Annika Sorenstam blasts Michelle Wie on Ginn withdrawal: "Lack of respect and class"

HAVRE DE GRACE, MD. - Taking the microphone moments ago in her McDonald’s LPGA Championship press conference, Annika Sorenstam laid into Michelle Wie for the teen drawing card’s highly controversial withdrawal from the Ginn Tribute.

“I just feel there’s a little bit of lack of respect and class to just leave a tournament like that,” Sorenstam said, pulling no punches in a half filled interview room. “Especially being the hostess, it just seems really weird.”

This is the first time the preeminent player in women’s golf for the last decade has criticized Wie publicly. Whether you think Team Wie’s decision to march off the 17th tee with the 88 Rule hanging over her head was right or wrong, it’s apparent that many attitudes toward Wie on the LPGA Tour have changed.

Sorenstam made it clear that Wie had not reached out to her to explain the not-so-mysterious walk away after 16 holes. The LPGA’s top player and most powerful voice also said she believes Wie should have shown “some respect to the sponsors,” especially since Wie played the Ginn on a sponsors’ exemption.

“MacKinzie shot 89 on the last day and she was just a trooper,” Sorenstam said of MacKinzie Kline, the 15-year-old with a congenital heart defect who played in the Ginn on another sponsors’ exemption. “She finished her round and was just so proud to be out there …

“That’s how you should handle a situation like that.”

For complete daily coverage of the LPGA’s second major, which is quickly turning into an examination of Michelle Wie, stay tuned to WorldGolf.com. There will be full news stories and columns starting tomorrow morning and running through the last putt Sunday night.