Michelle Wie Saga/Golf tips

[WMR]

Has anyone been following this deal?

She pulled out of a tournament hosted by Annika Sorenstam with an "injury" because she was within 2 strokes of 88 (passing 88 w/o being a full-time LPGA player, which she is not, results in being banned from LPGA competition for the rest of the year).

2 days later she is out on the green blasting balls all over the place.

Sorenstam basically called her out on this and has requested an apology.

Wie says she has nothing to apologize for.

Her career has been mismanaged by her parents in just about every way imaginable.

[dabvu2498]

I read an article the other day that really rubbed me the wrong way. In it, Wie says she injured her wrist while running. Saying something to the effect of "I don't run. Anyone who knows me knows I can't run."

This I can tell you because I saw it with my own two eyes: Michelle Wie runs.

A couple years ago Shaker Run GC in Lebanon hosted the USGA Mid-Am. Wie played in it. That same week, I had some friends from out of town staying at the Marriott on Union Centre in West Chester. I went down to pick them up for some dinner and walking back from the elevator, there was Michelle Wie, running on the treadmill in the hotel fitness center.

So when I read that she doesn't run and people who know her know she doesn't run, I became more skeptical than I already was.

[paintmered]

Originally Posted by WilyMoROCKS

Her career has been mismanaged by her parents in just about every way imaginable.

Yep. And the ironic thing is there is an influx of young talent on the LPGA tour right now without her. If Wie was allowed to follow a traditional career progression, she'd be at the top of the list. But as it is, young players like Ochoa, Pressel and Lincicome have passed her by.

[LoganBuck]

Is she the highest paid female athlete in the world? Mike and Mike have been running some numbers on the highest paid athletes over the last week. I think she raked in $22 million last year and did nothing.

[MWM]

I was going to post this from ESPN today, but this thread is a good place. I thought it was a really interesting read. If she's not careful, she's going to wind up being the female golf equivalent of Todd Marinovich. I'm not sure she was ever mentally ready for what she attempted to do. I just hope she doesn't find herself in a situation where she just can't recover mentally. I hope she doesn't wash out, because she's as talented a female golfer as there's ever been. I'd hate to see her blow because of lack of patience.

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/colum...ron&id=2895119

HAVRE DE GRACE, MD. -- When Tiger Woods left the amateur ranks in August 1996 and sauntered onto the PGA Tour with a gazillion Nike dollars in his pockets, there was more than a little jealousy and resentment from veteran players. Despite his glittering amateur record, many wondered why an unproven 20-year-old would be rewarded so handsomely before proving himself as a pro. But Tiger did two things to shut his critics up: He won, and he embraced his tour.

Woods was victorious in the fifth event in which he played as a professional and by the following April, when he steamrolled the Masters by 12 strokes, he was unquestionably the best player in the world. That Masters also got a 14.1 TV rating -- the highest golf rating since the cable era began more than a quarter century ago -- and within a month of Tiger slipping into the green jacket the tour had negotiated a new TV contract that increased purses by nearly 40 percent.

Two notions suddenly rattled home in the heads of the players. This Tiger Woods guy is a very good golfer; perhaps unlike anything we have ever seen. And he is going to make us all rich. That's exactly what has happened. The first decade of the Tiger Woods Era has seen PGA Tour purses triple. A tour that didn't have its first $1 million season earner until the mid-1980s had nearly 90 last year. End of jealousy. End of resentment.

In Michelle Wie the LPGA has a special talent that could lead it to new riches as well. The difference is Wie is holding the tour and its players at arm's length while she rakes in the dough with the other arm. Refusing to join the tour and insisting on flaunting the rules has angered both players and LPGA officials. It is perceived as a sense of entitlement out of proportion to achievement. But all that could be fixed very easily. Join the LPGA. If Wie embraces the women's tour the women's tour will embrace her.

Wie has big dreams. She wants to play against the men. And those dreams should be encouraged. But they need to be pursued within a sensible time frame. And her recent endeavors in men's events scream out that a 17-year-old girl is prepared neither physically nor emotionally to compete against the best players in the world. Perhaps that day will come, but it is not now.

Wie starts college at Stanford in September and that seems to be a perfect opportunity for Team Wie to say it will put competing against the men on a back burner until after school. Remember, Wie will still only be 21 years old when she graduates. Presumably she will be physically stronger and probably more emotionally mature. Certainly, her 6-foot-2 frame and superb ball-striking ability are not going to go away. There will be plenty of time to pursue her dream. Meantime, she can join the LPGA and play the required 10 events a year.


AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

Wie's game has taken her all over the world. But she's making few friends on the LPGA Tour.
Over the last two weeks -- first at the Ginn Tribute and then this week at the McDonald's LPGA Championship -- the fragile peace between Wie and the members of the LPGA has appeared frayed at the edge. More and more players are coming closer to voicing publicly what they have been saying privately for a while now: Wie is in it for herself and has no interest in growing the game, especially in growing the LPGA.
When Wie withdrew with two holes to play in the first round of the Ginn Tribute virtually no player believed it was because of an injury, as she said. The overwhelming consensus was that she walked off the course rather than risk being suspended from tour play for the rest of the year for failing to break 88 in a competitive round. Salt was poured in that wound when she showed up two days later practicing at Bulle Rock, where the McDonald's is being played this week.

