Monday Pin Placement: It Ain't Easy Being Wie

Every Monday during the PGA Tour season (unless one of the tournaments you're writing about is postponed due to rain and concludes on a weekday), Monday Pin Placement will run as a wrap-up of the weekend's action, with a little commentary mixed in. We'll focus on what you may have missed while you were out grinding on the putting green.

Please Get Off Michelle Wie's Back -- It is pretty strange that Michelle Wie is starting to get the Tiger Woods treatment with tournament finishes. You know, how everyone hates on Tiger when he doesn't win, even if he finishes second (good example, he has finished t-3, t-2, 2 at the Masters the last three years and people are wondering why he's struggling at Augusta).

Wie has deserved her fair share of criticism over the years. She made bad decisions when she was dancing between the LPGA and the PGA Tour, focusing her time on beating the men when she was struggling to even make the cut with the women.

A strange thing happened at the conclusion of 2008, though. Wie started making mature decisions. She went through Q-School from the ground up, played her way onto the tour for the first time, and at a ripe 19 years old, is ready to take on the tour full fledged. Now, she finishes second at the SBS Open in Hawaii and it seems people are disappointed.

Guys like Ryan Moore will tell you, winning on the big stage, LPGA or PGA, is tough, and Wie is still getting her feet wet in that department. Even more than that, Angela Stanford, the eventual champion of the SBS Open, birdied 13, 14 and 15 on her way to a two-shot victory over Wie.

This finish is good news for golf fans, not bad. Wie is back and I guarantee that LPGA sponsors are letting out a hearty sigh of relief as they get set for the rest of the season. A win would have been nice, because critics would have finally been quieted, but second place is the next best thing. She won six figures and has the momentum rolling for the rest of '09. Lets give her a break for once, shall we?

Rain-Shortened Win -- You think people were disappointed about a rain-shortened week at Pebble Beach? Dustin Johnson isn't one of them.

The 24-year-old from Coastal Carolina won the event after rounds of 65-69-67, making it his second straight year with a PGA Tour victory after his '08 Turning Stone victory. Now, Johnson is on a very short list (with only Anthony Kim) as under-25 tour players with two wins.

He said he found out he had won from another player, who called him and congratulated him.

I found out from another player who actually called me and congratulated me. And I was like, 'What are you talking about?'"

It had to have been a nice surprise.

The Goose is Back? -- Sure, it wasn't a win, and Retief Goosen struggled in the third round, but it would be good news if the South African has found his game again.

When Retief won those two U.S. Opens in four years, I was certain he'd be around for a while. He had a smooth swing, an even smoother putting stroke and never seemed rattled on the course. Goosen never did much after '04, winning the International the next year and then nothing since.

The second round 64 at Pebble put him back on the radar and in an age when all there is to talk about is when Tiger will be back, finding out Retief might already be getting back to form is exciting news.

Final Round Handshakes ...

--Phil Mickelson, again, was off this weekend, finishing in a t-55, the last spot that allowed people to play the final round (if it had not been rained out). Lefty has played nine rounds so far in '09 and has yet to break 70 in any of them. The talks of his struggles might have been premature by some, but they continue to sound more and more reasonable the more he finishes over par.

--How Anna Rawson would fare after her unfortunate (and blatantly ignorant) statements about the public's view of the LPGA interested me. Would she be bothered by all the negative attention? Would she just dust it off her shoulder and hit the ground running? It appeared either the scrutiny made her uncomfortable or she has yet to hit top form, because Rawson missed the cut by two shots in Hawaii, firing a first-round 80.

--In Vijay Singh's first tournament since injury, the reigning FedEx Cup Champion missed the cut in California with rounds of 72-75-75.