Pro teen shakes

Her earrings the size of Christmas ornaments, Michelle Wie walked off the driving range Tuesday afternoon at Bighorn Golf Club and said she had already received her present. Her wrists are healthy again.

“It’s time for a new beginning and I’m really looking forward to it,” she said.

“I’m a lot better, I feel like I’m getting stronger, and I feel healthy as a person too. Going to college and having fun.”

But first, it’s back out to the golf course, where it has been anything but fun for Wie this year.

The $1-million Samsung World Championship begins Thursday in Palm Desert, and Wie is part of an exclusive 20-player field, with invitations awarded according to status on the LPGA money list. But you won’t find Wie’s name in that group, not with a total of $9,898 earned in seven tournaments this year, with three missed cuts, two withdrawals and an average score of 76.7.

Wie was given a special sponsor’s exemption, which is nothing unusual. Wie has always been seen as something special since she was 13.

That was in 2003 when she won the USGA Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship and even tied for ninth at a major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, where she had a chance to win on the last day.

It seems so long ago that Wie astonished the gallery at Mission Hills with her game of power and precision, cutting the edge of doglegs by booming irons over tree lines, and rolling in putts with a deft touch that belied her years.

The question then was, how long would it take Wie to dominate the game?

Wie turns 18 Thursday, and the question now is this:

Is Michelle Wie washed up?

She did nothing to prove otherwise in an awful, forgettable year. Beset by injuries to her wrists, dreadful play, questionable strategy, bad feelings and worse public relations, Wie’s golf output and goodwill quotient sunk to an all-time low.

David Leadbetter, Wie’s coach, said it was far too early in the game to rule her out.

“Michelle has a little different agenda, it would seem,” he said. “Stanford, however and whenever she gets her degree, a part-time student and part-time golfer. Time will tell whether that’s a success route or not.”

Leadbetter says Wie has been seeing Gray Cook, a Roanoke, Va., specialist in physical therapy and physical rehabilitation and is showing improvement.

The story may be far different on the golf course, and Gary Gilchrist doesn’t see many gains. Gilchrist worked for Leadbetter, coached Wie for two years and can’t understand why she is playing this week.

“To me, that’s unplayable,” he said. “She hasn’t made a cut except one or two the whole year? It should be on merit and performance. I don’t think her team is doing her a favor since she’s already started at Stanford and her mind is not on the game.”

Wie’s level of play has fallen off the map, Gilchrist said, and blamed Wie’s so-called “team” of parents, advisors and business interests for an unrealistic schedule considering her injuries, in addition to the public relations nightmare at the Ginn Tribute in May.

In that incident, Wie was 14 over par after 16 holes and on her way to an 88, a score that would have disqualified her from playing any more LPGA events in 2007. She withdrew, citing her wrist injury. Two days later, she was practicing at the site of the upcoming LPGA Championship, angering Ginn host Annika Sorenstam, who said, “There’s a little bit of lack of respect and class.”

Wie has said she makes her own decisions.

“If she is, they haven’t been great,” Gilchrist said. “She has a team -- mom and dad, Leadbetter, [manager] Greg Nared, the William Morris Agency -- they’ve made many boo-boos this year. I’m sure they want the best for her and very much care for her, but in my opinion they need to give her some space. They need to listen to somebody.

“The team has been under a lot of scrutiny, but it’s self-inflicted. How hard is it to be nice? How hard is it to do the right thing? I don’t understand the logic. All she had to do was face Annika, sit down and apologize.

“This whole year has hurt her image and hurt their credibility. It’s so sad because she has so much to offer. And her play. This has been going on now for eight months. She cannot find the golf course. I’ve never seen her hit the ball that far off-line in my whole life. She had that beautiful, flowing swing, and now it’s this jerky action that I can’t believe.”

Wie said at the time of the Ginn incident that she saw no need to apologize to Sorenstam, but she softened her stand a bit Tuesday.

“I still don’t feel like I did something wrong, but if Annika felt like I disrespected her, I do apologize for that,” she said.

Wie hasn’t played an LPGA event since late August, when she shot 10 over par and missed the cut at the Safeway Classic. Although such performances aren’t why Nike and her other sponsors pay Wie $12.5 million a year in endorsements, Nike isn’t getting cold feet about its investment.

“When we signed Michelle, we said it was all about potential with her,” said Nike Golf President Bob Wood. “It still is. Nothing has transpired this year that diminishes her. Obviously she hasn’t had the game we hoped she would have, but everybody doesn’t have a great year every year. We haven’t lost faith.”

Wood said Nike Golf exerted no influence on Wie to play more this year.

Wie said if she had it to do over again, she would have sat out the entire year because of her wrist injuries.

“I don’t blame anyone, I don’t blame myself, I don’t blame my golf game; the only thing I did wrong was that I did not take my injury as seriously as I should have,” she said. “I should have just not played. It’s as simple as that.”

Meanwhile, Wie is branching out again. She entered Stanford last month as a freshman, although she does not play on the golf team. After some negotiations between members of the Stanford athletic department and Wie’s parents, B.J. and Bo, Wie is allowed to practice in an area of the driving range reserved for the varsity but only when team members are not present.

Carolyn Bivens, the LPGA commissioner, said that Wie would be entirely welcome on the tour, if that’s the decision she eventually makes.

“Michelle has had a tough year and I know she wants to go to school,” Bivens said. “I’m a huge believer that there are a lot of different ways to get to one’s dream.”

Wie said she considered the LPGA sectional qualifying last month at Mission Hills but decided against it because it was the first week of school at Stanford.

