There were a couple of "senior moments" in the world of golf last week.

The first was 53-year-old Greg Norman, surprising everyone, including himself, by being the 54-hole leader in the 137th British Open. Then there was 18-year-old Michelle Wie, forgetting to sign her scorecard and being disqualified in the LPGA State Farm Classic.

You have to feel for them.

Padraig Harrington, who won the British Open for the second straight year, walked up the 18th fairway on Sunday with Norman and told him that he was sorry it wasn't his story that was going to be told. "I did feel that, but I wanted to win myself," Harrington said. "In this game, you have to take your chances when you get them."

Well, Wie had one of those very chances, playing her best golf in years for a great chance to win her first LPGA event. But she blew it by forgetting the most basic rule in golf: check your scorecard to see if it's correct and sign it. Wie signed it all right, but after leaving the designated scoring area, which is in violation of the Rules of Golf.

"I think it's very unfortunate, very sad. It's just heart-breaking but it should never have happened," said Mary Bea Porter-King of the Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association, who is at the U.S. Junior Amateur in Shoal Creek, Ala. "As I preach to my juniors, 'the scorecard is the most important thing.' " What good is a career round if you have an incorrect scorecard, she constantly reminds them.

Indeed, what good was Wie's 7-under-par 65 — matching her pro career's best low round — when she forgot to sign her scorecard after Friday's second round. It was erased as if it never happened.

It was the second DQ in Wie's well-chronicled career. She was disqualified in the 2005 Samsung World Championship in her professional debut. It was determined after her round that she took an improper drop. Her scorecard was already signed, but it eventually turned out to be incorrect because the 2-stroke penalty wasn't included.

In last week's case, Wie just plumb forgot to sign her scorecard. She couldn't explain why or how it happened. What can you say, other than it's apparently possible for a teenager to have a senior moment, too.

Wie's brain-lock proved to be costly. A victory would have given her an LPGA card for next year and a second- or third-place finish could have been enough for her to be in the top 80 money list and get exempt that way.

"Everyone makes mistakes," said Porter-King in Wie's defense. But it always seems to be happening to the teenage prodigy from Hawai'i.

Of course, there have been scorecard gaffes in golf before. In 2005, Hawai'i's Dean Wilson was disqualified after the second round of the Buick Invitational for failing to sign his scorecard. He was in 16th place at the time. Hawai'i's Jackie Pung was disqualified in the 1957 U.S. Women's Open at Winged Foot for putting down a wrong score for a hole even though her total for the final round was correct.

Roberto De Vicenzo also lost a chance to win the 1968 Masters because of a similar mistake. "What a stupid I am!" he later went on to say. Sergio Garcia was DQ'd in last year's PGA Championship when playing partner Boo Weekley wrote down a wrong score for Garcia. Weekley felt bad, but Garcia has no one to blame but himself. It's the player's responsibility to ensure his scorecard is correct before signing it.

Sometimes even a signature isn't a guarantee. Mark Roe and Jesper Parnevik, who played together in the 2003 British Open, both signed their scorecards — each other's and not their own — resulting in both being disqualified.

It's not unusual for a golfer not to sign a scorecard. It's usually someone who shot an 89 and wanted to get the heck out of there in hurry. But a 65? That's what makes this latest boo-boo by Wie so painful.

Her next stop is the PGA Tour's Reno-Tahoe Open next week, even though she probably wished she were playing in the Women's British Open that week. With only one LPGA sponsor's exemption remaining — the Canadian Women's Open — it appears that Team Wie is going to Plan B, which calls for playing in a men's event even though it wasn't its original intent starting the year.

I don't know what the required reading is at Stanford when she goes back for her second year this fall. But in the meantime, Wie should curl up with a good book titled the "Rules of Golf." I know she said after she had incurred a two-stroke penalty at the 2006 Women's British Open that the rule book "is not actually great reading material."

But, clearly, she didn't know the rule that says once you leave the scoring area, you can't return and do anything about your scorecard again. "I thought it would be OK," Wie said after she signed it when chased down by volunteers who realized her scorecard wasn't signed.

It's those lapses that makes you wonder if Wie would have been better off playing more junior golf tournaments when she was younger. She took a different and more financially rewarding path. But a basic lack of knowledge about some of the rules of the game she's so good at is coming back to haunt her.

"I've offered private tutoring lessons in rules to her after Samsung and I'm going to offer them again," said Porter-King, pointing out as an example that even at local junior events, a designated scoring area is clearly marked.

Bill Kwon can be reached at bill kwonrhs@aol.com.