The festering resentment also took a turn for the worse when, for the second week in a row, Wie's pro-am partners complained that she was less than friendly during a round each of the four players has paid thousands of dollars to play. It is a charge Wie denies. And on Tuesday at Bulle Rock an LPGA rules official triggered anger in the Wie camp when he enforced a tour rule that says only the caddie and coach are allowed to be on the practice range with the player, booting the rest of the Wie entourage off the range.

The resentment is also building over the fact that at the second LPGA major of the year -- and, ironically the flagship event of the tour, the LPGA Championship -- attention is being diverted away from the tournament and directed at one player who is not even a member of the tour. The tragedy of this occurrence is that the LPGA quite likely has at this moment the best product it has ever put into competition.

The strengths of the LPGA continue to grow. Its international membership gives it worldwide appeal -- more than two dozen nations are represented on tour. At the same time young American stars are emerging in impressive numbers. Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Brittany Lincicome, Stacy Prammanasudh, Nicole Castrale and Meaghan Francella have all won this year. And they are all between the ages of 18 and 28. In Lorena Ochoa the tour has an extremely talented and likeable No. 1 player. And then there is Annika Sorenstam, who has staked a claim to being the greatest player ever and is returning to competition from the only significant injury of her career.

What needs to happen this week at Bulle Rock is for the attention to turn back to golf. Here are the questions that should grab our attention: Can Ochoa get her first major? Is Sorenstam healthy again? Will Pressel add the McDonald's to the Kraft Nabisco Championship she won in April? What about Creamer, Lincicome, Cristie Kerr, Suzann Pettersen, Juli Inkster, Ai Miyazato, Jee Young Lee, Karrie Webb and a host of other great story lines? What about Se Ri Pak officially qualifying for the LPGA Hall of Fame when she hits her first tee shot this week?

And yes, what about Wie? Can she return to the form that saw her contend in three of the four LPGA majors last year? Are her problems physical, with the injured wrist; technical, with a swing that has become out of tempo and erratic; or emotional, with a shattered confidence after nearly four years without a victory in an event of any kind?

The best way for this week to end would be for Wie to play well and then announce she is joining the LPGA Tour. It would be not only the wise thing to do competitively but would also be a gesture that would give LPGA officials and sponsors such as McDonald's the respect they deserve. Most importantly, it would give the members of the LPGA -- the players -- the respect they have earned. They are a smart and generous lot. If Wie embraces the LPGA, the LPGA will embrace her. Right now an enormous gap exists between the two. But it's nothing that can't be bridged if Wie wants to make a commitment to women's golf.

Ron Sirak is the executive editor of Golf World magazine.

[WMR]

Nice article. Thanks for posting that, MWM.

[Redhook]

Michelle Wie is a disaster right now. It's a shame because a few years ago she was probably the best prodigy ever in any sport. Now, she's a confused mess with no home on any tour. I have no clue whatsoever what she's trying to do competing against the men. It was a fun novelty at first, but now, it's just embarassing.

This whole thing about Wie shooting 88 and not being allowed to compete anymore is hogwash. She probably withdrew knowing the rule, or from the instruction of her agent, but there is no way the LPGA would keep her from playing the rest of the events this year. That rule is made for hackers so the regular tour players don't have to deal with 90 shooters each week. Wie is a top 5 player in the world. She has many top 5's in majors. One bad round would not keep her out for the rest of the year. The tour DEFINITELY would've made an exception for her.

I've seen Wie up close quite a few times. She's pretty good. Really good for a woman, ok for competing against men. Some of you may know that I played professionally for 6 years and caddied full-time on the LPGA tour in 2005 for Young Jo and Angela Stanford. I saw Wie up close many times. She's very good, but in no way shape or form can she compete against men full-time. No chance. Never. Ever.

Like I've said, I've played professionally for 6 years on the likes of the Canadian Tour, Hooters Tour, Nationwide Tour etc. I've also played a PGA event. I'm not the player I once was, but I can still play a bit. That being said, I would absolutely dominate Michelle Wie all day long from the same set of tees whether it's the women's tees or the championship tees. And I'm just a club pro now. I can't even compete with the guys on tour now and that's what Wie is trying to do. It's really getting ridiculous. She's so good, but she and her family are flushing her career down the toilet. She needs to focus solely on LPGA events for the rest of her career. She's still probably a top 4 or 5 woman in the world. The problem is people don't know it because she's rarely competing against women.

[Highlifeman21]

Michelle Wie is a joke.

She should definitely be playing at the Amateur ranks still, and working on her game against top Juniors, rather than the best women in the world. While she does have all-world talent, it's still raw and she's definitely a work in progress.

She needs to stop playing with the men, first and foremost. I understand everytime she tees it up in a men's event, it's an attendance circus act, nothing more, but she's hurting her game by playing with the men.

