It’s time to stop making excuses Michelle Wie

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.

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13 Responses to 'It’s time to stop making excuses Michelle Wie'

  1. Jet Wintzer - September 16th, 2006 at 1:47 am

    >>>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.>>>

    That’s not accurate at all.

    Michelle is a 16 year old “girl” who can hit it far, but she’s also a “professional golfer” who missed the cut in the mens PGA Sony Open… by one single shot shooting 68 in the final round…when she was a 14 year old girl.

    Let’s forget for a moment everything else she has accomplished as an LPGA professonal golfer. Against the men she’s also made the cut in an Asian Tour event, finishing 35th and earning a check on a course that was 7152 yards long shooting 69, 70, 74.

    She made the cut in the first round of US Open qualifying and shot 68 going out in the 36 hole sectional. She was two under for 30 holes and the cut was 4 under. She missed at least 8 puts inside of 8 feet, I was there along with 4100 others, ALL watching Michelle while Mark O’Meara and tour players like Tom Pernice played in virtual isolation. She also came within three matches of qualifying for The Masters.

    The fact is that without any LPGA or female amateur events, she has one hell of a record against the men while being a teenage girl.

    If she were a teenage boy there would be no doubt such a boy would make the cut eventually at a PGA tour event. Yes, she’s a girl that hits it long, but that’s not why she’s being invited out there by sponsors. She’s being invited out there because she’s got the complete game and she’s come within one shot of making the cut in the SONY open and she got very close to qualifying for two mens majors.

    It’s inevitable that she’s going to make a cut on the PGA tour, and when that happens she will have rewritten history…and that cut will only be the first page of the new history books.

    So she’s missed the cut in 7 PGA tour events. I want to know, how many of the “men” playing out on tour now and even winning out there missed their first 6 or 7 cuts? Most of them weren’t 14-16 years old when opportunity knocked either. They were mature men. When this girl turns into a women from being a girl which she still is, in case you haven’t noticed…she’s going to belong out there on the merits of her play.

    Now ask all the struggling pros out there on the Nationwide Tour and even smaller tours, all those guys who might have played in a PGA tour event or two but missed the cut (probably by more than one shot), ask them if they would turn down a sponsor’s exemption for any tour event. Fat chance.

    The bottom line is not that she’s a 16 year old girl accepting sponsor’s invitations. The fact is she’s a professional golfer, and there are very few professional golfers, club pros or otherwise who would turn down an invitation to play in a PGA tour event.

    One day she’s going to make history.
    The people want to see it happen.
    The people want to see that rubber tree plant move. And when it moves, that tournament will go down in the history books and that sponsor will have something for its resume.

    The sponsors who are inviting her all want her to make that historical cut at their tournament. Michelle Wie is getting invitations because she’s a 16 yearl old girl that has the stuff, and this is America, land of opportunity.

    Why should Michelle turn down invitations from sponsors for her to go out and make history? Why should she reject such an invitation when most male professional golfers receiving similar inviations would never turn such a thing down?

    Should the club pros of the courses where the US Open final qualifying rounds are held turn down their exmptions from local qualifying because they didn’t earn their way into the field? How about the club pros who play in the PGA Championship every year? Haven’t they been given spots that better players, struggling tour pros could use? Is it a freak show when year after year these club pros (most of whom would be smoked by Michelle Wie) almost never make the cut or even come close?

    If you’re going to criticize Michelle for accepting these invitations, then you better extend that to all of the male professional golfers who accept unearned exemptions and sponsor’s invitations.

    And a final note should be taken that Donnie Hammond and a host of other PGA players gave it the old WD after shooting 79. Hammond was trying to keep his card, but instead of going out there and trying to shoot 65 and make the cut, he quit.
    Maybe he had a health problem or family emergency, I don’t know, but at least Michelle went out there and finished the tournament.

    Just what makes that little old ant
    think he can move a rubber tree plant
    everyone knows an ant
    cant
    move a rubber tree plant
    but she’s got high hopes

    She’s got more than high hopes, she’s got “the” game.

