Reporter Michael Bamberger of Sports Illustrated is feeling pretty good about himself tonight. He didn’t just get a great story — Michelle Wie disqualified in her pro debut — he created it.

He woke up this morning feeling so concerned over a drop Michelle took yesterday, he waited until Michelle completed her round today, then questioned LPGA Tour and rules officials and had them review tape of Saturday’s drop. According to rules official Robert O. Smith, the tape was “inconclusive,” so everyone trooped out to the seventh hole to find out where exactly the ball was dropped.

Smith had Wie and her caddy show him where the ball was in the bushes, then where they dropped. Inconclusive. They paced it off. Still inconclusive.

Then they pulled out string to measure the distance. Voila! The ball was dropped twelve to fifteen inches closer to the hole! Bingo, Michelle Wie’s signed scorecard is deemed invalid, her fourth-place finish is disqualified, and Bamberger has his story.

To her credit, Michelle has handled this gut punch with considerable poise. “I learned a great lesson,” Wie said. “From now on, I’ll call a rules official no matter where it is, whether it’s 3 inches or 100 yards. I'm really sad that this happened but you know, the rules are the rules. Three inches or 100 yards, it's the same thing. I respect that.” At $53,126, that was an expensive lesson. Here's another one: don't forget to carry a ball of twine in your bag.

Michelle's caddy reportedly had some heated words for Bamberger: mainly, why wait until today to report yesterday's transgression? If he knew what two rules officials required 50 yards of string to figure out, why not give Michelle a chance to correct an honest mistake before signing her scorecard?

But the answer to that would be obvious, wouldn't it? No DQ, no big story.

So a day after the fact, a random reporter looking for the story of the year can turn an LPGA event into a witch hunt. Impressive work, Bamberger. Good luck getting any interviews with Michelle Wie in the future, SI. And Michelle, welcome to the pros.

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