 feet away from the pin.

Her most audacious move (that worked) was an approach shot straight at the dangerously placed pin on No. 18 (her ninth hole). Just a slight error could have put the ball in the adjacent water.

The risk was rewarded with a birdie -- her last of the tournament -- and the loudest cheers on a day of loud cheers.

"I thought I was going deaf, it was so loud," Wie said. "After I hit it, my caddie scared me. Jimmy (Johnson) was like, 'Go, go.' I thought it was in the water because he was telling it to go, but it was perfect so it was good."

And after a 6-inch tap-in, Wie made the turn at 4 under. She then parred the next five on the front nine and appeared to be in control. And she was, until No. 6, one of four holes on the front nine she had bogeyed the day before.

"Just two holes kind of went like that. It was pretty killer," she said. "But it was still fun. ... Hopefully I can come back."