Southern Pines, N.C. – Before the start of play Thursday at the U.S. Women’s Open, a veteran player looked at one of the featured opening-round pairings and chuckled.
“Christina may be out there by herself before the end of the day,” she said.
The grouping in question included Christina Kim, Natalie Gulbis and Michelle Wie, and by Saturday afternoon the premonition nearly came to pass. While Gulbis’ bad back, which caused her to withdraw after the first round of her previous two tournaments, held up, Wie’s bad luck continued.
After playing the opening nine holes of her second round to a 6-over-par 42, the 17-year-old Hawaiian withdrew from the tournament.
“She just said, ‘Guys, I’m done; good luck,”‘ Gulbis said.
A year ago this week, Wie was the second-ranked golfer in the world behind Annika Sorenstam. She finished in a tie for third in last year’s Open at Newport (R.I.) Country Club, after finishing in a tie for third at the Kraft-Nabisco Championship and a tie for fifth at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship, the first two majors of the 2006 season.
Shortly thereafter, however, Wie went into a slump that has been exacerbated by injuries to both her wrists. She shot an 11-over 82 on Thursday in her opening round, the 21st straight time she failed to break par.
Wie has also withdrawn from two of the past three tournaments she has played. In the third, the 2007 McDonald’s, Wie finished last among the players who made the cut.
Wie is now 33rd in the world rankings.
“No one wants to quit in the middle of the U.S. Open, but she needs to get healthy and then come back out,” Gulbis said. “But speaking from firsthand knowledge, that’s hard. We’re competitive and you think you can play through it, but it’s not easy to do.”
Before the Open, Wie had withdrawn from the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic, scheduled for two weeks from now. Her next expected appearance on the LPGA tour is the Evian Masters in France, July 26-29.
“At this point, I’m not really sure,” Wie said when asked about her future plans. “I just have to re-evaluate, make some smart choices and just have to see how it works out.”
Slow going
Lightning in the area Friday wiped out most of the second round, meaning a long day for most of the players Saturday. There were 67 players who made the midway cut, 6-over-par 148.
Among those who did not was Juli Inkster. After her first 27 holes, Inkster was 10-over. She then rallied to get to 6-over by making birdies on four of her next five holes, only to bogey her 18th.
Similarly, Kim bogeyed her 18th hole Saturday morning to miss the cut by one. Suzann Pettersen, the winner of the McDonald’s Championship and an early favorite here, also fell one shot shy of playing on the weekend. Alexis Thompson, the 12-year-old and the youngest qualifier in U.S. Women’s Open history, shot 76-82-158.
“I saw what I have to be, what my game has to be like, what has to be good in my game – my short game if you miss the green,” Thompson said. “So I’m going to work on that – I’m going to work on everything – but it was an awesome experience.”
Thompson, who supplanted Morgan Pressel as the youngest golfer to play her way into the field, made it to the weekend in unorthodox fashion – when rain cut short her second round Friday, she came back Saturday morning to wrap up her final 4 1/2 holes and finish 16-over.
