CHASKA, Minn. – Michelle Wie looked worn down in a tired march into scoring after what must have felt like the longest 36 holes of her life.
She followed up Thursday’s 84 with an 82 on Friday.
There were no tears after this round, just a stout smile as she tried to explain that she was grateful to be back on tour, but so uncertain about when she’ll back again.
“Not great,” Wie said when asked how her ailing right hand felt. “But at the same time, even on the worst day, it’s still great being out here. I still had fun today, just stuff is hard. Hazeltine is hard.”
Wie said she needs to reassess where she’s at physically, but she isn’t sure what that will mean going forward.
“I’m still going to be optimistic about everything,” Wie said. “But definitely try to listen to my body, as I don’t do a great job of that. So, going to go back and try to figure out what’s going to happen.”
That’s the loaded question now. She said while hitting balls on the range before Friday’s round, she wasn’t sure she was actually going to be able to play.
“Hitting balls on the range didn’t feel great, but I wanted to finish,” Wie said. “I came here to play, so I’m glad these two rounds are over. They were very long.”
Wie, who is arthritic in both wrists, underwent surgery last fall to repair an avulsion fracture, bone spurs and nerve entrapment in her right wrist and hand. She made four frustrating starts in her return this spring, but the pain led her to take two more months off to more fully heal. She didn’t look any more healed this week than when she had last played at the Lotte Championship in April. In fact, she looked worse this week, with an ice pack on her ailing hand through much of her play.
Wie, who will turn 30 later this year, managed to impress her playing partners with her effort. Hazeltine is a brute of a course, the longest in the 65-year history of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, which was previously played as the LPGA Championship. Wie was in the rough, a thick 3 ½ inches of bluegrass, a lot this week.
Full-field scores from the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
“Golf is hard enough, the way it is, and especially with the wind, and the rough being thick,” Lydia Ko said. “It’s not easy, and sometimes it hurts even when you’ve got no pain in your wrist and forearms.
“So, I think it just shows what kind of fighter she is. Even up until the very end, she’s wanting to make that putt, and wanting to shoot the lowest score she can. I think it shows what kind of player, what kind of person she is. She’s playing in a really difficult situation, but she’s never giving up until the very end.”
That’s the uncertainty that continued to hang over Wie as she left Hazeltine. Nobody knows if the end’s nearing or not for her time as a tour pro.