Wie's way of getting around inane rule

America at Large:I guess the first thing we all need to remember is that Michelle Wie is 17. We don't let 17-year-olds vote, we don't let them drink, and in some states we don't even let them drive, but we can send them out to play golf with hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake and expect them to behave like adults.

In a more perfect world, Ms Wie would have been back in Hawaii last week, kicking ass in her final week as the captain of her high school golf team and contemplating what she planned to do with the rest of her life after graduation.

But she wasn't. She was in South Carolina, playing in an LPGA event called the Ginn Tribute, and not for the first time she incurred righteous indignation from several competitors because once again she appeared to be flaunting the rules.

We have previously documented Wie's tendency to play fast and loose with the Rules of Golf, and at the Ginn she would seem to have done it again, turning a simple decision over an unplayable lie into a family conference that verged terribly close to violating the proscription on outside advice.

On the par-three fourth at River Towne Country Club, Wie's misdirected tee shot sailed wide to the right of the green and disappeared among some trees. A search party that included Wie, her caddie, David Clark, her parents, and several well-meaning volunteers searched for the ball. When it was found, it was clearly unplayable, leaving Wie to contemplate her options.

When her father, BJ Wie, suggested going back to the tee, Clark, the caddie, appeared to demur. "That would be three off the tee," he pointed out, but in short order Wie marched back from whence she had come, and hit another tee shot. This one also struck a tree, but at least she could hit it again. She chipped onto the green and took two putts for a triple-bogey six.

Watching in the press tent while this little adventure took place was Wie's agent, Greg Nared. Although he was not part of the discussion, he overheard someone mention that Wie's big number placed her in some jeopardy of reaching the magic figure of 88.

It seems the LPGA has this bone-headed rule that any non-tour member carding 88 or worse in an official event is automatically excluded from participating in LPGA-sanctioned tournaments for the rest of the year. Since Wie is not 18, she is not a member, and were she to be barred for the rest of 2007, she would no longer be able to play on sponsors' exemptions - at least on the ladies' tour. (Her status in men's tournaments would not have been affected, but then Wie has never made a cut in a PGA event.) Nared, in any case, went rushing out to the course, and caught up with Wie as she finished the 16th hole. Next thing anyone knew, Wie had hopped into a golf cart with her agent and was driven back to the clubhouse, where it was announced she had withdrawn because she had "tweaked" her wrist. Up until that moment neither of her playing partners had noticed any sign of this infirmity.

Since Wie was 14 over par at the time and a bogey-bogey finish that would have left her at 88 was not at all inconceivable, the timing of the wrist injury did seem to be more than a happy coincidence.

The severity of the injury did not prevent Wie from showing up for the LPGA Championship, which commences in Maryland today. There, she produced yet another firestorm when at least one of her playing partners in a pro-am event two days ago complained that she had all but ignored the members of her team, each of whom had shelled out $5,000 for the privilege of playing with her.

Tour officials did not penalise Wie over the question of advice, ruling her father had merely offered one of the options available under the rules governing an unplayable lie. The fact remains: her caddie is allowed to transmit advice. Her father is not.

Since there is no way of determining the severity of her injury, there was no inquiry into her seemingly precipitate withdrawal from the Ginn, but some of her fellow competitors appear less than persuaded.

"I don't know the situation, if it's injury or whatever," said Annika Sorenstam two days ago. "I just feel there's a little bit of lack of respect and class just to leave a tournament like that and then come out and practice here."

And while Wie was spoken to about her decorum during Tuesday's pro-am, if any action was taken it was not publicly revealed.

Although they all occurred in the space of five days, the three incidents should be approached separately.

In the first instance, while it's difficult to blame Wie for her father's interference, she should have paid the price and been assessed a two-stroke penalty for accepting outside advice. This isn't the first time BJ Wie has been guilty of sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, and the LPGA might be well within its rights to ban him from the course.

In the second case, while I don't believe for a second Wie couldn't have completed her round, the regulation she was circumventing is such a stupid and arbitrary rule it's difficult to blame her. The automatic ban on anyone shooting 88 or higher, for instance, makes no allowance for weather conditions. What if the LPGA pros had to play in conditions like those that visited Muirfield during the third round of the British Open five years ago? On that day, remember, Tiger Woods, Colin Montgomerie, Lee Janzen and David Toms, who caught the worst of the weather, couldn't break 80.

And the last infraction? We don't condone rudeness, but we've got to assume that these people have teenaged children of their own and hence should not have been surprised. Anyone who goes out for a round of golf expecting to pal around with a 17-year-old deserves exactly what he gets.