Photo: © Scott Halleran/Getty Images Michelle Wie chats with her manager Greg Nared during the first round of the Ginn Tribute.

Of course nobody will ever know what was said in that conversation but I can relate to something similar that happened to me at the 2005 Masters (sidebar on the right column called, "Casper doesn't turn in card at 2005 Masters"). What happened after the conversation was that Wie withdrew, saying that she aggravated her wrist that had sidelined her for the last four months. So, plainly and simply Wie, within her right, withdrew from the tournament on the account of being injured.

But there is another side of this that has to be explored and that is the ramifications if Wie had finished her round. You see there is a rule on the LPGA that if a non-tour player (which Wie is) shoots 88 or higher, that player will be banned from all LPGA sponsored events for the rest of the year. So in Wie's case that means that she would only get to play in two women's events for the rest of the year, the U.S. Women's Open and the Women's British Open because those events are co-sponsored. Something like that in Wie's case could potentially cost her millions of dollars in endorsement deals and would have given her no place to play in 2007.

So the big question is, did Wie really have an injuried wrist or was she possibly told by Nared that she needed to withdraw? That is the whole integrity issue on this, was she really hurt or was she just doing what a manager told her to do. No matter what the truth is we have to ask these questions about what happened. Again for the evidence we have to go to a piece that Eric Adelson wrote for ESPN. It's a very finely crafted account of what happened and what Wie's playing partners were doing and thinking during the round. As for the questions:

• First of all, if Wie tweaked her arm why didn't she show some pain or ask for some help during the round? At the Memorial, the same thing happened to Phil Mickelson on the second hole and he not only told his playing partners but had medical assistance with a rubdown after the ninth hole. No two ways about it, everyone that saw him play knew he was experiencing some pain.
  In the Eric Adelson piece: Wie did not shake her wrist or show any sign of discomfort during the round. Last season, she grabbed her wrist on several occasions, even during news conferences. He then had this from one of her playing partners, Alena Sharp:
  "She wasn't holding her wrist," Sharp said. "I think she just had a bad day. If it was her wrist, why wait until the last two holes [to withdraw]?"

Photo: © Scott Halleran/Getty Images B.J. Wie and Bo Wie watch their daughter Michelle Wie during the first round of the Ginn Tribute.

Another thing that came up during the round was the fact that her father, B.J., may have broken Rule 8-1 during the round, which forbids a player from soliciting advice. Again we go back to the Adelson piece for this:
She pushed her drive into the trees on the par-3 15th (her 6th hole of the day) then searched for her ball. Her mother, father, caddie, and a family friend helped look for it before she declared an unplayable lie. Then Wie's father, B.J., said something to her caddie. More than one reporter present heard him say, "What about the tee?" Within seconds, Michelle decided to go back to the tee to hit again. Right after that her other playing partner Janice Moodie cautioned B.J. about Rule 8-1. Now through another source that I spoke to that was following the match, he told me that Moodie said that she would take this up with rules officials after the round.

The infraction for the penalty is two strokes Now we go back to the Adelson piece in which he says:
B.J. approached rules official Angus McKenzie and spoke with him for several minutes while his daughter moved to the next hole. McKenzie said later that B.J. had an explanation for the interaction, saying he was only asking the caddie, "What are the options?"
But then again, we have to see what either Moodie or Sharp heard and if Moodie was going to bring this up with rules officials after the round. If this was ruled against Wie, then two shots would have been added to the score which would have placed Wie at the 88 mark, presuming that she parred her last two holes.

Now we have another piece of the puzzle, again in the Adelson piece Chris Higgs, the LPGA chief operations officer, soon drove up in a cart and spoke with Nared. Higgs had been talking about the Rule of 88 in the media tent, but he said he came out to Wie's rope line for "no particular reason."
So now you have Nared, who knew about the possible penalty if Moodie would have brought it up with rules officials, plus the rule of 88, plus the fact that Wie had two holes to play. Isn't it funny that after Nared spoke to Wie before her 17th hole she all of a sudden out of the blue decided to "hang it up"?

Now if that isn't bad enough, we have some other things that were said and done afterwards. In an interview with Golf Channel's Kay Cockrill, Wie said that she was going to ice down both of her wrists and practice in the morning, then try to play next week in the McDonald's LPGA Championship. If the wrist was bad enough for her not to complete just two holes, wouldn't you think that she would have searched for some kind of medical opinion to see if her wrist, that was injured for the last four months, wasn't reinjured? If that was my child I would have rushed her to some doctor before I would let her play again.

Photo: © Scott Halleran/Getty Images Michelle Wie during her round on Thursday.

So there you have it and you can see how I question all of this and just wonder if Bobby Jones is rolling in his grave right now. The problem I have with all of this is how much Wie was influenced by outside agencies, like her father getting involved on the 15th hole. Yes, we will give him the benefit of doubt but in my humble opinion he shouldn't be allowed to be part of the process while she is playing golf. I also wonder what kind of influence that manager Greg Nared had in this and what was said on the tee before Wie announced her withdrawal.

Of course I have to question anything to do with the Wie family, period. In a way they have guided their daughter into being the highest paid exhibition golfer of all time. Walter Hagen, the showman himself who made a ton of money in exhibitions 80 years ago, would also roll in his grave at what Wie has made with such a poor record. Yes Wie won the 2003 Women's Amateur Public Links Championship and in 34 LPGA starts finished second four times but again she gets a reported $10 million a year from Nike and Sony. She is the highest paid women golfer, making $3 million dollars more than Annika Sorenstam, who has 69 more LPGA wins than Wie. This doesn't sit right.

For the fans, Wie has the potential of being the next Tiger Woods. But I have to wonder what true blooded golf fans will think now that she escaped this event by just withdrawing under these circumstances. What will fans think on Friday morning if they see her practicing with her supposedly injured wrist. Plus, what will fans think next week in Maryland at the McDonald's LPGA Championship about her wrist. What are the other players on the LPGA thinking and saying right now, you know it isn't pretty.

In a way this is a bit unfortunate because we have seen Wie play some ugly golf since the Women's British Open last July. Not only did she finish T26th there and 17th in a field of 20 at the Samsung, she has gone to Switzerland and failed in a European men's event, and other men's events including the Sony Open in Hawaii. We haven't seen her since then and we thought maybe, just maybe the rest would do her good. But after seeing what she did today it seems that her game didn't improve with the rest. Matter of fact I feel that Wie will have more pressure on her next Thursday in Maryland than any mortal person should endure. Maybe, just maybe if she would have been banned from LPGA events for the rest of the year Wie could have just been a normal 17-year-old that could have attended her high school graduation this weekend and could have hung out for the summer with her friends at the pool, beach or shopping mall. And come September lead a normal life as a freshman at Stanford University. But this is the price that you pay to get those millions of dollars in endorsements and those rides on private jets and I just hope that we don't see Wie turn into one big failure that has to withdraw based on injury to save her for another week's play.

Yes folks I really think that the integrity of the game has taken one big beating today and I hope that one day Michelle realizes that the game isn't played in this fashion.