Michelle Wie is too good a player to be regarded as a freak show, but, unfortunately, those around her seem happy to let her take on such a role. Those who watch her play turn up as much to see her fail as succeed.

Shame, then, on the organisers of the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open, a USPGA Tour event, for inviting Wie, 18, to their tournament next week and shame on her advisers for considering it a good idea. The tournament, in Reno, Nevada, is on at the same time as the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, in Akron, Ohio, and thus is starved of publicity. In this instance, any publicity is good publicity.

The days when Wie was considered a novelty in the men's ranks have long passed. At 14, she finished one stroke off the cut at the Sony Open in Honolulu, which was mightily impressive. She had played with an enthused Ernie Els in practice and could do no wrong.

A dose of reality has since cut in. Wie has played in seven events on the PGA Tour in the United States and missed the cut in all of them. Gone are the days when hordes would turn up to witness a 6ft girl driving the ball great distances, with a flowing swing unmatched in the women's game. In reality, she does not have the game to survive among the men, even though she has made one cut in an Asian Tour event, at the SK Telecom Open in South Korea in 2006.

The sport became difficult for Wie when she injured both wrists in 2007 and returned to playing too soon. But with multimillion-dollar endorsements from companies such as Nike, Sony and Omega, she found few sympathisers among her peers, while her continued attempts to mix it with the men became increasingly forlorn, not to say embarrassing.

“It's not every day that a woman is given the opportunity to play on the greatest tour in the world,” Wie said of her invitation to play in Reno. “This is a tremendous opportunity to learn from these great players and take those lessons into becoming the best player I can be on any tour.”

One thing that most people are in agreement on is Wie's need to concentrate on the women's game. She is a student at Stanford University but had hoped to earn enough prize-money this year from the seven invitations to qualify automatically for the LPGA Tour for next year.

She looked to be on the way to achieving the feat last week before being disqualified at the LPGA State Farm Classic for forgetting to sign her scorecard after the second round, her second disqualification for a rules violation. She had finished the third round in second place when the disqualification was imposed. Now, it seems, she can do nothing right.

If an invitation to the Ricoh Women's British Open at Sunningdale had been forthcoming, she would probably be competing in Berkshire next week. In this instance, the organisers have missed a trick.