My usual defense of Michelle Wie when she misses a cut in a men’s tournament is that she at least finished ahead of several other players. If her score makes her unworthy, then what does that say about the guys who finished behind her?
Not this time. Wie missed the cut in dead last at the Omega European Masters, shooting a score that probably could have been beaten by the average club pro. Now the winless wonder wings off to the 84 Lumber Classic where she will continue her quixotic quest.
I wonder when her handlers are going to wake up. I’ve siad it before: if she can’t play a full schedule on the LPGA, then she should be traveling around the world entering the various national women’s championships—the British Women’s the Canadian Women’s, the Nigerian Open, etc.
My initial thought is that doing so would teach her to win. But now I’m thinking adding a few international victories would keep her from becoming the laughingstock of golf.
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What does Nike think about this? Is this the image they want? Would it not be better that she is placing top 10 with Annika, Natalie, Paula, and Lorena? Isn’t the goal to align themselves with strong performers and get their swoosh on the TV screen?
Actually, now that I think about it, Wie reminds me a lot of some of my male students who say that they don’t need to do well in high school because they’re going to play in the NBA like LeBron. I then ask them what position they play on the high school team … it inevitably turns out that they were cut from the team … or did not even try out.
It’s one thing to have dreams. Those dreams just need to be tempered with a large dose of reality.
I think that Michelle would be better off focusing on becoming the best woman golfer of all time—which she certainly could be.
… and there are a LOT of players on the LPGA who haven’t won anything … the difference for me is that they aren’t trying to compete with the boys, or talking about Ryder Cups. They’re just going about and doing their workman like thing and earning paychecks.
Absolutely…Everyone aspires to go further than the person before them but the dreams are usually tempered by just a touch of reality. Michelle will most likely never play at the Masters or in the Ryder Cup. She doesn’t hit it far enough or have the touch around the greens necessary to compete (win) with the guys. If you saw Sergio’s comments on her game on Wednesday, you will notice a definite lack of enthusiasm in his account of here game.
In missing the premier men’s events, she will be placed among a billion, billion or so that have missed out on the opportunity. But if she were to say that she wanted to play in the Solheim, win a LPGA Grand Slam, or take over #1 from Annika then are not those goals lofty enough for a start?
The good news for Nike is that she does get a lot of coverage – let’s face it; she’s a lot more photogenic than a lot of the PGA guys – but I’m sure Nike would like to see that coverage extend into the weekend(s). If she was as dominant on the LPGA tour as Tiger is on the PGA, then she could make a stronger case for competeing with the guys.
As I recall, Annika, who’s played in at least one PGA event, has said that there’s no way she could regularly compete at that level. Is Michelle that much better than Annika? The jury is definitely still out on that one.
And BTW; is there some reason that she hasn’t joined the LPGA? Does she not want to bother with Q school?
Wie is not a member of the LPGA Tour because of the Tour’s age limit. She therefore is limited to the number of tour events that she can play … she can only get so many sponsors exemptions. There is an out that allows the commissioner to relax that rule in extraordinary circumstances. But the LPGA powers tha tbe have not done so.
In any case, Team Wie has apparently indicated that even if she were given an LPGA membership, she would not commit to a full LPGA schedule … so that may be why she hasn’t gotten the membership exemption. I’m sure the LPGA commissioner is thinking there’s no point in offering if it’s just going to be rejected.