You can't live without mentioning Wie. You just can't live without her. Admit it, bro.

I've had enough of these big tournaments handing out freebies just to reward prior years performances just for the sake of the gate. I sure am glad Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus turned down all those exemptions into the US Open after they were finished competitively.

Oops, sorry - they didn't. My bad.

First 12 majors:
Paula Creamer: 1 top 5.
Michelle Wie: 6 top 5s.

Michelle deserves to play. The field is avertised as the top 20 women players. Michelle is certainly one of those.

Hey Chris why would Samsung keep the biggest draw in women's professional golf out of the event? Morgan, Paula, Natalie, Annika or any of your other favorite blond players don't pack em in like Michelle does.

Maybe the LPGA can finally get some network airtime whenever she plays.

The Canadian Women's Open organizers have doubled their ticket sales over last seasons event after Michelle signed on and they are still adding bleachers/corporate tents. Heck they are asking for another 250 volunteers and doubled the RCMP support.

Not only will Michelle's appearance add a significant boost to the money paid to charities in the Edmonton area, the local economy will add another million bucks for the event.

Whether Michelle does well or not doesn't seem to make a difference to her legion of fans.

Now I have to assume you have something against raising more money for charity Chris? Or helping out the economy of Edmonton?

The Samsung and any other event Michelle appears in will receive the same benefits.

Miss Wie is the best investment a golf sponsor ever made.

Small minded people, think very small indeed.

Chris,

According to at one Wie Warrior, Bubbles will have at least one LPGA major in her sparsely populated trophy case by the time the Samsung rolls around. So your point may be moot by then.

And even if she doesn't win an LPGA major or any other tournament by then , according to the Wie-wee's, she will still deserve to be there now and to perpetuity. To these characters it won't matter if she doesn't even play.

Read Stanley's latest post.

LPGA tour wins:

Paula Creamer--3

Michelle Wie--0

I agree that even with her limited schedule Michelle is certainly one of the top 20 players, but that doesn't change the fact that she did not meet the criteria to qualify for the Samsung.

One-Putt,

You beat me to it.

In the middle of your post, you stated the essence of the credo of the Wie Warriors:

"Whether Bubbles does well or not doesn't make any difference to her legion of fans."

Absolutely true, proving once again that truth is stranger than fiction.

The Wie hype machine has worked its wonders once again, and cowtown and oiltown Edmonton will now be brought kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

BJ and Bo must be proud.

"Whether Michelle does well or not doesn't seem to make a difference to her legion of fans."

If it's not about her play then what is it about? Her hair? Her legs? Her bubbly personality? I think this comment brings to an end the great Michelle Wie debate. If her fans don't care how she plays then they are fans for all the wrong reasons. If you don't care about performance than you are not fans of golf or any other sport for that matter.

I have a suspicion that Queen Carolyn is behind this one. The LPGA is starved for attention this year. Were it not for Pressel, they would have received virtually no ink this year.

Ford, just who are the fans that come out to see Michelle play?

Are they hardcore LPGA or golf fans?

Nope, they are mothers and daughters who are living Michelle's dreams with her.

Miss Wie has something that transcends the game of golf which is why William Morris signed her as their first sports client.

Wyatt: " agree that even with her limited schedule Michelle is certainly one of the top 20 players, but that doesn't change the fact that she did not meet the criteria to qualify for the Samsung."
__________________________


She did meet the criteria to qualify for the 2006 Samsung, had she been an lpga member. She EARNED enough to be high enough on the money list to qualify, despite only playing 7 events before the Samsung, far fewer than the other players who qualified.
She may well earn enough to 2007 to qualify again, had she been an lpga member.

One-Putt,

Yes, and the transcendant Bubbleshas not only condescended to help out the charities and the soup kitchens of rust-belt Edmonton, she will also make a state visit to that third-world hellhole, Palm Springs.

Many of you folks living in affluent , prosperous cities like Buffalo, Camden,NJ, East Saint Louis, IL, and Gary, IN probaly don't realize what abject poverty pervades the Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indio, and Indian Wells areas

Why, the last time I was in that blighted area, I actually saw a house for sale for**gasp** less that a million dollars! Granted, it wasn't much under a million and it needed a lot of repairs. And it was in, of all places, Rancho Mirage!

And that wasn't all. There were also some hotel rooms for LESS than three hundred dollars a night! And gourmet meals for LESS than a hundred dollars per person!

With squalor like that, thank goodness that Bubbles will sacrifice her birthday celebration to help out that impoverished area. Lord knows Palm Springs needs all the help it can get.

