Wie moves up to second spot in world

Her performance at the Fields Open pushes her past Paula Creamer in the Rolex Rankings

Michelle Wie moved up a spot yesterday to No. 2 in the world in the second week of the LPGA Tour's Rolex Rankings, which is sure to cause more debate among the full-time members.

Last week, several players, including No. 5 Cristie Kerr, questioned the validity of a ranking that would have the 16-year-old Wie rated No. 3 without ever having won an LPGA event.

"I think there are still some things they need to work out in the formula," Kerr said. "It's new, so you have to figure there will be some tweaking involved to make sure it's a valid ranking."

Annika Sorenstam is still No. 1 by a wide margin. In 40 events over the last two years, she has scored 742.67 points for an average of 18.57 an event. By comparison, Wie has scored 160.49 points in only 16 events for an average of 10.03. But because the formula is weighted more toward the majors, Wie's solid finishes in those four events helped propel her up the list. Since 2004, Wie has managed seven top-10 finishes, including three in the majors.

Wie's third-place finish at last week's $1.1 million Fields Open in Hawaii allowed her to slip past Paula Creamer into second. Creamer finished in a tie for 11th and has scored 339.80 points in 36 events to average 9.44.

LPGA Tour officials were fairly sure last Saturday that Wie would pass Creamer. The minimum number of events a player had to compete in and still qualify was 15 over two years. Coincidentally, that's the number of events Wie had played in during the ratings period.