Changed days for Falling Star of LPGA Tour

Michelle Wie back to qualifying

for U S Women's Open

Falling star Michelle Wie is one of 1,236 players who have entered the 2008 United States. Women's Open at Interlachen Golf Club, Minneapolis from June 26 to 29.
It will be the first time she will has had to endure open qualifying for a major tournament since she was in the eighth grade at high school on Hawaii.
Wie, a first-year student at Tiger Woods' alma mater, Stanford University, is exempt from the first stage of local qualifying because she played in the US Women's Open last year, withdrawing during the second round.
Wie's career has been in free fall since she tried to play through injuries to both wrists last year. She missed the cut or withdrew from five LPGA Tour events, and finished just about last at two other events.
In her only LPGA appearance this season, Michelle finished joint 72nd in the Fields open on Hawaii.

She was 13 when she won a play-off in sectional qualifying to earn a spot in the 2003 U.S. Women's Open at Pumpkin Ridge, where she tied for 39th. The USGA awarded her a special exemption the following year, primarily because the money she would have earned on the LPGA Tour had she not been an amateur would have been enough to qualify.
Wie tied for 13th to earn an exemption to the 2005 U.S. Open, and her popularity was such that the LPGA Championship changed its criteria in 2005 to allow for one amateur - Wie - to compete.

The Honolulu native continued to play well enough to earn invitations and exemptions to the four majors in 2006 and 2007.
Now, the U.S. Women's Open might be the only major she is eligible to play - provided she qualifies.
Wie has chosen the Woodmont Country Club in Maryland as her sectional qualifying site on June 9. That's where most LPGA Tour players will try to qualify, and it will offer the most spots to the Women's Open.

The youngest person to enter this year's US Women's Open is Samantha Wagner, an 11-year-old from Easton, Pennsylvania.
Sixty players, including title-holder Cristie Kerr, are exempt from qualifying. Anyone finishing among the top 35 on the LPGA Tour money list after the Ginn Tribute on June 1 will also go straight into the championship field.