You people are missing the most important aspect of this story.... Michelle turns 18 on the opening day of the Samsung. Eighteen. LEGAL! Oh, baby.

2 posts with humour.
Well done Alex and well done Kris Bald One. More of that is welcome.

Chris
Considering the number of years that you have spent beating on MW, one would have to ask what your intent is or what is your agenda?

You have spent so much time dissing this kid and I still don't understand why a man in his 40's would go to such lengths and take so much time out of his life to attempt to wreak havoc on a her.

What's the real reason behind your intense dislike of Michelle Wie?

I don't believe the bullpucky about the hype. You were bashing her long before there was any hype. In fact, your incessant rambling and vindictive rhetoric was in part responsible for the hype.
So, what do you gain from it all? What is so important to you that you devote the best part of 4 or 5 years crapping all over a teenager?

Admittedly she doesn't have blonde hair and blue eyes, but should that matter? Or is it the fact
that her skin isn’t white? Or her eyes do not resemble those of your favorite fantasy, Paula Creamer?

As I have said before, you should be going after the hype machine if you are really serious. Go after Nike and Sony if you are sincere. But get off your personal vendetta against a teenager who has never done you any harm.

So far your false claims about the hype machine always come out sounding more like hate messages than legitimate concerns about some public relations by a few companies who are milking a kids talent.

Personally, I don’t give a rats butt whether MW ever wins a thing. What does bother me is the obvious lie you and your sycophants on these blogs continue to use to further your own questionable agenda.

When are you going to let us know the real reason you beat up on kids?

Ford has never heard of Chicago Cub fans. Isn't a true fan supposed to support a team no matter what?

Get off you're high horse putt! Save you're moral venom for the real child abusers out there. Michelle has willingly put herself in the public eye as a PROFESSIONAL golfer and a psuedo-celeb so her career choices, golf game and yes even her appearence are all fair game. She signed up for this life and gets paid well for doing it, a little criticism comes with the territory. Look I understand you're frustration things are not going the way you and the rest of Michelle's fans have planned, but resorting to calling people child abuser's is simply appealing to the lowest common denominator. For the last time questioning Michelle's career path, her failure to win and her overall golf game is not abuse it is just sports talk.

One other thing I like how you and some of the other Wiebots are singing a new song, claiming not to care if Michelle ever wins anything. Pathetic and extremely disingenous given that you have spent the better part of three years on this site predicitng her dominance and attacking anyone who dare disagree.

Ford,

Our buddy One-Putt has at last revealed the source of Bubbles' mystique.

It is not her considerable talent that attracts the Wie Warriors.

Nor is it her ability as a motivational speaker.

It isn't even her sparkly wristwatch.

No, it is the fact that she has DREAMS. Yes, DREAMS, and her admirers are not really golf fans at all. They are mothers and daughters (and presumably some males imbued wirh political correctness)who are living out Bubbles' DREAMS vicariously. They are the modern-day reincarnations of Don Quixote. How nice! How admirable!

DREAM ON, WIE WARRIORS!

Being a die hard Red Sox fan I know exactly what it means to rout for your team no matter what, but read the quote carefully that's not what we are talking about here. Stanley, One Putt and now Putt4Parr are suggesting that they do not care if she wins or not--I think you will agree that this is very different from Cubs, Sox or any other true sports fans view of wanting their team to win everytime out. What these Wie fans have done is essentially wave the white flag and basically concede that they can not win the argument about whether or not Michelle has lived up to the hype, she has not and they can no longer cite stats which show her to be dominant, she still has 0 wins, so they have adopted the we don't care if she ever wins and you guys are all meanies. When Michelle does something of note with her clubs let me know and we can revisit this discussion, but for now it's closed

Ford said: "Stanley, One Putt and now Putt4Parr are suggesting that they do not care if she wins or not--"
______________________


Where are you getting that from?
Of course I care if she wins. What kind of an idiot are you to claim such a thing. I didn't say anything like that.

Ford:Michelle has willingly put herself in the public eye as a PROFESSIONAL golfer and a psuedo-celeb so her career choices, golf game and yes even her appearence are all fair game.
____________________


Ford, I agree with you that her golf game is up for discussion and critisism as are her career choices, but no her appearance is not up for criticisism. If you feel the need to insult the appearance of a 17 year old girl then that speaks volumes about you.

As a professional her golf game is open to scruitiny but her appearance is certainly not included as part of that.

Chris is 40?

Ford,

Bubbles has not competed in an LPGA tournament for more than seven months. Her last outing with the women was at the very same Samsung where she finished 17th of twenty players after getting in on an exemption. She was 21 strokes out of the lead.

