Michelle Wie was hopeful about her return to competition this week at the Evian Championship. Unfortunately that comeback ended up being a very short one.
Wie withdrew on the 13th hole of her first round Thursday due to the lingering effects of a stress reaction in her right index finger. This year’s U.S. Women’s Open champion said that the finger began bothering her after she hit a fat stinger with her 3-wood on her fourth hole of the day and then aggravated it more with a painful shot out of a divot.
“I’m just really disappointed and really wanted to play,” Wie said. “But, you know, just nothing I can do. I think I should be good for Asia. I just think this week was one or two weeks just too soon.”
Prior to teeing off in Thursday’s first round at the Evian Championship, Wie had played just one full round of 18 holes since being sidelined with the hand injury at the Meijer LPGA Classic in early August. That round came on Wednesday during the tournament pro-am.
Wie had just returned to practicing last week, when she began chipping and putting. She then worked her way up, playing five holes on Monday and 13 holes on Tuesday in preparation for this week’s tournament. But despite the limited amount of practice time, this year’s U.S. Women’s Open champion wanted to try to get back on the golf course for the year’s final major.
“It was at a point where it was touch and go,” Wie said of her injury entering this week. “I just wanted so see if I could play. The doctors just told me, It's all up to you. It just depends on if it hurts or not. But they did tell me if it did hurt to stop right away just because it could get worse.
“I was having so much fun out there I wanted to keep playing. But it got to the point where it was too painful. So I just made the smart decision to not play.”
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