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While Michelle Wie is way too young to remember this, except on TV Land repeats,
one of the signature lines of the original 1970s
Saturday Night Live cast was, “Stop the
Insanity,” usually applied after an over
the top or another goofball performance.
Sadly, that’s about the best way to describe
the way I feel about Wie going into the 2007
golf season.
Enough with the increasingly train-wreck like
PGA Tour missed cuts; enough with the increasingly
bizarre explanations of failure against male
players (heat stroke, bad caddy, didn’t
know the rules) and enough with the increasing
number of disillusion quotes about your golf
future.
“I want to play in the Masters. I want
to play in the British Open. I want to play
on the Ryder Cup team some day. I want to compete
with men on the PGA Tour.”
What once seemed so inspirational to many now
seems insipid and ill-conceived to me. I want
to walk on the moon and cure the slice too,
but the odds aren’t that good.
For those not paying attention over the last
five years or who have already tuned out this
well-hyped story, Wie is the truly talented
17-year-old from Honolulu, Hawaii. Tall, strong,
good looking and able to hit the golf ball a
mile.
Already a Hall of Famer on the potential meter,
known as the Big P for potential, Wie’s
career has been struck in the Big P rut over
the last five years thanks to some true mismanagement
from her dad, B.J., and assorted members of
the well-paid Team Wie.
Her dad, a former University of Hawaii employee
saw Wie’s genuine potential at an early
age, and guided her through a succession of
junior and amateur victories, capped by the
U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship
in 2003. It was her first and only national
championship, at age 13, making her one of 500
or so other amateur golfers to have won a USGA
national title
So far, so good on her goal of following her
professed idol Tiger Woods as a ground-breaking
golfer for the ages, a trail blazer for female
golfers everywhere.
But that’s when things started going
off the golf dominator track for Team Wie. Instead
of concentrating as an amateur, dominating players
her own age and ability as Woods did in winning
six consecutive USGA National Championships,
Wie talked constantly about playing against
pros and most importantly playing against men.
That’s when the quotes flowed hot and
heavy about playing in the Masters and playing
on the PGA Tour. She qualified for a handful
of LPGA events, with limited success and held
the golf world in brief suspension when she
missed the cut by a single stroke in the 2004
PGA Tour’s Hawaii Open, on a course she
had played dozens as times as a junior.
But that was enough to assure Team Wie that
she will soon dominate the PGA Tour, sweeping
past the mere amateurs and even the LPGA Tour,
where she enjoyed some success, but no true
satisfaction.
Case in point was the 2004 U.S. Girls Junior
Championship held at Fort Worth’s Mira
Vista. Organizers went out of their way to welcome
Wie into the field. No such luck. Team Wie selected
the professional Evian Ladies Masters in France
where Wie finished a forgettable 33rd. The winner
that hot week in Fort Worth was eager amateur
Paula Creamer, the same Creamer who already
has two LPGA victories and a Rookie of the Year
honor to her credit.
Team Wie had also already decided college was
out of the question. She didn’t need amateurs,
she certainly didn’t need hanging out
in a dorm with minimum wage girls her own age,
playing college golf (where Woods captured a
NCAA title) and riding around in cramped vans.
When she turned pro in 2005, Team Wie turned
Big P into Big Green, signing contracts with
Nike and other top companies for an estimated
$20 million before ever hitting a professional
shot. With the right investments, Wie can play
golf the rest of her life, carefree, and without
ever needing anyone’s help for next month’s
bills.
But her professional career has sadly mirrored
most of her amateur career. A bunch of close
finishes in LPGA majors, indicating her true
talent, a bunch of late round mishaps, indicating
her true lack of finishing ability and winning
experience on almost any level, and more desire
to play on the PGA Tour.
It’s not like she lacks for chances.
PGA Tour directors from events which have trouble
making a ripple in the golf pond have been more
than happy to invite Wie to play in their events
with the record crowds and interest sure to
follow.
If I’m Steve Timms at the Shell Houston
Open or Tony Piazzi at the Valero Texas Open,
who have struggled to attract top marquee players,
my top call always goes to Wie.
See the amazing young long hitting girl full
of Big P with a chance to make history, goes
the pitch. The crowds come with tournament sponsors
happy to count their money and brief acclaim
as Wie goes down the road with another missed
cut and a little less confidence than she had
before.
One thing Team Wie has failed to understand
or is willing to overlook is that just because
she has the chance to play in men’s tournaments,
before winning anything against women, doesn’t
mean she should do it. Anybody think Woods couldn’t
have played consistently on the PGA Tour at
age 16-17? Anybody think his career wasn’t
better served by three straight U.S. Amateur
titles and one NCAA victory before turning pro?
As Wie enters the 2007 season and prepares
to play in the PGA Tour’s Hawaiian Open
this month, her career is closer today to TT
than TW.
TT is Ty Tyron who successful completed PGA
Tour Qualifying School to earn his Tour card
at age 17, bypassed college, missed dozens of
cuts, lost his confidence and was last seen
trying to make a comeback on the Hooters Tour
at the ripe old age of 20.
Unable to join the LPGA full-time until age
18, Wie the pro is left playing in LPGA majors
and whatever sponsor exemptions she can round
up, and playing in men’s events where
missed cuts, contrived explanations, and lost
confidence is the likely result.
When Annika Sorenstam made her historic appearance
at Colonial in 2001, she was clearly the dominant
female golfer of her age, looking for new worlds
to conquer. When Wie tees it up at the Hawaiian
Open in a few weeks, she is one of 500 former
USGA Champions and a Hall of Famer when is comes
to Big P. Sadly nothing more.
One wise LPGA Hall of Famer once said the goal
for Wie should be to enjoy and dominate the
game of golf as much when she was 25 and 35
as when she was 15. Her idol Woods enjoyed his
golf very much at age 25 and can’t wait
for 35. For Michelle Wie, holder of the Big
P, and the enabling Team Wie, the future is
still very unclear.
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