New Article on Michelle Wie

[tuq]

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Here's a thought along those lines, if the PGA invoked a clause that you must be male to compete, would that constitute gender discrimination? No doubt some would raise a fuss regardless.

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I don't really care about this issue that much, but one of my main rivals growing up was a guy named Brian Kontak. He is by all accounts a knucklehead but I would consider us friends, we have a lot of history together going way back, when we were around 8-12 we were like Nicklaus and Watson. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Anyway, he is the guy that threatened to play on the LPGA Tour in response to the whole Annika thing. ROFL, I just did a google to link to that article and found this instead. I guess he's going to be on the next Big Break.

[ntnBO]

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If someone is one of the best golfers in the world, they can play on the PGA Tour.

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I agree with this statement 100%. However Wie is not one of the best golfers in the world. She isn't even in the top 1000 at least. If she thinks she is ready for the PGA Tour, then she can go to Q school and qualify just like any other player. If she makes it through, then more power to her ala Ty Tyron.

The hate for Wie stems from the fact that she doesn't have to follow the rules like everybody else SOLELY because she is a female.

I was going to bring Kontak up as well for his stunt toward the U.S. Women's Open. It's been a while but I did play with him once or twice on the minis, not enough to get to really know him though.

BO

[BrunoThePug]

I read the article today at lunch.

Sounds like Wie didn't live up to all of her hype, she's immature, her parents suck, she wants to be a kid, doesn't want to live up to the hype etc. etc.

Seems like standard "My parents push me too hard to do something I don't really want" sports kid. Factor in the Korean mother sterotypes/jokes and I'm sure it sucks.

[Bill Murphy]

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I'm not even paying much attention to her anymore and this has a distinct whiff of Todd Marijuanavich / Jennifer Capriati. I think the odds of her succeeding at the pro level in the future is no greater than her being caught in a hotel with crack rock and a bagful of Big Macs.

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Now, now, we've been over this before. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Capriati wound up w/three majors, all post-meltdown. And she won six tournaments (14 overall) pre-meltdown including Oly Gold medal win over Steffi Graf, as well. She was also ranked number one on four different occasions, for a total of about four months.

She never fully lived up to the hype, but at this point Wie will be doing awful well to match Capriati's career. I do realize I'm comparing apples to accordians, and also that, whatever the innumerable flaws of Capriati's parents/coaches/handlers, none tried to destroy her game & psyche with the ludicrous pipedream of competing regularly on the men's tour, as may be happening to Wie.

[tuq]

Bill,

You're right that's not a 100% accurate comparison, and I think the Pug elaborated on it better than I did.

I was top 3 in the world for my age group at golf when I was 11. My life consisted of a golf course babysitting me for 12-13 hours/day, every day. My mother dropped me off on her way to work and they picked me up around dinnertime. She would pack me a little sack lunch and give me a buck or two for soda or whatever. I had a small rota of courses I would hang out at. I was ridiculously good for a time.

I also hated it. I took no joy from winning or playing or any of that. I played in PGA event pro-ams, made the front page of newspapers, and was on the radio. My family was worried it will go to my head, LOL. All I wanted was to have a normal upbringing, not be in the paper or on the radio.

My father has said since that he was only hand-holding me until I was 13, then I could chart my own course. That's really easy for him to say in retrospect because that's the age I was at when my parents separated.

My game went in the tank almost immediately and I didn't win another junior tournament after the age of 13 (but heh, the last one I did win was in a playoff against my long-time nemesis Brian Kontak, the guy I linked upthread...hit a Ginty four wood to about three feet on the second playoff hole and made the birdie).

So my game was in a semi-mess by the time I got to high school. However, a funny thing happened a couple of years later: I found joy in the game, and playing for myself. I didn't win another junior event but I was the second man (behind PGA tour veteran Ted Purdy) on a team that won two state titles at the highest level.

tl;dr, sorry, and some of this I probably regurgitated before. But I see Michelle being where I was at 13: utterly burned out and trapped. If she goes on a downward spiral from here I wouldn't be surprised but maybe she'll come out the other end happier. Yeah it's easy to say wah wah who cares about here she's got all the money in the world. But it can't buy happiness, at least not in her situation. And I don't resent her so much as I'm tired of the press covering the crap out of her when it's becoming a non-story (it's on its way to becoming a sad story, actually), and generally I rebel against the press trying to force-feed me things, which is how I feel here.