Since then, her only competitive rounds were at the Casio and the Sony where she failed miserably to make the cut by 15 and 14 shots respectively.

Prior to the Samsung, Bubbles flopped pitifully at the Omega and the 84 Lumber, again missing the cut by 15 and 14 strokes in those events.

To say that her play in the last nine months has been lackluster or even poor would be kind.

Any thinking person would look upon the Samsung's granting her another exemption on the basis of her play on all the tours she attempted to be very suspect.

But not the Wie-wee's. To these dreamers, she DESERVES to be exempt.
Sort of like the divine right of kings.

To these Wiebots, Bubbles will deserve exemptions if she doesn't win or even play in any LPGA events.

After all, her mystique transcends such mundane pursuits as golf.

To One-Putt, she is the embodiment of Princess Di and Mother Teresa rolled into one. Her altruism and good works in saving the poor in Edmonton and Palm Springs count way more than any wins.

Anyone can dream big; that really doesn't impress me. The reason why I've long taken you Wiebots to task is because you've ever been denying reality with respect to Bubbles' prospects. In a very callow, naive way you always insisted that her grandest dreams were close to coming to fruition instead of acknowledging that, while she's immensely talented, her future in golf lies with the LPGA. The hype was, is and always will be nauseating and you Wiebot dum-dums have always been a part of it.

Alex your knowledge of Riverside County is sorely lacking. The people of Riverside County and other areas in SOCAL will be pleased to here they are all fat cats like yourself. I wonder if they got the memo?

Samsung is simply extending an invitation to a member of the Big Horn owners association. After Michelle's purchase of a modest three and a half million dollar home at Big Horn, they became her new home courses.

Yes Alex everyone has dreams, so sit back and relax and let's see if some of Michelle's come true this season.

BTW Ford, no need to worry, if Michelle pulls it all together this season, you will hear about it from everywhere. Look at the lead in to ESPN golf sometime. They are ready for the future, are you?

Wie is, for all intents and purposes, making LPGA a farce rather than a legitimate and credible tour.

She should play in celebrity tour events where there are still some legitimate competitions like Mario Lemieu, Brett Hull, Dan Quinn, Ivan lendl, and Rick Rhodes who are good golfers and can give her a run for the money.

Alex,
Are you willing to back up your claims about her not deserving an exemption. How about this. If she does better than Morgan Pressel in their common events before the Samsung she will deserve her exemption. Is that a fair thing to say if she does better than Morgan Pressel major champion.

By the way, what happened to Chris Baldwin's infatuation with Paula Creamer? Has she got too old and he has moved onto Morgan Pressel perhaps?
PS This is meant in good humour.

Stanley,

No it is not.

Morgan earned the right to compete at the Samsung by winning a majo.

That's MAJOR, Big Stan!

Guys, Bubbles hasn't even played in an LPGA event for seven months or more.

How could she have earned anything?

Stanley,
In order to emphasize the fallacy in your proposal, let's look at another scenario.

Ai Miyazato and Natalie Gulbis are two up and coming female golfers of note.

While both have done reasonably well in LPGA tournaments, neither have yet won an event on that circuit.

Now. if either or both of these young female golfers were to score better than Bubbles in their common events, would either of these two young girls, on the basis of that alone without a WIN, deserve an exemption to the Samsung? I await your well thought-out reply.

One-Putt and Putt4Par made the claim . I am sorry to have included you in that group. I am also sorry that you are holding out hope that Michelle's golf career will amount to a hill of beans.

My money is still on Michelle Wie. Barring career threatening injuries, I would pick Wie of all the young LPGA players as the one most likely to have a LPGA Hall of the Fame career. She is .... only 17 lol and accomplished so much already. One has to wait till the 20s to assess her game. Just my opinion but the news of her demise seems bit premature.

WATCHING THE LPGA WITHOUT MICHELLE IS LIKE WATCHING GRASS GROW!!

"Comment from: Stanley [Visitor] Email
By the way, what happened to Chris Baldwin's infatuation with Paula Creamer? Has she got too old and he has moved onto Morgan Pressel perhaps?"

She turned 18.

"Comment from: Joe Cool [Visitor] Email
WATCHING THE LPGA WITHOUT MICHELLE IS LIKE WATCHING GRASS GROW!!"

Or cars rust my friend.

What do Morgan and Brittany have in common?

They back up their wins with missed cuts.

Jon,

Congratulations!

You are the first Wie-wee to grant Bubbles Hall of Fame status.

