Wie Made Cut, Back on Track?

Michelle Wie made the cut in the Fields Open in Hawaii on the LPGA Tour. It is the first of her six exemptions that she can employ as a player without LPGA Tour status. In her second round, she shot 73 on a day where scoring conditions were perfect. But, as shown in the game story, she feels she has been improving each round so far.

Writer Dave Reardon put the positive thoughts of Wie into perspective:

Some of the numbers (six fairways and seven greens missed yesterday) don't agree with Wie's positive assessment of her game. But she's not trying to get back to where she was two years ago all in one round or one tournament.

"You know, it's still very early on," she said. "It's my first tournament back. ... I feel like my distance is coming back. I had a lot of really good solid shots. Had a couple bad breaks on a couple of lies throughout the round. That's what golf is."

The final round of 78 left a lot to be desired and she said as much in her presser on Saturday:

Q. Were you encouraged or discouraged today after such a good opening round?
MICHELLE WIE: Definitely, like I said, there’s a lot of room for improvement, but there’s a lot of positive shots that I gained confidence from this week in the first round, second round and even this round. I hit a lot of really good shots. Obviously, I have to work on improving my bad shots, but just felt like I was a little rusty out there.

She got worse in each round on a course that she has played a LOT of times. I would still be very cautious in pronouncing progress in her game.