Archive for September, 2006

Interesting spots Michelle Wie pops up on the web this week.

Michelle Wie Contemplates the Ryder Cup in 2017. A look into the future of sports by the Marquette Tribune

Is Michelle Wie wasting our time? – These pros talk about why she is wasting her time and the media’s

Pressel’s game rises as Michelle’s falls – is the Michelle Wie obsessed Pressel using her game to do the talking rather than her mouth

Michelle Wie was previously ranked 4th in the women’s world golf rankings but has slipped down to 5th in the latest rankings which came out this week.

This is no doubt due to her lack of playing in women’s tournaments, mainly due to the fact that she’s still a full-time high school student and isn’t a full member of the LPGA tour.

1. Annika Sorenstam
2. Lorena Ochoa
3. Karrie Webb
4. Cristie Kerr
5. Michelle Wie
6. Se Ri Pak
7. Juli Inkster
8. Mi Hyun Kim
9. Natalie Gulbis
10. Paula Creamer

In probably the best article I’ve read about Michelle Wie playing on the PGA tour, the Golf Grouch over at Grouchy Golf Blog writes about how you can share in the money that Michelle Wie is making for everyone.

First off he writes something that should ring true with all those people, me included at times, about Michelle Playing on the mens tour. If Michelle wasn’t there would you even care that a women was playing in the event, or would you even care if the event happened. Real quick, what was the PGA tour event that took place this last weekend?

Yeah that’s right, there was something besides the Ryder Cup on TV, it was the Valero Texas Open. Who won it, some guy named Eric Axely. Would you even care about the 84 Lumber Classic with a noname field (ok so there was some people there but we’re talking the people that 90% of the golf viewers out there watch), or the John Deere Classic. You may check monday who won, but you wouldn’t follow it like you do if Michelle is there, so who really cares.

But the best part of the article was that the Golf Grouch points out that his bookie offers -800 on Wie missing the cut. Meaning you put up $800 and you win $100. Did she really have a chance at making the cut? I would give more like a 100 to 1 chance, meaning you’d have to put up $10,000 to win $100 from me.
I know we all want her to make the cut and are cheering her on and hope deep down that the young 16 year old from Hawaii really does make the cut, but come on. If you had to put $100 on one or the other which would be a safer bet? Would you give it 8 to 1 odds?

Great job pointing that out. I may have to wonder over to some beating sites and see what the odds are at the Sony Open this year. Although, that is becomming her home course (begin right around the corner from where she lives) and she may be doing everything in her power to make the cut.

technorati tags:Michelle, Wie, Golf, PGA, Betting, Bookie, Money, LPGA

For those of you laughing off Michelle’s recent comment that she someday would like to join the men in the Ryder Cup quest, another guy, writing for the Washington Times is reconsidering her goal.

Although he likely said it out of frustration and of course to ruffle the feathers of a US team that looked flat from day one of the Ryder Cup, the idea was an interesting one. Take MIchelle Wie as a wild card because she has more guts than most of the men who made the trip to Ireland.

You can read more from the rant over at The Washington Times

technorati tags:Michelle, Wie, Ryder, Cup, PGA, Golf, LPGA

In a recent article published on theage.com.au comments from Australian Ladies Professional Golf general manager, Warren Sevil, put up some really good arguments as to why MIchelle Wie is doing more harm than good to the LPGA tour.

Although I believe she does have the talent to one day compete on the men’s tour Sevil makes several statements that have to be given thought. For one she brings up the fact that Michelle Wie could do for women’s golf what Tiger Woods did for men’s golf, or the PGA.

Tiger Woods splashed onto the scene a young talented kid out to change golf and bring some pizazz to the game. It was during a time when men’s golf was hurting for money, and hurting for participants!

