GOLF

WIE TURNS PRO

Michelle Wie, the Hawaii teen who has been competing against golf’s best players since she was in the seventh grade, turned professional yesterday. The announcement was hardly a surprise. It had been reported for weeks that Wie would go pro by her 16th birthday next week.

Wie has signed endorsement deals with Nike and Sony said to be worth $10 million a year, and her first act as a professional was to give some of it back. She pledged $500,000 to the U.S. Golf Hurricane Relief Fund, set up by the major golf organizations.

Wie will make her professional debut next week on the LPGA Tour at the Samsung World Championship, an 18-player field at Bighorn Golf Club in California. She also will play in the Casio World Open in Japan the week of Thanksgiving, her sixth time competing against men. Wie has made the cut in her last 16 LPGA events dating to 2003, and would have earned about $640,870 on the LPGA had she not been an amateur. That would put her 13th on the money list in only seven starts.

BASEBALL

MACHA OUT AS A’S MANAGER

Oakland A’s manager Ken Macha was out of a job yesterday after failing to reach an agreement on a new contract. Macha led the A’s to the AL West title in his first year as manager in 2003, the club’s fourth straight playoff berth. But Oakland failed to reach the postseason the past two years despite a 91-win season in 2004 and 88 victories this year.

FOOTBALL

DETROIT’S ROGERS SUSPENDED FOR FOUR GAMES

Detroit wide receiver Charles Rogers was suspended yesterday for four games for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. The suspension is the latest in a series of problems for the second overall choice in the 2003 draft, who missed much of his first two seasons after breaking his right collarbone twice.

Under terms of the NFL’s substance abuse policy, a player is suspended for four games without pay after a second positive test after he enters the program. If Rogers has another positive test, he will be suspended for at least one year. In three games this season, Rogers has caught just five passes for 77 yards.

HORSE RACING

NYRA CLERK ACCUSED OF PILFERING

A New York Racing Association betting window clerk has been accused of punching out $30,000 worth of unpaid tickets for himself at Belmont, state and NYRA officials said.

On Tuesday, NYRA president Charles Hayward told the state’s new NYRA oversight board the clerk was a temporary employee and is accused of punching his own tickets while he worked at a cash drawer Saturday.

The case comes three weeks after NYRA’s new management, headed by Hayward, persuaded a court-appointed monitor and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn to dismiss a federal indictment. NYRA had been charged with money laundering and tax evasion.

– Associated Press