KAHUKU — It wasn't the drive that plopped into the rough next to the lake on the 11th hole to eventually become a double bogey that told you Michelle Wie was in trouble yesterday. It was the look of exasperation and resignation on her face that followed.

It wasn't the 4-foot birdie putt attempt that lipped out at 16 that suggested Wie's doom was sealed in the SBS Open at Turtle Bay. It was the way she signalled submission.

When Wie most needed to summon some of the confidence of old, she instead exhibited pangs of here-I-go-again doubt and it cost her as a three-stroke lead — and a shot at what could have been a breakthrough first professional title — became a six-shot turnaround for second place.

Angela Stanford, who took the title from her, acknowledged as much afterward.

"She was doing everything she needed to win and (then) when she made the mistake on 11, she didn't rebound like I thought ..." Stanford said. "I mean, you could see her youth in that. And that she didn't rebound as fast as she could have, I think."

There are reasons the 31-year-old Stanford has won three times in her last seven tournaments over 2008-09, just as there were exhibits yesterday of why the 19-year-old Wie is still looking for her first LPGA title after 48 starts. And they go beyond mere shot-making and age.

Wie, as Stanford noted, "has all the shots."

The resolve to ride out the bad ones, however, is still missing. Which is why Wie, for her oodles of potential, has yet to begin realizing the expected rewards for which Forbes magazine and http://www.Golfdigest.com say sponsors have been anteing up $12 million a year.

In that the finish to the first tournament of 2009 had some resemblance to 2008 and '07, the dark years of drama and trauma in Wie's roller coaster of a career.

To be sure there is a significant age difference with Stanford and Wie is, technically, a rookie on the LPGA Tour where she debuted as a card-carrying member this week. But she has been playing it — not to mention the PGA, Nationwide, European, Asian circuits — for parts of nearly seven years now. She has an impressive resume of five LPGA runner-up finishes and 14 top 20 postings.

But she still hasn't learned how to win, something she hasn't done since 2003 in the U.S. Women's Public Links. Much as the largest galleries in the five-year run of the North Shore tournament had hoped and implored to see proved otherwise.

Wie showed a bit of that swagger of yesteryear following her first birdie on the fourth hole. By the time she stood atop a three-shot lead with eight holes remaining, expectation was building among the faithful who endured steady wind and intermittent rain to see this to its conclusion.

Then, one of the the first things that could have tested Wie's resolve did. Stanford was staring at a three-shot deficit after the 10th hole and wondering how she was going to get back in it. Instead, Wie provided the openings with the double bogey on 11 and a bogey on 17.

While Wie wilted with her struggles, Stanford grew stronger, taking advantage with birdies on 13, 14 and 15.

"Once she figures things out, she is going to be just fine," Stanford said.

Fortunately for Stanford, yesterday still wasn't that day.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.