The golf world is looking ahead to Michelle Wie's impending missed cut next week at the PGA Tour's Legends Reno-Tahoe Open, but the LPGA is still looking back at her disqualification this past weekend at the State Farm Classic. Though Michelle Wie is the only person who should be held accountable for not signing her scorecard, LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens felt her tour was taking some misguided heat for its handling of the situation, so she released a statement Wednesday.
She said the tour has received feedback e-mails, blogs and phone calls, and many have had varying and inaccurate accounts of what happened, why and when. ``All of this has confused and angered individuals.'' Bivens said.
Bivens describes that Wie left the designated scoring area without signing her card, a scoring volunteer noticed that the card was missing a signature and caught up with her approximately 40 yards from the tent, where Wie signed it. An LPGA staff member overheard volunteers recounting the situation only after Wie teed off in the third round, and after verifying the story with Wie and others following her round, they disqualified her for a rules violation. Bivens said they waited because they didn't want to disrupt her playing partners.
That's all well and good. Having a volunteer accept scorecards, however, is a mistake. You'd think the LPGA would have at least one paid staffer in the scoring area considering the importance of scorecards and chances of an incident or error there. They shouldn't have to rely on accounts from volunteers. This should be a lesson for the tour.
Bivens finished by commending her workers much like an elementary school teacher would commend a class: ``In the end, we should all hold our head up high knowing that our organization upheld the rules of golf and administered them with Michelle the same way they have been applied to every player since the LPGA's founding in 1950. The rules are the rules.''
Regarding Wie playing in yet another event against men, if that's what she wants to do and is afforded the opportunity, who am I to tell her she shouldn't? That said, I will anyway. She has yet to make a cut in a PGA Tour event, and none of those events did her any good. This one won't either.
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