Jennifer Mario: Michelle Wie, at the top of the leaderboard, gets DQ'd from State Farm Classic

The British Open is drawing all the attention this weekend, so golf fans can be forgiven for missing what was a pretty major story at the LPGA State Farm Classic. Once again, Michelle Wie found herself disqualified.

Her error this time was the sin of omission—after a stellar round of 65 on Friday that put her in second place, she forgot to sign her scorecard. Volunteers called her back, she walked back and signed it, and thought everything was fine.

It wasn't.

She had already stepped outside the roped area around the scorer's tent before she was called back, a no-no according to Rule 6-6. "She was like a little kid after you tell them there's no Santa Clause," said an oddly gleeful-sounding Sue Witters, the LPGA's director of tournament competitions who broke the news to Wie and apparently goes around telling little kids that there's no Santa Clause.

Like the 2005 Samsung Championship, where a bad drop cost her a fourth-place finish, she was informed of her error well after the fact. In this case, she made the mistake on Friday, but wasn't informed until after completing her Saturday round.

This DQ hurts a lot more than the Samsung did, three years ago: Her three rounds of 67, 65, 67 were her best performances of late—there's no telling what might have been, but another good round could have clinched her first LPGA victory.

This was as costly a mistake as Michelle could have made. She's been trying to earn her way onto the LPGA via the money-list rule, whereby the top 80 money makers receive automatic exemption for the following year. Had she placed second or better this weekend, a Tour card would have been all but assured.

She's allowed to play in only eight LPGA events in '08, and the State Farm was her sixth. Opportunities to crack that top 80 are running out.

The good news, for Michelle, is the fact that she was in second place at all. It's been a while since she's seen the other side of par, let alone seventeen strokes below it. The fact that she got to seventeen under, with the outright lead on the 17th hole of the third round has got to be a boost to a confidence that's taken a beating lately.

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