[BigSoonerFan]

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She does have huge potential, but that initial women's golf world ranking was a complete farce. No way she should have been #2, she hadn't won anything. The rankings were tweaked and she dropped like a stone.

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The rankings weren't flawed. The were correct. At the time Wie had finished in the top 5 of every tournaments she played in the previous 12 months, including all of the majors, while playing against top fields each time. She was deserving of her 2nd place standing. The only way they could knock her down was to put a minimum of 20 tournaments in the standings. At that time, she WAS the second best player in the world. Btw, she also had the second best Golfweek/Sagarin ranking.

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If she would grow up a bit and concentrate solely on LPGA events like every other female, I believe she could turn this around. Naturally she needs to be healthy first.

BO

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I can't argue with any of that. She's far from the second best player in the world right now, probably not even top 100.

[BadBoyBenny]

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The hate for Wie stems from the fact that she doesn't have to follow the rules like everybody else SOLELY because she is a female.

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It's because she is what the fans want to see. She sells more tickets, she brings up the TV ratings. Part of that is because she is a female, part of it is her age, part of it is her looks.

People hate on her because they think she has a different set of rules that apply to her than other pros, but it's not like the PGA Tour's rules are some sort of sacred tradition. The rules are just a construct designed to get the best product on the field. Whenever the PGA can make more money and get more exposure for the sponsors it should make a business decision to do so. If Tiger only plays 11 events next year, they will bend or change the rules so that he can play as many events as he wants the year after because it is the only thing that makes business sense for them. Michelle brought a lot of attention to some events that normally don't get it, and she helps keep the purses big for everybody. If that means that an alternate to the Sony Open doesn't get on the course that's too bad, but the benefits to everywhere else outweigh that dude's loss.

Michelle is one of a handful of players on the planet that can draw a crowd with her name, so she has a different set of rules than everyone else. I don't think that's any reason to hate her.

[poorolrich]

Well, sorry to say, I haven't read all the comments in this thread. But, I think she should take her freshman year of college off and enjoy it--find herself--then make her decisions for the future. I was astounded that her parents are looking for a house near Stanford. For crying out loud, let the poor girl alone for once in her life. I think when she turns 18 she should tell everybody in her entourage, including her parents, to take a hike!!!!!!!! Then after her freshman year, decide what to do and go from there.

[ntnBO]

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The rules are just a construct designed to get the best product on the field.

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I will repeat, Wie is nowhere near the best product on the field golf-wise. There are over 1000 better golfers out there that don't get the chance.

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Michelle is one of a handful of players on the planet that can draw a crowd with her name, so she has a different set of rules than everyone else. I don't think that's any reason to hate her.

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She draws a crowd yes. But IMO, she does not draw golf fans. She draws freak show fans ala John Daly. Why in the world would a true golf fan attend a PGA event to watch Wie? You can go out to many courses and see equally talented golfers play for free. If I'm attending a PGA Tour event, I want to see the better players, period.

Regardless, I think the hype has run it's course as everybody in the golf industry is ragging on her now. The Sony will still offer her a sponsor's invite but that may be it. If the John Deere offers again after what she's done to them, they need their heads examined.

BO

[By-Tor]

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The rules are just a construct designed to get the best product on the field.

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I will repeat, Wie is nowhere near the best product on the field golf-wise. There are over 1000 better golfers out there that don't get the chance.

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Michelle is one of a handful of players on the planet that can draw a crowd with her name, so she has a different set of rules than everyone else. I don't think that's any reason to hate her.

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She draws a crowd yes. But IMO, she does not draw golf fans. She draws freak show fans ala John Daly. Why in the world would a true golf fan attend a PGA event to watch Wie? You can go out to many courses and see equally talented golfers play for free. If I'm attending a PGA Tour event, I want to see the better players, period.

Regardless, I think the hype has run it's course as everybody in the golf industry is ragging on her now. The Sony will still offer her a sponsor's invite but that may be it. If the John Deere offers again after what she's done to them, they need their heads examined.

BO

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you don't really understand what product means in this context do you? (or probably in any other)