Is Michelle Wie injured or hurt?

Posted: May 29, 2015 6:15 pm

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Will the defending U.S. Women’s Open champ be healthy enough to rigorously defend her title?

Michelle Wie played her first competitive round here Friday since withdrawing from the Kingsmill Championship in Williamsburg, Va. with hip pain May 14, after shooting 78.

The discomfort wasn’t a new thing, she said in a press conference here Wednesday.

“It’s been sore for a while, and then definitely during that day or that morning it flared up. … I don’t even know why I played all 18.  I couldn’t put any weight on my left leg, which is kind of a sign.”

There were tests done, including multiple MRIs, in Williamsburg and later, at her home in Jupiter, Fla. She received a cortisone shot, her first, May 18.

“No tears, nothing, no structural damage, which I was really happy about,” Wie said. “Just a little bursitis, which is I guess I’ve never heard of this term before.”

She doesn’t seem crushed about it. Wie took a cortisone shot May 18, her first, and spent an entire week-plus off from the game. She attended her first hockey game (a Tampa Bay Lightning playoff game) and a Darius Rucker (of Hootie and the Blowfish fame) concert.

Her social media activity featured a flurry of tweets when her alma mater, Stanford, won the NCAA women’s team championship in dramatic, sudden-death fashion Wednesday.

She colored her hair purple. It’s washed out now.

“I mean it’s tough when you’re injured, so I think the worst thing to do is just kind of sit at home and sulk and do nothing,” she said.

Warming up on the range for her first competitive round since the withdrawl Friday, she wore a substantial-looking brace on her left ankle – nobody has said anything about an ankle injury – and had the left hip heavily loaded with compression tape.

On the course, she was five over-par through six holes before gathering herself and shooting a three over-par 74, good for a tie for 94th place.

Healthy or not. this season has not been a strong followup to a superb 2014 in which she won twice, including the Women’s Open at Pinehurst, won nearly $2 million.

Her only top 20 finish in 2015 has been an 11th in the LOTTO event in Hawaii, which she won last year. In the year’s only major championship, the ANA Inspiration, she tied for 57th.