Michelle Wie at a press conference in Palm Desert on Sunday. (Reuters)

Palm Desert (California): Michelle Wie, the 16-year-old golf phenom, was disqualified from her professional debut at the Samsung World Championship on Sunday when LPGA rules officials determined that she had taken an illegal drop during the third round at Bighorn Golf Club.

According to officials, the infraction occurred on the 470-yard, par-5 seventh hole, where Wie hit her approach shot into a bush to the left of the green. Wie took an unplayable lie, called a one-stroke penalty and took a drop that she believed, she later said, was no closer to the hole, as the Rules of Golf state. She chipped onto the green and made par.

On Sunday, however, a reporter approached Robert . Smith, an LPGA official, and said he believed that Wie had actually dropped her ball closer to the hole. When Wie completed her final round on Sunday, Smith and his fellow LPGA official Jim Haley summoned Wie and her caddie, Greg Johnston, and they went to the seventh hole and found the divot where Wie played her shot.

In the rain, Smith and Haley, using a string to measure the distance, determined that Wie had indeed dropped her ball approximately 12 to 18 inches closer to the hole, a two-stroke penalty. When she signed for a one-under-par 71 on Saturday, instead of a one-over 73, it warranted immediate disqualification. under Rule 6 for signing for a score lower than she actually made, Smith said.

“Once we pointed it out and they realised that Michelle did play from a closer spot, it was fairly conclusive,” said Haley.

About 90 minutes after the end of the tournament, won by Annika Sorenstam for the fifth time in her career, Wie appeared for a news conference, where the same cameras that had chronicled her debut captured an emotional teenager trying to explain her side of the story.

“I made an error; I respect the rule,” Wie said before describing what she, at first, believed was a legal drop. “I thought I wasn’t closer. It looked fine to me. I didn’t have any question in my mind. I learned a great lesson. From now on, I’ll call a rule official, no matter what it is, 3 inches or 100 yards. It’s the same thing, and I respect that.

“I’m pretty sad. It’s obviously not the way I wanted to begin, but it’s all right. I don’t feel like I cheated. I was honest out there.”

Because of the disqualification, Wie forfeited $53,126, which was the prize money for finishing in fourth place ? 10 shots behind Sorenstam, who won her eighth tournament of the year by shooting a final-round 3-under 69 for an 18-under 270.

Sorenstam defeated the 19-year-old rookie Paula Creamer by eight shots in a tournament delayed by more than three hours because of rain and lightning in the area. Wie shot a 2-over 74, which would have been good for fourth place in the elite field of 20.