When Michelle Wie mysteriously withdrew from the Ginn Tribute golf tournament after 16 holes yesterday, she fanned the flames of already rampant speculation about the state of her physical and psychological being, and further exposed a growing cynicism about her still nascent professional career.

The event was Wie's first competition since she injured her left wrist in a fall during a run four months ago. (Wie injured her other wrist last October while hitting a ball off a cart path at the Samsung World Championship.)

The 17-year-old soon-to-be Punahou School graduate was a dismal 14 strokes over par when she announced, reportedly after a brief consultation with manager Greg Nared, "We're not going to play anymore."

Wie later said that she "tweaked" her wrist in the middle of the round. She indicated that she would still compete in next week's LPGA Championship in Maryland.

Speculation immediately circulated that Wie withdrew to protect her eligibility to play LPGA tournaments. At the time of her withdrawal, Wie was two bogeys away from an overall score of 88. According to LPGA rules, a non-LPGA member who shoots 88 or higher is automatically withdrawn from competition and cannot play LPGA events for the remainder of the year.

The discussion escalated on TV and radio sports shows and on Internet boards over the course of the day, with commentators questioning whether the injuries to Wie's wrist (or wrists) are more serious than Wie's handlers have let on, whether Wie's confidence was shaken after a series of disappointing performances in men's events last year, or whether Wie is buckling under the pressure of her much-publicized endorsement deals.

The tenor of the reporting and commentary also seemed to indicate a growing disillusionment with the once universally embraced phenom. ESPN The Magazine writer Eric Adelson, for example, likened Wie's vague comments after the event to Mark McGwire's infamously evasive comments to Congress during the steroids hearings two years ago.

Bloggers and posters were less subtle, with one ESPN.com reader opining: "She needs to give it up and try to get a real job ... cuz Nike wants their money back."

"There is a lot of stuff being written and a lot of conversations happening nationally that I just can't believe," said Mark Rolfing, an analyst with The Golf Channel and a friend of the Wie family. "I think the pressure on her is so different than it is on any other player at that event or any player in the LPGA.

"Only one person knows why she withdrew, and that's her."

A DOWNWARD SPIRAL

Questions and second-guessing have dogged Wie and her family since she first emerged on the national scene in 2004, and only increased when she turned professional the next year.

Wie seemed primed for a breakthrough last year with a string of top-3 finishes in LPGA events and by making her first cut in a men's event (the SK Telecom Open in South Korea).

But the year went spiraling with the firing of caddie Greg Johnston, her injury at the Samsung World Championship and last or next-to-last finishes in three other men's events.

Her last appearance before yesterday was at the Sony Open, where she missed the cut by 14 shots while playing with her right wrist tightly bandaged.

Wie and her advisers have revealed little about her wrist injuries but Honolulu orthopedist Robert Atkinson, a hand specialist, said golfers are prone to repetitive injury to joint surfaces, soft tissue structures and tendons.

Atkinson, who treated University of Hawai'i quarterback Timmy Chang's broken wrist in 2001, said he does not know the specifics of Wie's injury but is aware of the impact a chronic or traumatic wrist injury can have on a golfer.

"The problem is that the inside of the wrist gets inflamed and the impact of hitting through the ball can make it worse," Atkinson said. "If it stiffens, it's hard to get your timing down. It's hard to play with anything hurting, but especially with the wrist as your connection to the club.

"Even with as much talent as Michelle has, it's impossible to win that way."

CHANGE IN SWING?

Such injury could explain what many have observed as a distinct change in Wie's swing.

"Her swing looks different than a year ago," said local professional golfer and Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame member David Ishii. "She's not following through. It's an abbreviated punch. Her swing is not flowing like it was when she was younger. There's more power and force than in her normal swinging motion.

"It looks like her rhythm is gone."

Ishii, who follows Wie's exploits on TV and in the newspaper, said he suspected that her coaches were working on changing her swing.

Of bigger concern, Ishii said, is Wie's confidence after so many poor performances.

"It's a lot of pressure and she's handled it for three or four years, but now it seems like she's going south," he said. "Now she has to do what everybody else — regardless of what career they have — has to do at some point in their life: When things look bleak, you have to work on it and show your mental toughness."

A day like yesterday won't make that easy, Ishii said.

"How you start off (after returning from an injury) determines how easy or how hard it is to come back," he said. "If you start off really bad, you have to talk yourself into being really mentally tough and you have to fight your way through it. With this start, the course next week is going to be a lot tougher for her."

How Wie responds to the challenge will be crucial not just to her career, but to her considerable potential as a marketable product.

Comparisons to prominent flamed-out phenoms already are being floated. Some fear Wie will become another Tracy Austin, the precocious tennis talent whose career was derailed at age 21 by injuries, but without ever tasting Austin's level of success.

Some have wearied of waiting for Wie to transition from tantalizing talent curiosity to dominant champion, a drying-up of good will that has affected public perception of Indy driver Danica Patrick and Wie's fellow wunderkind Freddy Adu, whose perceived failure to dominate the soccer field has yielded such snarky headlines as "Much Adu About Nothing."

PRESSURE TO PERFORM

Rolfing sees a more apt comparison in golfer David Duval, whose once-promising career unraveled shortly after signing a contract with Nike worth more than $6 million.

"The pressure to perform is enormous, and I'm not sure that (Duval) doesn't perform for any other reason than that," Rolfing said.

Yet, Rolfing said, the pressure weighs not as heavily on Wie — "She's 17 years old and nothing affects a 17-year-old like it does you and me," he said — as it does on those who surround her. Rolfing suggested that the multimillion-dollar investment sponsors have staked on Wie plays a part in where she competes.

"They don't pay you $5 million to play LPGA events every week," Rolfing said. "The pressure is going to be the problem."

Still, Rolfing said, the pressure, the criticism and questions could be put to rest in sudden and dramatic fashion if Wie can muster a break-through win.

"The reason I love her opportunities is because she could do it at any time," he said. "And all these people who are pooh-poohing her now will say, 'I told you so.' "

Even the young golfer's harshest critics allow that, with Wie's considerable gifts, the potential for vindication is there. And just as the reasons for Wie's withdrawal yesterday can only be adequately addressed by Wie herself, so too, Rolfing said, must the larger issue of where Wie goes from here.

"I think," Rolfing said, "she has to go home tonight, look in the mirror and ask, 'What will I do next?' "

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.