Wie moved a step closer in her long-shot bid to become the first female player to qualify for the U.S. Open, shooting an even-par 72 on Monday to win a local qualifier.

"Awesome," she said after a USGA official told her the results were official.

The USGA believes she is the first woman to get through local qualifying for the U.S. Open. Wie and two other players advanced to sectional play next month, with Wie saying she will play in the June 5 36-hole sectional at Canoe Brook in Summit, N.J.

Playing on her home island of Oahu in front of about two dozen people, Wie was steady for most of her round on the breezy, oceanside Palmer Course at Turtle Bay Resort, but missed a couple of short putts. She had four birdies and four bogeys.

For Wie, it's back to Punahou School where she closes out her memorable junior year, where she turned pro, finished third in the Fields Open and tied for third in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, both times missing a playoff by one shot. She has earned $181,449, which would place her 16th on the LPGA Tour's money list.

"I have finals, papers. I'm kind of overwhelmed with school right now," she said. "But summer is very close."

Under the two-year contract, Wie will appear in TV and newspaper commercials for ShinYoung Co., a developer that builds apartments and other buildings, the company said in a statement.

ShinYoung didn't disclose the amount of the contract, but South Korea's Yonhap news agency, without citing sources, reported the deal was worth $3 million.

Wie's "spirit shown in a series of competitions against men befits ShinYoung's image as a developer," the company said. It said her commercials will be filmed in Hawaii and New York starting later this month and will be shown from August.

On Friday, Wie made the cut in a men's tournament for the first time in eight attempts while playing in the Asian Tour's SK Telecom Open. She finished 35th in the tournament.

Wie was born and raised in Hawaii, but her parents are South Korean. She speaks fluent Korean, has a Korean name — Wie Sung-mi — and many of her relatives, including grandparents, live here.

Because of that background, many South Koreans consider her Korean. Local media often include Wie among "Korean" golf stars playing in the United States, and the news agency Yonhap referred to her latest trip to Korea as a "visit to homeland."

Wie finished at 5-under 139 after two rounds and was tied for 17th at the Sky 72 Golf Club course, six strokes behind co-leaders Iain Steel of Malaysia (66) and Prom Meesawat of Thailand (64). The cut was set at even-par 144.

''It's just wonderful. Great. I feel really, really happy,'' Wie said. ''Now I want play well tomorrow. It's not over yet.''

The Hawiian-born teenager becomes the second woman to make the cut at a men's tournament in South Korea; LPGA star Se Ri Pak finished tied for 10th in the lower-tier Korean PGA Tour SBS Pro-Golf Championship in 2003.

The SK Telecom Open is Wie's eighth start in a men's professional event.

After she finished third at the LPGA Fields Open last week, Wie moved up to No. 2. I firmly believe that Wie is the second most-talented female golfer in the world - not potentially, but right now. However, if I compiled my own subjective world rankings, I could not bring myself to place a player looking for her first win at No. 3 or No. 2.

Michelle Wie does not appear in the Sagarin rankings because she is two events short of meeting the minimum appearances requirement. However, if that requirement was lowered to allow Wie into the rankings, she would be No. 2 in the world. And she would have been No. 2 even before the Fields.

So no matter what we might subjectively think about a non-winner coming in at No. 2, two different world rankings, using two different models, call Wie the second-best female golfer in the world.

What's up with that?

Here's a clue: While Wie has not yet won, she does, more often than not, beat the other top women in the world of golf. The Sagarin rankings, in fact, build in to its system "won-loss" records for every golfer versus every other golfer. For example, if Meena Lee and Christina Kim play the same event 16 times, and Kim finishes ahead of Lee in nine of those tournament's, then Kim's record against Lee is 9-7, and Lee's won-less record against Kim is 7-9. In the eight tournaments of 2005 in which Wie and Paula Creamer both competed, Wie was 5-3.

In its most recent issue, Golfweek takes a look at Wie's won-loss record against other top players dating to the start of the 2003 season. Here's what they came up with:

• Annika Sorenstam: Sorenstam leads Wie 13-3-1, the only player Golfweek looked at who has a winning record against Wie. However, Wie leads 2-1-1 over their past four common events.

Her family is buying a house at Bighorn Golf Club, where Wie made her professional debut at the Samsung World Championship in October. Bighorn is about 15 minutes away from Mission Hills, site of the LPGA's first major.

"We would like to use our Bighorn house as often as possible for Michelle's golf training and vacation," said her father, B.J. Wie. "It will also be very convenient to stay at Bighorn during the Kraft Nabisco Championship and the Samsung World Championship."