Michelle Wie finished the 20 person tournament at 18-over-par. With her final round under par she just squeeked out of last place finishing 19th and earning $13,125. Michelle ended 37 strokes behind the winner Lorena Ochoa.

Michelle Wie’s day was far from her previous 3 days of 7-over, 7-over and 5-over. With only 6 holes left she was at 3-under and on her way to playing as well as the leader on the final day (Lorena was 6 under for the day.) But she then faltered with a bogey and double bogey. A birdie in between was her only saving grace to bring her back to under par.

But overall she sits in last place in a field most thought she shouldn’t even be considered for a sponsor exemption in. 19 over after 3 days. She had again today more bogeys and even a triple bogey!

The leader, Lorena Ochoa, sits at 12 under through 3 days of play.

I think a sponsors exemption may have backfired for her sponsors. True she hasn’t played for a while but it might have been best to keep it that way until she get into some larger fields with less hype and be one of the crowd over par rather than a sore thumb on the tournament big board.

The leader Lorena Ochoa is still on the course and sitting at 5 under par for the day 9 under overall for the tournament. Closest to Michelle in the back of the pack is Bettina Hauert who sits at 13 under par for the two days.

Michelle will be able to continue trying to better her scores through the weekend as there is no cut in the 20 person tourney.

Michelle started the day with two pars and a birdie to be 1 under through 3 holes. That quickly turned south as she went through several bogeys and double bogeys. Wie finished the day at 7 over par and in dead last place.

This poor performance in the first round won’t help the fact that her even being in the tournament has a black mark on it. She recieved a special exemption to the Samsung which is a tournament for the top money winners on the tour. She obviously wasn’t one of them, and she ended up bumping Natalie Gulbis from the tournament for the spot.

The good news is that there isn’t a cut in the tournament so she’ll have the whole weekend to prove that she belongs in this elite field. However, she does have a heap of work ahead of her to try and erase this first day.

Out of the 20 person field Michelle Wie is the only one that got in on a sponsors exemption and ended up bumping Natalie Gulbis from the tournament (haven’t found any Gulbis quotes yet.)

Michelle was recently quoted in the Honolulu Advertiser saying this about the upcoming tournament, “I’m a lot better, I feel like I’m getting stronger, and I feel healthy as a person too. Going to college and having fun.”

We’ll see if she shows that improvement both mentally and physically tomorrow.

This is really the first tournament that we think Michelle Wie will be in full force since she had early year injuries. She’s taken some time to fully recover we hope and we will be looking forward to seeing her in action.

Play starts next Thursday, the 11th and will continue through Sunday.

The women’s event is where Michelle Wie made her pro debut in 2005 and where the previous year she stunned the crowd with a 13th place finish at the young age of 14! Although her pro debut was marred by Wie being disqualified for signing the wrong scorecard she is still fond of the event have this to say.

“It’s an honor to be invited to play in the Samsung World Championship. There is nothing like going back to where my professional career started, and playing against the best players in the world. I’m excited for the opportunity.”

Michelle Wie will have stiff competition with Lorena Ochoa (who won last year) and Morgan Pressel who won this years first major, have already qualified for the event.