A lot’s already been written about Michelle Wie accepting a sponsor’s exemption to play in the Reno-Tahoe Open, yet the larger truth’s gone unnoticed. This move reeks of sudden desperation from Team Wie, desperation they’d smartly largely avoided for the last year as Wie tried to rebuild a game that had been propped up by smoke and mirrors hype from the very beginning.

Given the slightest taste of the old hoopla that surrounded Michelle’s every move with that run in the State Farm Classic - and for a few moments there last weekend, it was almost like old times for the Wie Warriors and her apparently equally delirious advisors - Team Wie reacted like a junkie who’s found the heroin needle again. They just couldn’t let the attention go. They couldn’t do the smart thing and let Wie build on her play before and after she failed to sign her scorecard before leaving the roped-off scoring area in future LPGA tournaments.

Instead, they completely overreacted and desperately grabbed at any opportunity. Even one against the men on a course that couldn’t be any more ill-suited for her game. There is no sensical way to explain Wie’s sudden need to play in another PGA Tournament at this time. It’s so ludicrous and idiotic a decision that I spent a few days waiting for the punchline - the just kidding, Brett Favre backwards tap dance to come out of Camp Wie.

Team Wie is apparently all attention junkie though.

In one sense, getting disqualified should have been seen as a plus. After all, it fueled the illusion that Wie would have won the State Farm. You actually had sports commentators getting on the radio and TV declaring that Wie was on the cusp of her first victory. As if the fact she’s never closed out a tournament in her life suddenly held no relevance. It was sort of funny and cute.

And Wie could have built on that perception by coming back in another LPGA Tournament down the road and playing well. Instead, she goes desperate. And the only thing worse than the desperation is that it also reeks of a decision made in anger. Against the LPGA Tour. You could hear it in Wie’s statement on taking the Reno-Tahoe Open free pass.

“It’s not every day that a woman is given the opportunity to play on the greatest tour in the world,” Wie’s statement goes. “This is a tremendous opportunity for me to learn from these great players and take those lessons to the LPGA.”

The “greatest tour in the world” … if that’s not a slap at the LPGA, nothing is. Wie suddenly feels the need to make PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem feel good? Remember, this is a statement, put out by Team Wie. These aren’t off-the-cuff press conference remarks from Michelle herself. They had all the time in the world to go back over those words. They said what they wanted to say, took a direct shot at the LPGA a few days after that Tour dared to disqualify the Hype Princess again.

Think it’s coincidence that Wie is playing a PGA Tour event the same week as the Women’s British Open, doing her best to siphon attention away from a women’s tour that needs every bit of spotlight it can muster?

Team Wie seems to have reacted in desperation and anger. Some combination. Some way to run a career.

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