    Jet Wintzer, minor league indie rock star

  2. Marc - September 16th, 2006 at 6:50 am

    Don’t quite Michelle!!!

    Take as many exempts as they’re willing to give you!!! Never Never Never quite!!!

    You are playing good golf and you WILL only get better.

    The folks that don’t want you there and try to break you down have nothing to do with you, your game, and what you want to achieve.

    You shot a 77 in a mens PGA tournament. You were there and that’s what you did. BE PROUD!!! Practice everyday, hit to the positive and you WILL succeed.

  3. evossman - September 17th, 2006 at 9:54 pm

    Jet Wintzer,

    First let’s get our facts right, Michelle Wie won’t be rewritting history. Over a half century earlier Babe Didrikson Zaharias, QUALIFIED for and played in the Los Angeles Open, in both 1938 and 1945. She also made the cut in 1945, so much for history.

    Yes she is 16 and I guess you could say a 16 year old GIRl making the cut in a men’s PGA event would be history, but even a blind chicken can find a kernel of corn my friend. Give her enough events against nobody fields and she’ll make the cut.

    Next, she’s good, I don’t doubt that, why would I have a blog about her if I didn’t think she was good.

    Next, this isn’t a blog about the other men in who have exemptions, I’ve mentioned them before, but this isn’t called http://www.thoseotheexemptionmenblogging.com this is wieblogging.

    Also, I highly, highly, highly doubt that most of those club pros would get smoked by Michelle Wie. That’s all I’m saying about that.

    Next about Donnie Hammond, let’s put it in perspective. If someone came along and said that your indie rock sucked and you wouldn’t play in any crap bars for the rest of the year, and that indie rock was your only pay check, but to keep playing and make money you had only not play for one evening, what would you do. (And don’t be some cheesy rage against the machine BSer and say, you’d rock)

    Finally, I’m glad she’s in these men’s tournaments it gives me something to write about. In the article I simply was stating that if she is going to accept these sponsors exemptions (WHICH I WOULD ACCEPT AS WELL) she needs to start acting like a PROFESSIONAL GOLFER, and stop making excuses, she’s under a microscope, everyone is watching.

    I hope she continues to play the events and plays the events with the composure and skill of a professional golfer.

    Thanks for the comment.

    By the way Babes stats for her career:

    - Won 31 LPGA tournaments
    - Won 82 tournaments, amateur and professional, in an 18-year career
    - Won 13 tournaments in a row, 16 of 17 in 1946-47
    - Won 12 majors

    I know michelle has a long way to go, and a long career ahead of her, but maybe she should think about career management before she turns the whole golfing world against her.

  4. evossman - September 17th, 2006 at 10:00 pm

    Also about her getting to go on tour at the age of 16 only because she’s a GIRL/WOMEN, is compeletly true. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of Tiger Woods, but he was phenomenal at the age of 12, yes 12 years old, but he didn’t get a single sponsors exemption.

    He didn’t join the tour, he could have gone pro right out of highschool, but he didn’t.

    She is getting sponsors exemptions ONLY BECAUSE SHE IS A FEMALE THAT IS 16 THAT CAN PLAY, and that is that. Your arguments don’t support your claim that what I wrote was false.

    Yes she can play but there are many 16 year old males that could clean her clock, yes spank her all around the course.

  5. Jet Wintzer - September 18th, 2006 at 2:09 am

    >>>First let’s get our facts right, Michelle Wie won’t be rewritting history. Over a half century earlier Babe Didrikson Zaharias, QUALIFIED for and played in the Los Angeles Open, in both 1938 and 1945. She also made the cut in 1945, so much for history.

    Yes she is 16 and I guess you could say a 16 year old GIRl making the cut in a men’s PGA event would be history, but even a blind chicken can find a kernel of corn my friend.>>>

    A 17 year old girl making the cut against the likes of this PGA tour would rewrite the history books. You want to argue that’s not true? This PGA tour is much deeper than the one in 1945. You can have the last word on that.

    But what’s this blind chicken comment? You know, you really don’t sound like much of a Wie fan.