Stanley advocates for Bubbles permanent exemption to the elite Samsung field if she scores lower than Morgan in the few tournaments in which they both compete. He doesn't mention Bubbles winning any tournaments.

One-Putt thinks Bubbles should be awarded the Nobel Prize for her unfettered altruism and charitable works among the homeless and hungry of Palm Springs.

putt4par bristles at all the racist and sexist invective being hurled at Bubbles on these threads. He advocates the status of permanent victimhood for Bubbles.

All of these plaudits and the recognition of Bubbles' many acts of deprivation she and her family have endured are admirable.

But you Jon, have outdone them all. You alone have shown the perspicacity and foresight to bestow on Bubbles her deserved mantel of greatness.

Bubbles deserves not only a permanent exempt status on the LPGA tour, she should also be permanently exempt from all PGA events with perhaps having to qualify at the regional level for majors.

But an exalted place in the Hall of Fame should certainly be hers regardless of if she ever wins one, or if her brilliant career is cut short by injuries as it has been this years.

Congratulations again, Jon!

Joe Cool and One-Putt please explain your comments. What makes Michelle so special? What is it about her game that transcends the LPGA and makes it watchable in your eyes?

It can't be her level of play. After all she has yet to win so there has always been somebody playing at a higher level at each tournament she has played. Maybe it is her extreme power advantage she holds over the entire field. Nope, there are other women who hit the ball just as far. Could it be her physical appearence? That can't be it, after all she is still only 17 and that's just wrong. So please enlighten me as to how the winless Michelle Wie single handedly makes the LPGA worth watching.

One-Putt,

Are you really being serious? Michelle Wie has never won a thing yet you are telling jokes about players who have won tournaments...We may never know what Michelle Wie would do after she wins, because, well you already know this punch line.

Ford,

My wife and I saw Bubbles play about six holes of the Publinx in 2005.

All the female spectators around us, my wife included were anticipating some really spectacular golf. So did I, since the hype in the Chcago Tribune and the Cincinnati Enquirer had practically guaranteed some shots heretofore untried and unseen.

None were forthcoming. Noticeably absent were any of the mythical 300+ yard drives. 250 yards or less were the norm for Bubbles.

Still, at that event she did comparatively well vis-a-vis her scttershot play in the last nine months.

All the anti-Wie weiners, just give it a rest....Let those Wie warriors bask in their own delusions.

Could Brittany Lincicome's butt be any bigger?

Matthew,

It can't be bigger than Bubbles' head.

Is Brittany going out with her caddy? He was doing a fair amount of feeling her up after she won that event.

Michelle Wie certainly did earn her way into the Kraft which she had to miss with an injury, and I am sure she would much rather have had it be the Kraft that she plays in October instead of the Samsung.

"The Canadian Women's Open organizers have doubled their ticket sales over last seasons event after Michelle signed on and they are still adding bleachers/corporate tents. Heck they are asking for another 250 volunteers and doubled the RCMP support. "

Then why not just extend an exemption to Jenna Jamieson? Or how about Angelina Jolie if she plays in a bikini? Surely that would increase the gate, television converage, and sponsor ROI? By your logic, that is exactly what should be done.

Michelle Wie is currently the 24th ranked woman in the world--in spite of the fact that her point total of 131.06 is divided by 35 when it actually represents only 13 events. If you went by her average points per event she would be ranked fourth.
How can anyone suggest that she does not belong in a full field event like the Canadian Open which probably has something like a field of 144 players?

"I sure am glad Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus turned down all those exemptions into the US Open after they were finished competitively."

How about you spend ten minutes comparing Jack and Arnie's golf achievements with Michelle Wie's? They punched their ticket with decades of dominance, trophy cases the size of motorcoaches, and highlight reels the length of a feature film directed by Kevin Costner. If they want to play the Masters in a wheelchair, from the red tees, in their 90's, I'd be inclined to give them a pass.

When Weeeee! gets to that point, then it might be worth making that comparison. As it stands today, there is not one single trophy with her name on it, and from what I've seen, there may never be.

Jim C,

What do you predict will be Bubbles winning margin when she wins the LPGA championship?

Will she threaten the course record in any of her rounds?

Besides winning, what other stats will she lead the field in?

Michelle Wie will win the LPGA by a shot, breaking Morgan Pressel's record of coming from 3 shots back after completeling her round by completing her round early 10 shots back behind 30 different players still out on the course--but then winning outright when all 30 collapse on the final few holes.

