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After coming back from a fun round of golf this past weekend, I heard that Michelle Wie had been disqualified from the Samsung World Championship. You may know that Sports Illustrated reporter Michael Bamberger brought to light the incorrect ball drop on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005 --the day after the incident and at the conclusion of her final round. Had Wie been notified Saturday before signing her card, she would not have been disqualified.

Bamberger said his intent was to protect the game, but I believe he knew exactly what he was doing when he decided to wait until the next day to bring up the incident. As a professional sports writer and a former caddie, he should have upheld the integrity of the game – whether he thought his determination was right or wrong – by alerting Michelle’s caddie at the moment of the drop.

He did not speak up at the time of the incident, he did not make any effort to stop Michelle before she signed her card, he didn’t go to a rules official and inform him during the round, he didn’t tell one of her parents, who were following her that day. That said, the only conclusion I can come to is that he was looking for the story of the year.

What’s more, I was disappointed to hear a Golf Channel "Golf Central" commentator say he asked Michael Bamberger if he thought Michelle was trying to cheat. With all due respect to The Golf Channel, it’s hard to believe that her integrity was questioned in that way, when on the same exact day, Kevin Stadler, who is fighting for his tour card, was disqualified, and I didn’t hear anyone question his integrity.

I’m not the biggest Michelle Wie fan in the world, but enough is enough. She's taken a lot of heat for going pro at 15. Whether she’s won or not, she has earned her right to be where she is.

Wie Attracts Attention

If you know golf, then you know that 15-year-old Michelle Wie has turned pro. What I find funny is all the analysis about her career. So not to be left out of the crowd, I might as well add my two cents.

First, let me say I’m a Morgan Pressel fan, and I feel at this stage, she is a better all-around player than Michelle. But this is not about making comparisons, this is about MONEY. No different than Tiger, Michelle’s ethnicity will make people spend money. See, when you go to a golf tournament, you see lots of Morgan Pressels, and no matter how good Morgan is, only so many people are going to be amused. Michelle adds a whole new dimension to the sport.

If Nike and Sony want to pay her millions, who are we to say anything? What if your boss came to you and offered you a big pay raise; I bet you wouldn’t turn it down. It also gets me how people are saying she hasn’t won anything to be worth the attention. If all she has to do is tell people her story and they want to pay her millions, it sounds like a good business deal to me. Sometimes people forget the world of sports is a business world.