Come on, come all: Wie circus on display at U.S. Women's Open

Sorenstam made two things clear Tuesday -- she's grown tired of talking about the Wie W.D., but is not backing down one iota about the breach of protocol: "I'm not really sure how they [the Wies] deal with these types of things. All I can say is that I said what I wanted to say, and I stand for what I say and I still feel that way."

In her last start, Wie finished dead last by 10 shots among the players who made the cut and has become such a non-factor as a player that even her putative rival, 19-year-old Morgan Pressel, doesn't take verbal shots anymore. A year ago, asking the slightly envious Pressel for a comment about the heavily publicized Wie was like tossing chum in a shark-tank -- Pressel always came out with teeth bared. Now Pressel, who won the season's first major two months ago, takes the high road, as if to say, "scoreboard, baby."

"We love it when she comes out here, even when she comes out and doesn't play well, she's still the lead story," Pressel said Tuesday.

Then again, depending upon how you read between the lines of that one, it could be construed as a slight tweak of the nose. Another LPGA player characterized the Wie situation as a "circus," a nuisance the LPGA regulars must endure seven or eight times each year when she plays.

Exactly when, and whether, Wie will begin playing the tour on a full-time basis is anybody's guess. She enrolls at Stanford in September, is waiting to be assigned a roommate in the freshman dormitory and says she hasn't decided whether she will join the tour after she becomes eligible in October, when she turns 18.

"I haven't made any concrete decision yet," she said. "I'm still going back and forth and taking my time, because it's a big decision."

On that front, Wie made an unequivocal point. When it comes to her career, she is calling the shots. Not her parents, who have been accused of micro-managing and manipulating their daughter so often, you could almost see the marionette strings. She also has an agent, a publicist, a sports psychologist, a caddie and Leadbetter.

"They all have their advice, and they advise me," she said. "But in the end it's me that makes the decision because everyone realizes it's my life and I'm the only person capable of making decisions."

Oh.

Wie said her wrist -- which she says was fractured in a jogging fall over the winter -- is still far from 100 percent, but that she needs to play to regain the lost strength and flexibility, which is the proverbial Catch-22 if ever there was one. Wie has lost distance and remains tentative about over-taxing the injury, claiming she will only hit her driver a few times this week. But after four months on the shelf earlier this year, sitting out this week was not an option.

"It's the U.S. Freaking Open and I'm not going to miss it for anything," she said, drawing laughs.

Wisely, she did withdraw from the John Deere, which is two weeks down the road, but intends to keep trying her hand against men once her wrist heals and she regains her lost distance. So, despite growing public disinterest and increasingly dismal results, that's one publicity-stunt sideshow that will continue uninterrupted.

Now college beckons, which must make the folks paying her a reported $15 million per year in endorsement money, presumably to turn heads as a professional golfer and not as a student in freshman English class, positively ecstatic. Wie blithely listed four areas of possible study going forward, including two disciplines which are not offered on the Stanford undergrad curriculum. Somebody might need to steer her toward the building where they house those musty old books, too.

"I'm not much of a library person," Wie laughed.

That fits. So far, she's done nothing by the book. Including win.

"We've had some 18-year-olds, like Morgan, win majors," Hall of Famer Karrie Webb said. "Now the comparisons are getting much tougher on her [Wie], because we've expected so much at a young age."