    >>Give her enough events against nobody fields and she’ll make the cut.>>

    “Nobody fields”? What PGA tour events have nobody fields? Do you even play golf? Do you have any idea how good the players are in your average Nationwide event? There are no nobody fields. Don’t be stupid.

    >>>Next, she’s good, I don’t doubt that, why would I have a blog about her if I didn’t think she was good.>>>

    Well, it’s certainly not because you’re a fan. How much do your sponsors pay you?

    >>Also, I highly, highly, highly doubt that most of those club pros would get smoked by Michelle Wie. That’s all I’m saying about that.>>>

    Rick Hartman is one of the most successful pros in the NYC area, and she smoked him at the US Open, and a shitload of others too. And touring pros too.

    >>>Next about Donnie Hammond, let’s put it in perspective. If someone came along and said that your indie rock sucked and you wouldn’t play in any crap bars for the rest of the year, and that indie rock was your only pay check, but to keep playing and make money you had only not play for one evening, what would you do. (And don’t be some cheesy rage against the machine BSer and say, you’d rock)>>>

    Are you on crack? What the hell are you talking about? I merely pointed out that the guy could have shot 65 and made the cut, but he didn’t even try. What are you talking about? What are you so angry about is really the question?

    >>>Finally, I’m glad she’s in these men’s tournaments it gives me something to write about.>>>

    And sell advertising as well.

    >>>In the article I simply was stating that if she is going to accept these sponsors exemptions (WHICH I WOULD ACCEPT AS WELL) she needs to start acting like a PROFESSIONAL GOLFER, and stop making excuses, she’s under a microscope, everyone is watching.>>>>

    Regarding putting, the best thing a golfer can do is tell themselves it wasn’t their fault that they missed. That’s just smart psychology, ask Dr. Bob Rotella. Jack NIcklaus said he never missed a four foot because “he” did something wrong. You start doubting that you can make puts and you’ll make alot less puts. Blame it on footprints or spike marks every time.

    >>>I hope she continues to play the events and plays the events with the composure and skill of a professional golfer.>>>

    I don’t think you do. But that’s just my opinion.

    >>>By the way Babes stats for her career:>>>

    Irrelevant.

    >>>I know michelle has a long way to go, and a long career ahead of her, but maybe she should think about career management before she turns the whole golfing world against her. >>>

    Michelle is too bright a flower to turn the whole world against her, it’s writers like you and your compadres who need something to write about who are trying to do that…and failing judging by the size of her galleries.

  6. Jet Wintzer - September 18th, 2006 at 2:33 am

    >>>Also about her getting to go on tour at the age of 16 only because she’s a GIRL/WOMEN, is compeletly true. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of Tiger Woods, but he was phenomenal at the age of 12, yes 12 years old, but he didn’t get a single sponsors exemption.>>>

    You want to talk about Tiger Woods’ first seven PGA Tour events? He missed the cut 7 times in a row…when Tiger was 16 he played in his first PGA tour event,

    3/01/92 Nissan Los Angeles Open CUT 72 75 +5

    That was when Tiger was 16. When Michelle Wie was 14 when she shot 74 68 in the Sony Open and missed the cut by one shot.

    TIGER at 17:

    2/28/93 Nissan Los Angeles Open CUT 74 78 +10
    3/14/93 Honda Classic CUT 72 78 +6
    5/16/93 GTE Byron Nelson Golf Classic CUT 77 72 +9

    TIGER at 18

    3/20/94 Nestle Invitational CUT 80 77 +13
    6/12/94 Buick Classic CUT 75 70 +3
    7/03/94 Motorola Western Open CUT 74 75 +5

    Michelle Wie at 14 has a better record in mens PGA tour events than Tiger had at 16, 17 or 18. And furthermore, Tiger never shot 68 on the PGA tour until he was 20 years old.

