Michelle Wie has always done things at an accelerated pace. She began walking when she was nine months old and started reading when she was just past her first birthday. When she was 13, she became the youngest winner of any United States Golf Association championship in history. Now, at age 16, she is in a hurry to not only keep playing with the guys, but also to do something that no female has done in 61 years -- make a cut on the PGA Tour.

Wie is playing in the 84 Lumber Classic that begins tomorrow at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa in Farmington, where she has visited many times with her family. Her presence will cast golf's national spotlight on Joe Hardy's opulent mountain resort, just as it does to every site when Wie is there to play in a PGA Tour event.

This will be the third time this year, sixth overall, that Wie will try to become the first female since Babe Zaharias in 1945 to make the cut in a PGA Tour event. And her presence has done more than bring a surreal atmosphere to a tournament that will no longer exist after this year. It has fueled the debate over whether Wie, who is playing on a sponsors exemption, belongs here to begin with.

Magerko asked Wie about playing in the tournament in November, when Wie and her parents had Thanksgiving dinner with the Hardy family at Nemacolin Woodlands. That was back when the tournament appeared headed for greater things -- an extended stay and a better time slot on the PGA Tour.

Now, with the tournament's future as bare as a picked-over turkey, Wie will still bring a measure of added excitement to the 72-hole event ... if she lasts that long.

"They're a really good family," Wie said of the Hardys. "They're really nice people. We ate Thanksgiving dinner with them and I enjoy spending time with them. I played the golf course many times and I feel like the golf course suits me.

"It's probably going to be the longest course I've ever played so far. But the golf course is very exciting to me. It's a little bit challenging because it's long, but I think it's going to be a very fun week."

Earlier this summer, Wie became the first female to reach the sectional qualifying round of the U.S. Open. But her attempt to make it to the men's national championship ended when she followed an opening 68 with a final-round 75 at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, N.J.

"I'm just playing wherever I want to play, and I want to play on the LPGA Tour as well as the men's tour and the European Tour and the Asian Tour," Wie said. "I want to play all over the place. I love it."

Not only has Wie never won a professional tournament, but she also has won just once outside her native Hawaii -- the 2003 U.S. Women's Public Links Championship. What's more, after a couple solid performances in PGA Tour events, she seems to be going backward when she plays against the men.

Wie missed the cut last weekend at the European Masters after shooting 78-79. Before that, she opened with 77 and had to withdraw because of heat exhaustion after 27 holes at the John Deere Classic in July -- her most recent appearance on the PGA Tour.

There are those who contend she doesn't have enough game to compete against the men, and the novelty of her trying to do so is beginning to wear thin. Others have suggested she should concentrate on playing against females and developing her niche or place in history on the LPGA Tour.

"Michelle Wie has an opportunity to become the greatest woman player history has ever known," said Daniel Chopra, who played against her at the John Deere Classic. "She's wasting that opportunity by not playing the LPGA. She's wasting her time right now."

Wie, though, doesn't appear to care. Nor is she afraid of failure. Several years ago, when she went to the Great Wall of China, Wie stopped walking the stairs of the wall because she was afraid when she climbed too high. She turned around and crawled the rest of the way down -- a decision she regrets now because she failed to push herself to the highest point.

"Ever since I started playing golf I wanted to play on the PGA Tour," Wie said. "I didn't really think it was a men's tour. And it's always been what I wanted to do. It's always been my goal to compete with them. And it's always going to be. And I'm always going to try.

"The PGA Tour stands for Professional Golf Association. There's no 'men' in there. I feel like I can play out there because I am a professional now, so I think that it's cool."

Two years ago, Arnold Palmer said he thought Wie could have a bigger impact on the game of golf than Tiger Woods, the world's No. 1 player. He made the comment after watching Wie barely miss the cut in the Sony Open, the season-opening event on the PGA Tour.

Wie, a 14-year-old amateur at the time, shot 72-68 to finish at par-140, five strokes better than Annika Sorenstam's score when she became the first female in 58 years to play in a PGA Tour event in the 2003 Bank of America Colonial. Over two days, she beat or tied 64 men, 25 of whom were past winners on the PGA Tour.

Not even Woods accomplished such a feat at a tender age. He was 16 when he played in his first PGA Tour event, missing the cut by six shots in the Los Angeles Open.

"She will change the scene, without question, with her golfing," Palmer said. "She's probably going to influence the golfing scene as much as Tiger, or more. She's going to attract people that even Tiger didn't attract, young people, both boys and girls, and families.

"To do what she did was unbelievable. The whole thing is kind of up to her now. Putting herself in the spotlight, as she has, takes a certain amount of her control away. How her parents and how she handles it from here on in is very important to her, her life, her future."

After she missed the cut last week at the European Masters -- the ninth time she has missed a cut in 10 mens' events -- Wie's father, B.J., said he could not dissuade his daughter from playing against the men, even if he wanted to.

"It does look as though she is not ready yet, but she has to keep improving," her father said. "She doesn't want to quit. I agree, as a parent, I should be there to advise her and I have no regrets on what I've said to her. Anyway, she might not listen to me. She's a very stubborn girl."

Wie followed an opening 78 with a second-round 79 to finish last at 15-over 157, her second embarrassing performance against the men and a departure from her earlier outings against the opposite sex. In July, she had to withdraw after 27 holes because of heat exhaustion at the John Deere Classic, where she opened with a 77 and was 2-over for nine holes before departing on a gurney.

Wie's previous worst round in a men's tournament came this year in the Sony Open in Hawaii, where she opened with a 9-over 79. She had a 68 in the second round but missed the cut. The only men's tournament in which she made the cut was the SK Telecom Open in South Korea earlier this year, where Wie finished 12 shots off the lead.

Of course, Wie might not have much choice but to play against the men. Because she is not old enough (18) to be a full-time member of the LPGA Tour, she is allowed to play only eight events on the women's tour . She has already played in seven tournaments in 2006.

When she was 13, the age when most girls are playing in American Junior Golf Association events, Wie won the U.S. Women's Public Links Championship -- the youngest winner in tournament history -- and finished ninth in one of the LPGA Tour's majors, the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Faced with the prospect of playing in junior events or USGA and professional events, Wie chose the latter. Several years ago, she wrote a letter to The Associated Press, explaining and defending her decision to play against the men and accept sponsors exemptions. In the letter, she said she was not afraid of failure.

"I don't know if me playing with the men is promoting anything," Wie said a couple months ago, before an LPGA Tour event. "I don't really pay attention to any of that stuff. I'm out here to try my hardest, play my hardest, and that's all that matters to me."

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