The image of a haggard Michelle Wie being loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher, an IV dripping into her arm, was heart-wrenching.

To most, that is. To the 16-year-old’s critics, it was yet another opportunity to take a whack at her.

“She just said, ‘I’m going to withdraw,'” said Jeff Gove, one of Wie’s playing partners. “Which was good because she was holding us up again.”

People like Gove – and there are plenty – simply don’t get it. Yes, Wie missed yet another cut on the PGA Tour when heat exhaustion forced her out of the John Deere Classic on Friday, making her 0-for-5 when she plays with the big boys. And no, she hasn’t won on the LPGA Tour yet.

But Wie is the future of the game. She is still a mere 16 years old and, as she’s shown this summer, it is only a matter of time before she breaks through. When – not if, when – she does, those people who are harping on her now will be the same ones elbowing their way to the front of the gallery to watch her play.

Or grumbling that she’s winning too much.

Like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and LeBron James, Wie is one of those spectacular talents who comes around once in a generation. She has a naturally sweet swing that other pros spend hours trying to master. Her irons and short game are coming along nicely, though her putting still needs some work. When it comes to composure and steely focus, she could teach men and women a decade older a thing or two.

She also has a different way of doing things. Instead of learning to win on the junior circuit or staying put on the LPGA Tour, Wie has carved out her own niche. She wants to hone her game against the best and become a global icon, and the surest way to do both is by playing a mixture of men’s and women’s events.

That has rankled plenty, though. Many LPGA Tour players resent the attention she gets and what they see as free passes. Some on the PGA Tour think she’s taking spots away from a deserving journeyman or up-and-comer.

All of which misses the point. No matter where she plays, Wie is good for golf.

Played the week before the British Open, the Deere Classic is a smaller tournament that could easily go by unnoticed. Most of the big names are either in Europe or on their way there, leaving a field full of mostly anonymous guys scrambling to climb the money list.

On the PGA Tour, she missed the cut by four strokes at the Sony Open, and was well over the line when she withdrew Friday. But her 68 in the second round at the Sony matched the lowest score ever for a woman on the men’s tour. The other 68? Wie, back in 2004.

She did make the cut at one men’s event, finishing 12 strokes back at the Asian Tour’s SK Telecom Open.

And for those keeping score, it took Woods awhile, too. He played seven events before he made his first cut, and was 19 when he did it.

“She’s better than Tiger was at 16,” said Joe Ogilvie, the second-round leader at the Deere Classic. “I played with Tiger, and Tiger wasn’t this good.

“Everybody is like, ‘Win, win, win,'” Ogilvie added. “She’s 16. Chill out. Once she gets to winning, you’ll get sick of her winning.”

For Wie’s critics, there’s always going to be something.