Wie’s Caddie Fired, By Her Agent

I guess when you’re young and immature and don’t really know how to deal with people very well you’ll do things like this. Yesterday, Michelle Wie’s camp announced that Greg Johnston would no longer be her caddie.

After a rough British Open Finish where Wie just didn’t have solid play she decided to oust her caddie of only a year, by having her agent call up Greg Johnston and tell him the news.

The Wie family brought Johnston on last year in a take it or leave it type deal that basically swiped him from veteran LPGA tour player Julie Inkster. In Julie’s own words she said of the Wie family’s actions:

“It would have been nice to get a phone call from the [Wie] family,
saying this is what we’re thinking of doing,” Inkster told me after she
took the first-round lead at the Women’s British Open last week with a
66. “I’d had Greg for 11 years. It’s not like I was some rookie.

“But that’s not the way they [the Wies] do things. Instead they gave
him a take-it-or-leave-it in the middle of my season, right before the
Solheim Cup. I don’t blame him. He’s got kids to think about. But that
didn’t sit well.”
Then, during this years Women’s British Open Michelle Wie incurred another penalty for brushing away some moss in a trap during her backswing. The word is that Johnston told Michelle that she couldn’t do it but she did it anyway. She was then in tears outside the scorers table because of the penalty where her parents B.J. and Bo were angry and getting in the middle of things.

I am a Michelle Wie fan, obviously, and I do realize she is only 16. But the professional tour in any sport is no place for your parents to be getting into the middle of things. Soccer moms (and dads) should stay on the sidelines. You don’t see Julie Inkster’s parents rushing the table to get some answers.

As for firing your caddie, who am I to say you can’t fire your caddie. But maybe you should start teaching your daughter to be a grownup since you’ve trust her on this large stage and have her take some responsibility. Besides she’s the one who is missing the key putts, and shank the key shots.

technorati tags:Michelle, Wie, Caddie, Fired, LPGA, Golf