Bivens wouldn’t speculate on Wie’s future.

“I don’t have a crystal ball,” she said. “Has the media put too much on her in terms of expectations? The answer is yes. But if Michelle were never to play another day of professional golf, she’s had a pretty rewarding career for someone who came on so young when she was 11 and 12 to 17.

“No, she didn’t win four or five Opens, but that doesn’t necessarily portend anything for the future.”

Actually, Wie has won one significant tournament in her life -- the women’s Public Links four years ago. But she showed flashes of brilliance in 2005 and 2006, although not in men’s pro events, where Wie routinely still misses cuts by wide margins.

Wie has made one cut in 13 men’s professional events -- the 2006 SK Telecom Open on the Asian Tour. She tied for 35th.

Tiger Woods said Wie hasn’t really learned how to win.

“Well, I think that she’s basically won one golf tournament,” he said. “I think that a lot of us who have played in golf at an early age have played high school golf, have played AJGA, amateur golf, collegiate golf, then turned pro. She basically skipped a lot of that.

“I think there’s an art form to winning. You have to learn how to do it. It takes experience after experience after experience after experience to learn how to do it. She really hasn’t gotten that.”

Hall of Fame member Amy Alcott was a prodigy too, and she says Wie has the talent to accomplish her goals, whatever they may be.

“If she needs college, it’s college. If she wants to play golf, it’s golf. But she’s got to want to do it for herself. Her parents can’t tell her and her sponsors can’t tell her.”

One thing that both Leadbetter and Gilchrist agree on is that someone needs to tell Wie to stop playing the men’s pro events. They say Wie’s parents must step in -- and then step away.

“Michelle’s world is very disruptive,” said Gilchrist, who coached Wie in 2003 and 2004. “There’s no continuity there. The only thing that’s consistent is mom and dad. Since she was nine years old, she has never hit a golf ball without mom and dad watching. At a certain point, stay in the clubhouse, let her play a round on her own.”

B.J. Wie, who is working as Michelle’s caddie this week, did not want to comment.

Leadbetter said Wie seemed to start playing a little better in the British Open at St. Andrews, where she shot 73-80 and missed the cut.

Nared said that an invitation to play the men’s pro Casio World Open on the Japan Tour in November is not currently in her plans, but Wie said she was still considering playing. Given the way the year has gone and with Wie’s injuries, Leadbetter said playing in any other men’s events soon is not a good idea.

“Right now, it would be foolhardy,” Leadbetter said.

“She didn’t handle the wrist injuries, which affected her physically, and mentally it gets to the point where you don’t even feel that you could compete. That’s what happened. She’s playing to about 50% of her capabilities.

“Physically she’s a lot better and now it’s enabled me to do my job a little better. Remember, Ernie Els came back too soon from his knee injury and it takes a while to get that feel back. She’s young enough, it won’t have any real lasting scars.

“But it doesn’t take long to lose that strong belief system.”

Meanwhile, Gilchrist waits and hopes for a turnaround, because like many who have worked with Wie, they’re ultimately fans.

“I believe in her dream,” he said. “I said before she’s 22 she’ll be playing on the PGA Tour, having her card. Now, it’s tough. She’s handling studies and a social life at Stanford; where’s the room for golf?

“For women’s golf, she could be such a plus, but after what’s happened this year, it’s going to take a while before that ever happens.”

thomas.bonk@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Wie’s results

Michelle Wie turned pro at 15 on Oct. 5, 2005, and has yet to win an LPGA tournament. A look at how she has fared as a professional.

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2005

Samsung World Championship (LPGA)

70-65, Disqualified

Casio World Open (Japan PGA)

73-75 -- 148, Missed cut

2006

Sony Open (PGA Tour)

79-68 -- 147, Missed cut

Fields Open in Hawaii (LPGA)

67-70-66 -- 203, Third, $73,227

Kraft Nabisco Championship (LPGA)

66-71-73-70 -- 280, Tie third, $108,222

SK Telecom Open (Men’s Asian Tour)

70-69-74 -- 213, Tie 35th, $4,303

U.S. Open Local Qualifier (Men)

35-37 -- 72, Medalist

U.S. Open Sectional Qualifier (Men)

68-75 -- 153, Missed cut

McDonald’s LPGA Championship

71-68-71-72 -- 282, Tie fifth, $57,464

U.S. Women’s Open

70-72-71-73 -- 286, Tie third, $156,038

HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship

Lost in quarterfinals $50,000

John Deere Classic (PGA)

77, WD

Evian Ladies Masters

69-66-70-68 -- 273, Tie second, $255,333

Weetabix Women’s British Open

74-74-72-74 -- 294, Tie 26th, $18,059

Omega European Masters (Men)

78-79 -- 157, Missed cut

84 Lumber Classic (PGA Tour)

77-81 -- 158, Missed cut

Samsung World Championship (LPGA)

74-72-72-75 -- 293, 17th, $12,578

Casio World Open (Japan PGA)

81-80 -- 161, Missed cut

2007

Sony Open (PGA Tour)

78-76 -- 144, Missed cut

Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika (LPGA)

Withdrew, injury

McDonald’s LPGA Championship

73-74-83-79 -- 309, 84th, $3,273

U.S. Women’s Open (LPGA)

82, Withdrew

Evian Masters (LPGA)

73-71-84-76 -- 304, T69, $6,626

Ricoh Women’s British Open

73-80 -- 153, Missed cut

CN Canadian Women’s Open

75-74 -- 149, Missed cut

Safeway Classic (LPGA)

79-75 -- 154, Missed cut

Los Angeles Times *--*