After hitting her final approach shot of the day, Michelle Wie faced her palm down to the grass and took a long, hard stare at the back of her right hand.
That hand, which caused her to pull out of an event in Singapore in February in which she was the defending champion, kept her from walking her hometown Ko Olina Course for two more rounds of the LPGA Lotte Championship after a second consecutive 5-over 77 left her near the bottom of the leaderboard on Thursday.
The Punahou School alumna missed the cut for the second time since winning the event in 2014. She spent most of her round that lasted more than five hours fidgeting with her hand, which she aggravated during Wednesday’s first round. She had surgery on the hand last year.
“There was definitely a point,” Wie said about possibly withdrawing from a second LPGA event this season. “I just didn’t want to pull out — to try to fight through it.”
Wie conceded she was happy after her third consecutive 5-over 77 on tour simply because she finished the round.
It didn’t matter what Wie was doing Thursday. With the driver on the tee, holding an iron while standing in one of the few fairways she hit or even on the green bending over a putt, the hand was an issue.
Just putting a tee into the ground to start a hole was causing her discomfort.
“It was pretty bad,” Wie admitted. “It’s kind of everything right now. I’m hopeful that a couple of days of rest and ice and same old (will help). Hopefully the images tonight will kind of tell me exactly what is going on.”
Wie said Monday before making her eighth appearance at the Lotte Championship that she felt good, but stopped short of saying she was healthy not wanting to jinx herself.
It didn’t help, as it was evident on the 11th hole of her first round on Wednesday she was in pain when her hand came flying off the club on her drive.
After receiving treatment Wednesday night, Wie began her second round on the back nine and opened with a birdie on the par-4 10th.
She gave it right back with a bogey on 11 and then saw her chances at making the cut fade away with back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 16 and 17.
At one point during her final nine holes, it looked like she was considering withdrawing. A gallery of roughly 25 people, including her mother and father, stayed with her for the final few holes.
She closed with a double bogey on No. 6 and a bogey on 8 and then was well behind her two playing partners after her final drive, which is uncharacteristic for Wie.
She has spent the majority of her career in the top 30 on tour in driving distance, but averaged between 30 and 40 yards less off the tee on Thursday than her yearly average on tour over the past four seasons.
“We need to figure out and see what’s going on and see what my next steps are,” Wie said. “It’s just frustrating when it comes all of a sudden and just does that.”
If healthy, she could tee it up in six days at the Los Angeles Open, where she tied for 55th last year.
Only Laura Gonzalez Escallon, who made four double bogeys Thursday and shot an 82 to finish at 13-over 157, and Benyapa Niphatsophon, who withdrew, finished behind Wie.
