Michelle Wie - Professional Career - Pre-LPGA Membership (2007-2008)

Pre-LPGA Membership (2007-2008)

In January Wie accepted her fourth consecutive sponsor's exemption to the PGA Tour's Sony Open in Hawaii, where she missed the cut by 14 strokes, finishing third from last in the 144-player field, 25 strokes behind the second-round leader. Her next competition, after a four-month absence and reported injuries to both wrists, was at the LPGA's Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika, where she was 14 over par through 16 holes in the first round before withdrawing after a conversation with her agent, citing an aggravated wrist injury.

The withdrawal was controversial owing to the LPGA Rule of 88, which states that a non-LPGA member shooting a score of 88 or more is forced to withdraw and banned from LPGA co-sponsored events for the rest of the year. Wie claimed that the injury and not the rule of 88 was the cause of the withdrawal, but some observers, including one of her playing partners, Alena Sharp, questioned this claim. There was further controversy when both Sharp and Wie's other playing partner, Janice Moodie, questioned the involvement of Wie's father, B.J. They said he appeared to give Wie advice during the course of play, which could have resulted in a two-stroke penalty, but as Wie withdrew, this became a moot point.

Wie was seen two days later practicing at the site of the LPGA Championship in Bulle Rock, Maryland, which drew criticism from Ginn Tribute host Annika Sörenstam, who said, "I just feel there's a little bit of lack of respect and class just to kind of leave a tournament like that and come out and practice here." At the LPGA championship Wie was 3 over par and bang on the cutline after two days to extend her run of cuts made at LPGA majors to 13, but she shot rounds of 83 and 79 on the weekend to finish last of those who made the cut, 35 strokes behind the eventual winner. Wie entered the US Women's Open in June but withdrew midway through the second round after hitting her second shot out of the rough on the 10th hole, citing a wrist injury. Her tournament score through 27 holes was 17 over par, 22 strokes behind the second-round leader.

At the Evian Masters in July, Wie broke her year-long streak of 24 consecutive rounds at or over par by shooting a second-round one-under-par 71, but shooting a 12-over-par 84 in the third round led to her finishing 20 strokes behind winner Natalie Gulbis,third from last of those making the cut. One week later at the Women's British Open, Wie shot rounds of 73 and 80, missing the cut by two strokes, her first missed cut in an LPGA Tour event since 2003, and her first missed cut in a major.

Wie next played in August at the Canadian Women's Open, where she was invited as a sponsor's exemption. She shot rounds of 75 and 74 on the par 71 course, missing the cut by four strokes. The following week, with another sponsor's exemption, Wie played in the Safeway Classic at Portland, Oregon. After shooting rounds of 79 and 75, she missed the cut by six strokes and finished 21 strokes behind the second-round leader. Three weeks after beginning her freshman year at Stanford University, Wie played as a sponsor exemption in the limited field Samsung World Championship, finishing 19th out of the 20-player field, 36 strokes behind the winner.

In December 2007, Wie was ranked #4 in the Forbes Top 20 Earners Under 25 with an annual earnings of $19 million .

The year 2008 was the first time since 2004 that Wie was not granted one of four available sponsor exemptions to play the PGA Tour Sony Open. She started the year on a sponsor's exemption at the LPGA Fields Open, where she shot 69, 73, and 78 to finish tied for 72nd, last among players making the cut. Two LPGA sponsor exemptions were offered and accepted to the Safeway International and Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill tournaments, but Wie was unable to play at the Safeway as she announced she had injured her wrist practicing. She did play the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill, shooting rounds of 75 and 71, missing the cut by four strokes. Wie's next competitive appearance was her first on the Ladies European Tour playing on a sponsor invitation in the Ladies German Open, where she finished in sixth place, seven strokes behind the winner, fellow eighteen-year-old Amy Yang.

In June Wie played in Maryland at a sectional qualifier for the 2008 U.S. Women's Open. She finished in second place, earning one of the 35 qualification spots available. She shot an eight-over-par 81 in the first round of 2008 U.S. Women's Open and ended up with a 10-over total of 156, missing the cut. July saw Wie playing on a sponsor exemption at the LPGA State Farm Classic. She was in the middle of her third round when it was realized she had failed to sign her second round scorecard. Event organizers waited until the conclusion of that round to notify her that she was disqualified in order to give her an opportunity to explain what had happened. She was one stroke off the lead at the time. Two days later Wie announced that she had accepted an invitation to play her eighth PGA Tour event in the alternate field Legends Reno-Tahoe Open. She shot rounds of 73 and 80, missing the cut by nine strokes.

Wie had expressed her desire to attempt to earn membership on the LPGA Tour for the 2009 season by earning the equivalent of 80th place on the 2008 money list through her earnings at the events she played in through sponsor exemptions. When she failed to reach this goal, she entered an LPGA Sectional Qualifying Tournament. At the tournament, held from September 16 through 19 at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, she finished tied for 4th place. This was sufficient to advance her to the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament held in Daytona Beach, Florida in December, 2008. During the Final Qualifying Tournament, Wie finished in a tie for 7th place to make her eligible to play full time on the LPGA Tour in 2009.