    Michelle’s record as a 14-16 year old playing ont he PGA tour smokes Tiger from 16-18 years old playing on the pGA tour. He performance in the Sony Open at 14 is better than anything Tiger put up in the seven PGA cuts he missed from 16-18 years old and her 68 bests his lowest round on the PGA Tour between the ages of 16-19. He didn’t shoot a 68 or better until the Greater Milwaukee Open on Sept 01, 1996. But maybe that was a nobody field?

    >>>>She is getting sponsors exemptions ONLY BECAUSE SHE IS A FEMALE THAT IS 16 THAT CAN PLAY, and that is that. Your arguments don’t support your claim that what I wrote was false.>>>>

    Yes my arguments do support my claim. Michelle’s record in PGA Tour events as a 14 year old girl smokes Tiger’s record in PGA Tour events as 16-18 year old boy.

    >>>Yes she can play but there are many 16 year old males that could clean her clock, yes spank her all around the course. >>>

    How many 16 year old boys went further than her in the US Open this year? 1. Tedd Fujikawa. How many 16 year old boys went further than her in the US Public Links?

    It’s your arguments that are not supported by the facts.

    Jet Wintzer http://www.schizofunaddict.com

  7. Jet Wintzer - September 18th, 2006 at 3:04 am

    I wrote in my previous post that Wie shot 74 68 in the Sony Open, it was actually 72 68, EVEN par, and the cut was -1. Tiger Didn’t shoot even par until the 96 British Open, his 13th mens tour event.

    Let’s just put things in perspective. The greatest golfer the world has ever seen missed the cut in his first 7 PGA tour events between the ages of 16-18. Michelle bested that at 14 in the Sony Open by a wide margin.

    But let’s not forget what she did at the John Deere Classic in 2005, shooting 70, 71 for 1 under par and missing the cut by two shots in a different PGA tour event.

    And although she started with a bad round at the Sony this year, she carded another 68 in the second round.

    Tiger didn’t break 70 until his 10th PGA tour event, in his 24th round on the PGA tour. Michelle shot 68 in her second tour event. It took her only four rounds on the PGA tour to break 70, shooting 68 and she shot another 68 this year at the Sony and she also shot 68 in the first round of the second qualifying stage of the US Open.

    Her stats as a 14-16 year old girl just kill Tiger…they kill. If you’re reading this MIchelle, don’t listen to any of this negative garbage they are throwing at you. You inspire me to not do the normal thing. You are an inspiration to people who are trying to believe in their dreams. I have golf dreams, and I have music dreams and I believe in them alot more than before you came along. Thank you for inspiring me to believe in impossible dreams.

    Jet Wintzer

    http://www.schizofunaddict.com

  8. evossman - September 18th, 2006 at 8:49 am

    Jet Wintzer-

    Hey thanks again for more of the comments. And great job digging up all those wonderful stats.

    We each are entitled to our opinions I hope and I find it a bit rude that you don’t think I’m a fan from one small article. I had written a bit more of a rebuttle than this at first but feel it foolish to try and prove that all I was saying in that article is that Michelle shouldn’t make excuses, (by the way great quote from Jack).

    You really read a lot into that. But great job at digging up the stats, and glad to see your so passionate about a 16 year old golfer.

    Erik

  9. Jet Wintzer - September 19th, 2006 at 2:50 am

    >>But great job at digging up the stats, and glad to see your so passionate about a 16 year old golfer.>>

    Your tone in the original article as well as your original reply seemed unfair, so I replied with a similar tone, only too happy to bury the hatchet. But I don’t know what you mean by this last part here “16 year old golfer”, so I’ll correct you on what I’m actually passionate about.

    Right after Michelle failed to qualify for the US Open she gave the following quote to a reporter:

    “I’m not really here…to prove something, that women can actually play. But, you know hopefully this just shows or motivates people to do what they want to do and not really be, I guess, bended to just do what other people do – what the normal thing to do is. And I hope people can break out of this normal thing and just do what they want to do.”

    That’s what I’m passionate about. It’s what my music is about, what my life is about… because the world is so full of people who don’t do what they want to do. Because they feel beaten by the seeming impossibility of their true dreams they just never try. And this eats away at them through the years, what could’ve been.

