Author: Dustin Ashby Updated: Sun 7/20/2008 11:34 am

C'mon.  You aren't serious.  Did I really hear what I think I just heard? 

Michelle Wie, disqualified after not signing her scorecard within the guidelines set forth in the rules of golf is once again the laughing stock of the golf world.  On a weekend when most eyes and ears were turned to Royal Birkdale, for one brief moment we paid attention to the circus we call life as Michelle Wie. 

After finishing Friday and Saturday in second place at the State Farm Classic, Michelle Wie was only good round away from living up to her potential.  Then, minutes after tapping in her last putt of round three, the Michelle Wie we've come to know surfaced to explain why she'd been disqualified from the tournament. 

“I don’t know why or how it happened,” Wie said.

That left Yani Tseng leading the tournament at 18 under, followed by Katie Futcher at 16 under and Hee-Won Han and Ji Young Oh another shot back.

Sue Witters, the LPGA’s director of tournament competitions, disqualified Wie in a small office in an LPGA trailer at the course after asking her what had happened.

“She was like a little kid after you tell them there’s no Santa Claus,” Witters said.

And with that, Wie was gone from a tournament where either the $255,000 winner’s purse or the $155,252 second prize would have put her comfortably within the top 80 money winners for the year – and virtually guaranteed her a place on the LPGA next year.

The State Farm seemed tailor-made for Wie, a part-time player trying to become a full-fledged tour member for the first time.

Only two of the top 10 money winners were in town for the event, and Wie said before play began that she was looking forward to opening up her long game on the wide fairways and flat greens of Panther Creek.

Wie told reporters that after she finished her round Friday, she left the tent just above the ninth green where players sign their scorecards. She was chased down by volunteers working in the tent, who pointed out she hadn’t signed.

Wie returned to the tent and signed the card, and “I thought it would be OK,” she said.

But Wie, according to Witters, had already walked outside the roped-off area around the tent. At that point, the mistake was final, Witters said.

Witters said she and other tour officials didn’t learn about the mistake from volunteers until well after Wie teed off Saturday morning, so they let her finish the round.

Wie said she usually signs her scorecard immediately, and had no idea why she didn’t Friday.

“Hopefully it won’t happen again,” she said.

Tour officials and other players, while sympathetic, said the signature rule is at the heart of golf’s honor system.

So how will this story end?  Well we obviously know how the story ends at this years State Farm Classsic, but how does the Michelle Wie, golf career story end?  How many times will she fall down to only begin her climb back up?  A person can only take so much.

C'mon Michelle.  The game of golf needs you and based on this week's support at the State Farm Classic, people still are cheering for you.