With women’s golf building momentum and becomming more and more in favor with the fans all it needs is a young fresh lady to dominate the game and dazzle the crowd with her amazing shots. Sure there’s Annika and Gulbis, but Gulbis doesn’t have all the shots and certainly not the power that MIchelle has, and Annika is becomming old hat.

If MIchelle could focus on the LPGA she could bring the tournament and the players millions more fans, not to mention the money.

As Sevil points out which I agree with,

“in the last month, with what she has done, it’s only the
tournament sponsors who are benefiting and you can’t really blame
them for wanting her to play in their events. They don’t have Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson playing in their
events so Michelle generates a lot of media for them.”

Although she has to do what’s best for herself, this is just another article that brings up points about another route to take to get to those results.

Either way the controversy continues and Michelle Wie will keep on making headlines. Good and Bad.

For more comments from Sevil visit theage.com.au’s article Wie is damaging women’s golf

technorati tags:Michelle, Wie, Golf, PGA, LPGA

Michelle Wie has been taking criticism from a lot of people in the media lately. Most focusing on the fact that she has finished last in her last two tournament attempts against the men (for people who finished two rounds, Jet).

Many people, including PGA professionals think she should focus on the women’s tournament. I for one enjoy watching her play against the men but can’t wait until she plays a few more tournaments against the women and spanks them around a bit. Another person sharing my views is runner up at this weekends 84 lumber classic, Charles Howell.

He feels she will one day compete with the men on a regular basis and had this to say in a recent article posted at cnnsi.com

“I see Michelle competing out here in four or five years,” said Howell, who shares the same coach — David Leadbetter — as Wie. “I think people have forgotten she is only 16. I played a PGA Tour event when I was 15. I missed the cut, shot 78-75, and looking back I don’t there was a way I could have made the cut.”Now, looking at what she’s trying to do, just by being 16, never mind whether she’s male or female, I think she’s up against it. But the girl — you have to admit — is phenomenal.”

Howell, who has the same coach in David Leadbetter as Michelle Wie also had this to say about Leadbetter what he wants for Michelle Wie.

“The main thing David wants to see her do is not burn herself out, not
get frustrated, and if you compete in a lot of events and don’t do
well, you’re going to get frustrated,” Howell said. “I know, because
I’ve done it. I missed five cuts in a row early this year and I wasn’t
excited to do much of anything.”

It will be interesting to see what kind of resolve she has as there is no doubt that she will miss more cuts in the future. With the media covering her every move, we, I just hope she doesn’t break down before she can begin to make an impact on both tours.

technorati tags:Michelle, Wie, Leadbetter, Howell, PGA, LPGA, Golf

Michelle Wie, after coming in last in her last two attempts playing against men says she’ll keep playing in men’s tournaments.

She also wanted to quiet the press who’s opinion it has been that her father and agent have been forcing her to play in these tournaments.

“It’s kind of like a teamwork kind of thing,” she said. “We all put in our ideas, we all put in our opinions. But it all comes down to me. I have the final say on everything.”

So it looks like Michelle wants to keep trying and going for her piece of history.

Good luck Michelle and we’ll see you back on the tour in a few months time.

Source

technorati tags:Michelle, Wie, Golf, LPGA, PGA

With a 5 over 77 yesterday and a 9 over 81 today, Michelle Wie needs to stop sounding like she doles out excuses rather than causes.

She played well yesterday, she did hit her irons well, and she did play well off the tee. Although she was rarely inside 10 ft of the pin in regulation she still had oportunities. Speaking of her putting yesterday she said it “let her down.”

Ok, fine, that’s not really an excuse, she didn’t putt well and all those watching could see it. but to end her press conference saying:

“It was frustrating, because I was hitting every putt on line and about
six or seven looked like going in the middle and sometimes they hit a
spike mark, sometimes a footprint,”

Well, that’s just “junk” to use a word so often used to describe BS in Hawaii. Every other person out there had to contend with those same ball marks and spike marks. Sure you had the last tee time of the day but enough of the excuses already. How about today? Sitting at nearly last, only 9 players went out before you. Surely they didn’t mark up the green that bad.