She's become such a fiasco that her coach, the legendary David Leadbetter, has suggested numerous times that she should focus on utilizing her sponsor exemptions due to the fact she's still too young to play full time on the LPGA.

Bottomline, she has talent, but she's just wasting it, and making a mockery of women's professional golf.

Show some respect Michelle, and lay low for awhile.

[bucksfan2]

Michelle Wie is a disaster right now. It's a shame because a few years ago she was probably the best prodigy ever in any sport. Now, she's a confused mess with no home on any tour. I have no clue whatsoever what she's trying to do competing against the men. It was a fun novelty at first, but now, it's just embarassing.

At Wie's age Tiger had already won 3 US Jr. Amatures and was well on his way to winning 3 US Amatures so I would say that Woods was twice the prodigy that Wie was. The problem with Wie is that she doesn't know how to win. She has never beaten anyone and never won at a high level. I think as of right now and the young, attractive, talent that the LPGA has they don't need Wie as much as they thought they would have 3 years ago. Wie needs to take a step back and learn how to win before she tries again on any professional tour.

[Redhook]

Originally Posted by Highlifeman21

She should definitely be playing at the Amateur ranks still, and working on her game against top Juniors, rather than the best women in the world. While she does have all-world talent, it's still raw and she's definitely a work in progress.

Bottomline, she has talent, but she's just wasting it, and making a mockery of women's professional golf.

Show some respect Michelle, and lay low for awhile.

I agree and I respectfully disagree.

I agree with just about everything you said, but she can and should be playing against the best women in the world. Since 2005, she has 9, count 'em, 9 top 5 finishes in LPGA events. That's ridiculous. And that's in 14 events. That's a phenomenal top 5 percentage rate. And a few of those are in majors.

Wie is struggling right now and needs to get back on track, but she's well beyond the point that she needs to play against juniors or amateurs. She is still a top 5 woman in the world, when healthy of course.

[Redhook]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

At Wie's age Tiger had already won 3 US Jr. Amatures and was well on his way to winning 3 US Amatures so I would say that Woods was twice the prodigy that Wie was.

Tiger won his 3rd US Jr. at 17. Very impressive. And he was on his way to winning 3 Amateurs. Very impressive. Tiger's final junior/amateur record will be better than Wie's. But, Tiger was doing that against juniors and amateurs. Look at Wie's record against the best women in the world over the last few years. Wie came in 4th in a major championship at the old age of 14. Think about that for a second......Tiger won his first US Jr. at 15, but Wie came in 4th in a major at the age of 14. I can hardly comprehend that.

The problem with Wie is that she doesn't know how to win. She has never beaten anyone and never won at a high level.

Never? To say she doesn't know how to win or has never beaten anyone at a high level is comical.

She was the youngest woman ever to win the US amateur Publinx at the age of 13. 13. She's won plenty of of junior tournaments. She's hasn't won on the LPGA tour, yet, but she's been really close. Like I've said before, she has 9 top 5 finishes in LPGA events in the last 2 years, including 4 second place finishes. I know she hasn't won, but that record is awesome. Think of all the high-caliber LPGA players she's beaten in those tournaments at the age of 15 and 16. She shot 15 under in one of those tournaments and still didn't win. Sometimes you can play great, but you can still get beat by someone who played better. Maybe, if she played more amateur tournaments she could've won one of those LPGA events. Maybe not though. No one knows.

I do think she's made some big errors in her career. Playing against the men is just stupid. I didn't mind it at first because she qualified. Now, it's just a publicity circus.

I think as of right now and the young, attractive, talent that the LPGA has they don't need Wie as much as they thought they would have 3 years ago. Wie needs to take a step back and learn how to win before she tries again on any professional tour.

The LPGA tour is in good shape, but it would/will be in great shape if/when Wie joins the tour full-time. She's still a HUGE draw and a great player. She doesn't need to learn how to win. She's won before. She just needs to play more tournaments against women. She'll learn from her experiences in the final groups and will break through soon enough.

People need to realize how young Wie is still. She's 17. Tiger hadn't even made a cut in PGA event at that age. Wie has double digit top 5 finishes in LPGA events at the same age.

At this age, 17, Wie's record blows Tigers' out of the water. There's really no comparison. And that's coming from a big Tiger fan.

[Johnny Footstool]

Certainly, her 6-foot-2 frame and superb ball-striking ability are not going to go away.

Heh heh

[Blimpie]

Originally Posted by LoganBuck

Is she the highest paid female athlete in the world? Mike and Mike have been running some numbers on the highest paid athletes over the last week. I think she raked in $22 million last year and did nothing.

Sounds like Anna Kournikova in spikes to me....

[WMR]

NO BLIMPIE, I'm NOT going to post Anna Kournikova pictures!!

[flyer85]

Originally Posted by WilyMoROCKS

Her career has been mismanaged by her parents in just about every way imaginable.

They have never let her learn how to win ... and that is painfully obvious whenever she gets in contention on Sunday.