Wie needs a rest before French event

THE ISSUE Michelle Wie barely made the weekend cut in the LPGA Championship.

MICHELLE WIE has been adept at handling the frenzied attention from golf fans, but physical injury and public scrutiny have been her nemesis. The team of handlers she and her parents have been able to afford has stumbled in providing stern guidance needed by the 17-year-old golf phenomenon.

Wie is playing in the LPGA Championship in Maryland, having barely avoided missing the weekend cut in a women's tournament for the first time since she was 13 years old. It followed her withdrawal a week earlier from the Ginn Tribute, two bogeys away with two holes to go from recording a high score of 88 and facing a year-long expulsion from LPGA events.

"I'm going through a hard time," Wie said. "It's my first time facing an injury." Wie has been hampered by tendinitis in her right wrist for nearly a year. She fractured her left wrist in a fall while running in February.

Since her runner-up finish in last July's Evian Masters in France -- her sixth straight top-five finish on the women's tour -- Wie has finished last in two men's tournaments and had failed to break par in 11 consecutive LPGA rounds going into this weekend.

"My wrist has to get healing," she said. "I have to get strong, and I just have to play more." Practice rounds, perhaps, but professional tournaments should not be used as physical therapy. Her next scheduled event is the July 9-15 men's John Deere Classic in Illinois, which she exited on a stretcher a year ago. Instead, she needs recuperation to be ready for the Evian Masters in late July.