You were nine over. 9.

Now I am all for women’s rights, and I think it’s great that you’re trying to compete on the men’s tour. But maybe you should begin to feel as though you need to earn your spot on the men’s tour and play some qualifying tournaments, how about you hop over to the nationwide tour and try and qualify for your PGA card rather than sliding in on a sponsors expemption. Maybe then the PGA tour can get back to it’s pre freak-show status.

Don’t you feel bad that because you’re a women, yes, I’m saying it, only because you are a women do you get to go on the men’s tour, that’s it! Yes you’re a 16 year old women, but that’s it. Sure you can hit it far, but there are a few women on the LPGA tour that can hit the ball further.

By the way, as it stands now, MIchelle Wie will sit in last place for the second week in a row in a men’s tournament.

Source

technorati tags:Michelle, Wie, Lumber, Classic, PGA, LPGA, Golf

Michelle Wie began the day at the 84 Lumber Classic with optimism, a little bit of hope, and a whole lot of spectators. Crowds were out for the first round of the Classis to see Michelle Wie challenge the 7,500+ yard course.

Michelle started the first three holes on the with pars, things were looking good, she was in the mix, it was too early to tell, but she was handling the length of the course very well. Until the next three holes, all par 4’s took their toll. She had three straight bogey’s.

It wasn’t that her drives were errant and she had to scramble, the young Wie couldn’t get her short game going to save her. She hit 61% of greens in regulation and had 78.6% driving accuracy with an average drive of 274 yards. Her scrambling percentage was 43% and she average 2.091 putts per green in regulation. She didn’t make a birdie all day.

Couple that with two more bogeys on her second nine and she’s sitting at 5 over par tied for 125 place. Not quite the way Michelle had wanted the day to unfold. She played a late round, being the last to finish the course so we’ll have to wait and see what she has to say about the round. Hopefully she’ll take some learning experiences from this round.

technorati tags:Michelle, Wie, Lumber, Classic, Golf, PGA, LPGA

Tim Rosaforte of Golf Digest posted an article today comparing the likes of Maria Sharapova to Michelle Wie. Following this past two weeks intense US Open which saw the retirment of tennis great Andre Agassi and the 9th Grand Slam title of Roger Federer’s storied career, you couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the two women’s sports.Maria Sharapova won the women’s draw for her second grand slam title of her career, and at 19 years old, that speaks volumes. She’s played tough, winning her first slam at age 17, wimbledon two years ago, and inking some of the top sports and modeling contracts in the sport. She’s got it all, and as Tim points out, she doesn’t have to go playing the mens tournaments to prove to herself she can play golf.

Michelle Wie on the other hand seems to be telling the world she has to play mens tournaments, which is all fine and dandy, but shouldn’t she at least try and win a women’s event first, let along a major event? This week she has a 7,500 yard course, on the longer side of men’s tour courses and she just came off a course in Europe that is considered easy by men’s standards, where she finished dead last.
You have to ask yourself the questions Tim posed in his article:

(A.) Is Wie playing men’s golf to raise the level of her game on the
women’s tour?

(B.) Is she playing men’s golf because that’s where the money is?

(C.) Is she playing men’s golf because that’s where she believes
she’ll be playing someday — or is that just part of the marketing strategy?

What is she really playing these tournaments for? Is her father and agent doing the right thing. She is young and like young stars of hollywood, Michelle could be “scarred for life” by what the media will begin to do to her golf career. Sure she has the look, but so did Anna Kournikova, and after the world found out she didn’t have much of a Tennis game she soon fell by the sports wayside and into the pin-up calendar pile. A joke for most sports writers.

Let’s hope her agent, her father, and herself can begin to manage her game a little better than they have been.

technorati tags:Michelle+Wie, Golf, LPGA, PGA, Maria, Sharapova