There's a story told about the legendary coach, Harvey Penick, who was once asked to go and run the rule over a young Hal Sutton. Penick watched Sutton hit about 50 balls, each of them as good as perfect, before he turned to Sutton's father. "Mr Sutton, your son is going to be a fine player, " he said. "The only thing the rest of us need to do is stay out of his way."

Penick knew then, just as McIlroy's advisors know now, that no professional with an eye on breaking into the world's elite can be left entirely to his own devices. Hailed as the next Jack Nicklaus after he won the USPGA Championship and the Players Championship in 1983, Sutton lost his game and earned the nickname 'Halimony' following a series of failed marriages.

While McIlroy's orthodox method and hugely impressive temperament are likely to propel him further than any Irish player in history, there is always the possibility wellintentioned confidants could get in his way or, worse, he could get in his own way.

So far, his progress in securing a Tour card after just two events has been as thrilling as it has been quietly expected, and if he is intelligently managed, and if the trappings that surround the pro game don't blur his perspective, it is perfectly reasonable to suggest that, at 18, McIlroy is on the cusp of great things.

Just as it seemed, when she joined the professional ranks amid great fanfare exactly two years ago, that Michelle Wie was on the cusp of great things. Now the question that hangs over the one-time prodigy, who turned 18 last Thursday, is whether her future is already behind her.

If the notion of losing one's game as a teenager seems preposterous, Wie has gone from wunderkind to possible hasbeen in the space of a season.

This year, she has competed in seven LPGA Tour events, her best finish has been a tie for 69th, her stroke average is near as makes no difference to 77 and she has earned the princely sum of $10,000.

Not that cash is a vital statistic in her life at the moment as Forbesmagazine estimated her total income for 2006 at a staggering $19m . . . a figure which ranks her second in the list of the world's highest-paid female athletes behind Maria Sharapova. Not bad when the only tournament you've won of any significance is the 2003 US Women's Public Links.

Injuries have played their part in this surprising collapse. Wie struggled early in the season with a wrist problem, and just when the discomfort appeared to ease, she broke the other wrist in a fall during a training run. But for all the emphasis on her physical difficulties, this has been a year mired by controversy, bad decisions and bad PR.

"It's the first hard year I've experienced as a player. It's going to make me a stronger player, I don't count this year basically. The only thing I did wrong is that I didn't take my injuries as seriously as I should have, " said Wie who at the age of 13 was described by Golf Digest as a "phenomenon".

Her contention that the only mistake she made was to underestimate her wrist injuries is hard to take seriously. If she hasn't been around the block long enough to understand that there are times when rest is the only cure, what pressures were brought to bear that kept her playing in tournaments?

Did her parents, BJ and Bo, and her management company, the William Morris Agency, not realise Michelle appeared to be on the verge of burnout? Was someone not tempted to call a halt to her schedule as she either withdrew from events or reeled off rounds in the 80s? Or is she, at such a delicate stage of her development, already regarded as a cash calf? "I want to be known as someone who changed the world, and changed how people think, " she ill-advisedly said as a 15-year-old. Wie has changed how people think.

About her.

Several years ago as she boomed out 280-yard drives in practice, and as she fashioned a game which looked as if it could blur the gulf between genders, she turned more heads than Tiger Woods.

"When you see her hit a ball, there's nothing that prepares you for it, " observed Fred Couples in 2002. "It's just the scariest thing you've even seen."

While she didn't win, and didn't make a cut on the PGA Tour, wherever Michelle Wie played attendances ballooned, and sponsors rubbed their hands. She was attractive, articulate and gifted. An American of Asian blood, with an engaging smile and talent to burn, she ticked every box.

If a breakthrough victory proved elusive last year, she still made her mark in the women's major championships with a tie for third at the Kraft Nabisco, a fifth place at the LPGA Championship, another tie for third at the US Women's Open, a tie for 26th at the Women's British Open, and a runner-up spot at the prestigious Evian Masters.

All that at the tender age of 16.

But as her handlers' obsession with pitting her against the men continued, there were signs of the rot that would set in. She missed the cut at the European Masters by 14 strokes, she missed again by 13 at the PGA Tour's 84 Lumber Classic, and then she travelled to Japan for the Casio World Open where she finished second last, 27 strokes behind the winner. And early this season, there was no evidence things had improved as she missed another cut, this time by 14 strokes, at the Sony Open on her home patch of Hawaii.

Once her wrist injuries had healed, she was back to avail of a sponsor's invitation at the LPGA Tour's Ginn Tribute where she withdrew after 16 holes of the first round citing a recurrence of her wrist problem. However, the fact she was 14 over par, and that two more bogeys would have given her an 88 . . . a score which would have led to her being banned for the rest of the season . . .didn't go unnoticed.

Two days later, she was seen practising at Bulle Rock, the site of the following week's LPGA Championship. If her surprisingly rapid recovery wasn't contrary to the rules, her practice round was, and she was rebuked by the LPGA which also suggested that she adopt a more enthusiastic attitude to her pro-am partners.

More damning was the criticism from Annika Sorenstam, who hosted the Ginn Tribute. She said Wie's antics demonstrated "a little bit of lack of respect and class".

There were further withdrawals from the John Deere Classic and from the US Women's Open where she was 17 over par after 27 holes, but now, after a two-month break during which she enrolled at Stanford University, she is back to test her faltering game at the Samsung World Championship in California which is an end-of-season event with an elite field of just 20 players.

While the likes of Karrie Webb and Julie Inkster are not eligible, Wie is able to tee it up despite her monumental loss of form because Samsung offered her their one sponsor's invite last March. There have been suggestions she could have created an opportunity for another player by staying at Stanford, but she turned up and was in last place at the halfway stage following two rounds of 79.

"She's basically won one tournament, " said Tiger Woods. "I think a lot of us who have played golf at an early age have played high-school golf, amateur golf, collegiate golf and then turned pro. She skipped a lot of that. I think there's an art form to winning.

You have to learn how to do it."

In 2007, Michelle Wie has learned nothing. At 18, and wealthy beyond her dreams, her star is falling.