TEEING OFF

Five things to look for on the professional golf scene: 1EDINA, Minn. -- It may be hard to believe, but Michelle Wie is still only 18 and this is already her sixth U.S. Open. She got here the hard way.

After a year full of injury, disappointment and critical examination, Wie qualified for the Open at Interlachen and hopes for the best.

Wie said she has had an earful of advice about how to turn her career around.

“I guess the best was just keep smiling,” she said. “As easy as it sounds, it was really hard to do.

“I smile through practice, smile through the hard times. . . . Everything has its own path, everything works out on its plan.”

Initially, the plan for Wie was for her to spin her fame into instant success on the pro circuit, but once she hurt her wrist while jogging, last year became a total washout.

But she’s back on the radar after a sixth-place finish in the German Open on the European Tour. In three LPGA events, she tied for 72nd at the Fields Open, missed the cut at Kingsmill and tied for 24th at the Wegmans LPGA.

David Leadbetter, who worked with Wie here this week, said she’s someone to keep an eye on again, maybe even soon.

“She will prove everybody wrong,” Leadbetter said.

Wie said she’s fully recovered from her wrist injury. She said she enjoyed her freshman year at Stanford, she’s going back to school in September and she’s having fun on the course again.

2. Yani Tseng, 19, from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., turned professional last year and has already won a major -- the McDonald’s LPGA Championship three weeks ago. If she sounds a bit familiar, Wie knows why. Tseng beat Wie to win the 2004 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship.

Tseng was at Torrey Pines, watched the U.S. Open as a spectator and was particularly taken with Adam Scott, with whom she struck up a conversation, although not easily.

“He was a great-looking guy,” she said. “And when I saw him, I almost passed out. I was so nervous. It was like ‘Hello, I’m . . . ‘ I can’t. I couldn’t speak.”

3. It was nothing but good news for Tiger Woods after his knee surgery Tuesday in Park City, Utah. No one is willing to go on record with speculation about when he could return to the PGA Tour.

But we do have a clue about how Woods prepared himself for the surgery. He was at the Bank nightclub at Bellagio in Las Vegas for a little celebration with some friends Sunday night, according to MSNBC, which also reported the Woods party was drinking Dom Perignon Rose.

A bottle from the 1996 vintage will run about $455.

4. Be ready. If there is going to be a free fall in the television ratings for PGA Tour events, this looks to be the weekend for CBS.

The first tournament MT (Minus Tiger) is the Buick Open at Warwick Hills in Grand Blanc, Mich., where CBS will be firing up the cameras and Woods won’t be in any of the pictures.

This doesn’t look good: No one ranked in the top 10 is there. The top-ranked player is No. 12 Jim Furyk, the 2003 champion.

5. If anyone needs a sympathetic pat on the back right about now, it has to be U.S. Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger. He influenced the PGA of America to change the rules to try to ensure that the hottest players made the team and increased the captain’s picks from two to four. He even gets to choose them at a later date.

It’s hard to say if any of those factors are going to matter, with Woods out.

Consecutive 18 1/2 -9 1/2 blowouts, the worst U.S. defeats in Ryder Cup history, may look more like fairly close outcomes in September.

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A SLICE OF LIFE

Lorena Ochoa, on whether Tiger Woods’ prolonged absence

will attract more fans to the LPGA Tour:

‘I think it’s a good opportunity. . . . There are still people out there that don’t believe we have the game. . . . I think with Tiger [out], sometimes the ratings go down, and hopefully they will turn to us.’

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STAT OF THE WEEK

When Gary Player, 72, above, shot his age in Saturday’s second round of the Bank of America Championship, it was the 21st time he had accomplished that feat on the Champions Tour.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com