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NEWPORT, R.I. -- The putter should be a fearless wand in the hands of Michelle Wie, the killer fashion accessory that brings everything together for golf's 16-year-old princess.
Wie's putter, though, has oddly misfired at the stroke of midnight in the LPGA's two majors thus far, leading to a cacophony of opinions on why she hasn't holed more putts -- and won at least once.
A head-scratching case in point: Wie led the McDonald's LPGA Championship in greens in regulation, knocking on 80.5% of her approach shots. But she needed 126 putts (only nine players had more), including 35 during a final-round 72 that left her tied for fifth. For the week, that was 12 more than winner Se Ri Pak and 11 more than runner-up Karrie Webb.
"You sort of hear it, but you don't listen," says David Leadbetter, her coach. "It's probably the only area people can really look at and say, 'Hey, there's a weakness there.' Every putt that she hits is scrutinized and analyzed to the nth degree."
Wie has top-five finishes in the year's two majors and could be chasing the Grand Slam across Newport Country Club's seaside links when the U.S. Women's Open begins today under a threat of rain and winds. Only Webb (won Kraft Nabisco Championship, lost to Pak in a playoff at LPGA Championship) authored a better run.
That's a premise Annika Sorenstam considered as stretched as a tall sail at one of the local yacht clubs.
"You can say that about anybody," Sorenstam says. "It's all about performance."
Especially on the greens, which Wie again will mostly navigate without help from caddie Greg Johnston.
"There's a lot of players out here that read the greens by themselves," Wie says. "I feel like I can trust myself better. Obviously, if there's a really tricky putt, then I'm going to ask Greg to read it with me. But if I feel confident, then I should just go with how I feel."
Wie arrived a week ago for her practice sessions and sees a truer line on Newport Country Club's bentgrass (with a dash of leafy Poa annua) greens than the mostly Poa annua surfaces at Bulle Rock.
"I think I'm a great putter," she says. "It's just that everyone is looking at every single putt I make. I'm not going to make every single putt, and I'm never going to be really happy with how I putt. But every putt I hit is going to make me better."
That suggests a steep learning curve amid a shrinking window of opportunity. The Open is Wie's fourth appearance in a women's schedule limited to eight tournaments because she's not an LPGA member.
"She's still in the experimental stage, finding the right putter, finding the right setup," Leadbetter says. "Far and away, she's not a finished product yet."
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