Wie Returns to the Scene of the DQ

One year ago, Michelle Wie was near the top of the leaderboard at the LPGA State Farm Classic after three rounds. It was a spot she hadn't visited in nearly two years, since 2006. And she was in position to earn a big check - perhaps even win - and reignite her career after 1 1/2 seasons of injury, controversy and disappointment.

Well, at least there was no injury at the 2008 LPGA State Farm Classic. But there was plenty of controversy and disappointment.

Wie returns to the State Farm Classic this week, one year after being disqualified following the third round because she had forgotten to sign her scorecard after the second round.

That DQ, and the way it was handled (the one-day delay, allowing Wie to finish the third round rather than alerting her earlier) generated plenty of heated discussion here and elsewhere on the golf Web.

My take at the time, and today, is that the DQ was the proper course of action. Wie did fail to sign her scorecard before leaving the scorer's area; the LPGA penalty for that is disqualification; once the infraction was noticed, DQ wasn't just the proper course of action, it was the only course of action.

Multiple golfers every year, and on every professional tour around the world, are DQ'd for failing to sign a scorecard, or for other scorecard mistakes. And it's unfortunate every time it happens. But rules are rules, and it's the player's obligation to know and follow them.

But enough about 2008. It's a year later now, and time to see how Wie is doing these days.

She's doing very well, thank you.

In seven starts on the LPGA Tour in 2009, Wie has three Top 10 finishes, including a near-miss runner-up in the season-opener. Here's how her tournament finishes look to this point in the season:

2nd, 57th, 67th, 10th, 15th, 3rd, 26th

No, she is not yet back to the level she was at in 2005 and 2006. But Wie is light years ahead of where she was in 2007 and 2008. She's playing solid, if so far unspectacular, golf.

Wie has one major flaw in her game right now: finding the fairway. She's hitting only 53 percent of fairways, which ranks a dismal 146th on tour. Missing fairways has lowered her greens-in-regulation numbers so that she ranks only 55th in GIR. If she starts hitting more fairways, the effect will likely be big because she ranks sixth in putting per GIR.

But despite that major issue off the tee, Wie is second in the Rookie of the Year points (well back of Jiyai Shin). In addition to putts per GIR, Wie ranks in the Top 10 in number of Top 10 finishes and percentage of Top 10 finishes, plus percentage of rounds under par and driving distance. She's in the Top 20 in money, putting average, scoring average, birdie average and rounds under par.

It also turns out that Wie is well-liked by her fellow players, contrary to what some gossips would have you believe. Most of the problems that existed before - affronts or jealousies over the attention, sponsor exemptions and special treatment given to a player who was choosing not to join the tour - have disappeared now that Wie is an LPGA Tour member.

A year after the disqualification at the 2008 State Farm Classic, she returns for the 2009 State Farm Classic in a pretty good place: Playing well, and popular with most of her peers. Her career is clearly back on track and headed in the right direction.

See also:

• Michelle Wie pictures
• More on Michelle Wie

Update: Wie tweets request for fans in Springfield. Pretty funny.