    And the world is even more crowded with people telling others they can’t do this or that, just like the people trying to tell Wie what she should do. Ben Hogan said that a golfer should try to “go your own way. The world will always need a guy like that. And practice practice practice damn it.”

    This failure of humanity to zero in on what actually makes them happy instead of just making them money is a root of depression, fear, anger and drug, alcohol and tobacco addiction IMHO.

    I think it’s important that with all the voices screaming negative things at Wie for trying to move this mountain, there be other voices encouraging her on her climb.

    I can’t find in the record books another golfer, male or female, who had better scores than her on the PGA Tour between the ages of 13-17. I believe her 68 at the Sony Open must be a world record for
    youngest golfer to shoot under 70 on the PGA Tour, or any major mens tour. She may have the greatest stats of any player under the age of 18 to ever play on the PGA Tour. And if that’s actually true, then she’s way ahead for her age than any man who’s ever played out there.

    Ben Hogan, his doctors said he’d never walk again.
    But he refused to give up on his dreams. He did the impossible. Michelle Wie is trying to do the impossible and she’s going to motivate millions of people to at least give a second thought to what is possible in their own lives.

    So, I don’t know what this last statement by you about my being so passionate regarding a 16 year old golfer means, but I think I’ve set the record straight that what I’m passionate about as to Wie is not that she’s 16, it’s that she’s the most bad ass dreamer on the world stage right now.

    And little Sahaj Grover is right their with her, a ten year old boy who’s trying to become the youngest chess grandmaster in history.

    http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3347

    What the world needs now is DREAMERS not conformers. Conformers never change a damn thing.

    Jet Wintzer, minor league indie rock star
    http://www.schizofunaddict.com

  10. Kimo - November 10th, 2006 at 4:25 pm

    Jet Wintzer, you’ve got it ALL right! Don’t misunderstand me. Others get it right, too, and some do so quite eloquently. But they don’t get the whole coconut about Michelle Wie. Just a part. And the parts, when we try to add them up, don’t always add up to the whole Wie. But in your posts, you’ve put Humpty together, and for that, we’re grateful. I hope Michelle has read your comments and never, never gives up her dream to become highly competitive in professional golf — men’s and women’s. In a national TV interview right after she turned pro, she said that success in her quest would take time and that she hoped her fans would be patient with her. Her true fans are.

  11. evossman - November 11th, 2006 at 12:04 am

    Kimo, thanks for keeping the discussion going. :)

    Jet was an interesting commentor and hasn’t been around in a while. I actually didn’t reveal all of his comments as some of them, if you couldn’t tell, were directed solely at me and not at the subject, Michelle Wie.

    I’ve tried to keep my reporting on Michelle Wie unbiased either way, (although it’s hard, always nice to see her rock and roll on the course). And sometimes people can take some of my posts the wrong way. Which is all fine and dandy except when it’s starts getting personal towards me. Jet Wintzer got pretty personal in one of his comments and I didn’t post it, also I think I asked him not to comment if he was going to get that way, it’s just rude. He went off spouting about how I was into hurting peoples dreams and how I wasn’t a dreamer. (If you read my blog and if you know me at all you’ll realize that all I am is a dreamer.)

    Anyway, to make a long story short, Jet Wintzer had SOME things right (Those he got wrong were personal stabs, rude remarks, and not seeing things for what they are, as well as being, well, just rude I guess.) Most of all he was a mis-guided individual who must have been going through some rough times.

    Anyway, good luck to you and I hope you keep reading and commenting.

    Aloha
    E

  12. The “final?” word on Leo Donofrio….and the Natural Born Citizen « Robot Pirate Ninja - December 15th, 2008 at 8:27 am

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  13. lenny - January 10th, 2009 at 10:42 am

    did you know that jet wintzer is none other than leo donofrio, the lawyer from NJ who tried to sue to get Obama off the balot? He’s also got a blog claiming Obama is Satan, and he’s also a ranked poker player, winning two events in early 08. he once wrote a long paper claiming Ian Brown from the Stone Roses was Jesus. He’s completely off his rocker.


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