Wie Misses The Cut—Barely

So all of the predictions held true—and Michelle Wie missed the cut. Now the naysayers can say “I told you so.”

But I still found her performance amazing—not because she is a girl (woman?), but because she is just 15 years old.

For her two days, she shot a 141. Lets look at some of the bigger names that finished worse than that: Kirk Triplett (142), Briny Baird (142), Len Mattiace (143) and Aaron Baddeley (144). If Michelle Wie doesn’t belong on the basis of her performance, what does that say about the other 40 or so guys who finished worse?

And she didn’t finish all that far off the cut: two shots would have done it for her. She’s now finished one out off the cut at the Sony, and two off the cut at the Deere. If I’m recalling this correctly, she’s now played in three PGA events: two Sony Opens, and the John Deere.  That makes her 0 for 3 on cuts.

But lets look at some of the top guys on tour: Davis Love III missed the cut in two of his first three tournaments; Fred Couples missed his first four. Padraig Harrington missed two of his first four. Sergio Garcia missed three of his first six. David Toms was made only 3 of his first 5. Wie could still match either Toms or Garcia.

And I’ll go back to this. She’s only 15. I teach 15 year olds. They are not adults by any stretch of the imagination. They don’t have the mental facilities, or the muscle. If she’s almost making the cut at that age, what’s she going to be like with more experience, mental development and muscle?

If she keeps this up, she will be a regular figure on both the LPGA and the PGA Tours.