There you go acting as though you know more than Tim's Rosaforte and Finchem. Lol. No wonder we've never heard of you. Wie is the future. You're just to ignorant to see it. Find someone to thoughtlessly bash. Start at the bottom with Bush and work your way up to the embarrassment to professional golf that is John Daly.

"First 12 majors:
Paula Creamer: 1 top 5.
Michelle Wie: 6 top 5s.

Michelle deserves to play. The field is avertised as the top 20 women players. Michelle is certainly one of those. "

Stanley, those results got her an exemption LAST YEAR. And then she finished 17 out of 20. Meanwhile other "lesser" players earn their way. Wie will never be a champion if she doesn't have to earn it.

Those of you who think Michelle Wie is a "big draw"....... think again. Her drawing numbers were based on a myth in the beginning and the crowds are slowing slipping away. She hasn't qualified for the Samsung in any way shape or form and shouldn't be invited. To get the perks of being in these limited field events, she should be a member of the LPGA. Until she is, she should be getting the second tier events.

Ray and John,

Of course you're both correct, Bubbles may have deserved an exemption to the Samsung in 2006, but has done absolutely nothing this year to merit the Samsung freebie.

It's a joke that someone should be given an exemption to an elite 20-player event without even competing somewhere along the line to earn that exemption.

The stock reply from the Wie-wee's will be "the sponsors can grant an exemption to whomever they wish", and "she will greatly increase the attendance at the event."

Both of these may or may not be true, but any thinking person should recognize them as fallacies that make a lot of assumptions and merely beg the question.

Jim C,

Normally, I don't have any troubling deciphering your posts.

But your latest was practically incomprehensible.

Perhaps, since it was Friday, you may have stopped off at a local watering hole and stayed too long.

Ray: "Those of you who think Michelle Wie is a "big draw"....... think again. Her drawing numbers were based on a myth in the beginning and the crowds are slowing slipping away. "
_________________


Tell that to the people who boosted the ticket sales at the various events at which her name was announced. She is the biggest draw in the womens game with Annika 2nd, and no other player anywhere close to that.

Stanley,

One question:

What, in your opinion, has Bubbles done since the 2006 Samsung that would merit her getting an exemption to the 2007 Samsung?

What has Michelle Wie done since the 2006 Samsung to justify inclusion the the 2007 event? Duh? Didn't Stanley tell you that already? She doubled ticket sales for the Canadian Open. The tournament mmight no longer exist if it did not have a sponsor's exemption it could use to increase interest in the event.

Jim C,

Whether or not Bubbles doubled the ticket sales for the Ladies' Canadian Open is nebulous at best, but that is not what I was referring to.

I didn't think that it was necessary to specify as much, but I was referring to what Bubbles has done concerning her golf game since the 2006 Samsung to warrant an exemption to the 2007 Samsung.

Come on, Jim! You had to realize as much. And if you didn't, now you do. Got an answer?

Alex:
What, in your opinion, has Bubbles done since the 2006 Samsung that would merit her getting an exemption to the 2007 Samsung?
_________________

What lpga events has she played since the 2006 Samsung?
In any case, her results in 2006 were good enough to make her deserving of any 2007 lpga exemptions.

She who dies with the most toys wins......

Alex

The problem is this. Michelle is currently limited to 6 exemptions. The Samsung has been her last LPGA event for the last couple of years. If she is not going to get a Samsung invite, she will probably want to pick up another event prior to the Samsung. At that point she would not be able to play in the Samsung even if they decided they wanted to give her an exemption. The interest in the Canadian Open may have pushed the Samsung to get on Michelle's dance card now while there are still spaces available.

Would you agree with me that the six exemption limited should be eliminated, in which case the Samsung could feel free to wait before choosing their sponsor's exemption.

Hey, Alex. Hail, Smails. Good to see you guys again. I've read through the thread, and Joe Cool gets my nod:

Comment from: Joe Cool [Visitor] Email
WATCHING THE LPGA WITHOUT MICHELLE IS LIKE WATCHING GRASS GROW!!
Permalink 2007-05-17 @ 22:28

Joe, that's the bottom line! Thanks for putting it so succinctly, so poetically. Alex, you're right. With the weiners, nothing else matters -- with Michelle, we, collectively, dream on!

Kimotherapy,

You me to say that the Wie-wee's are dreamers? No kidding! Tell me something I didn't know.

You guys had better hope that you never wake up from your dreams.

Jim C,

As you should surel know, I am definitely not a fan of the LPGA or any of its member golfers

In my opinion, it's a pitty-pat game that is tedious and even boring.

As far as this issue goes, a few things cannot be denied.

1)Bubbles has not done a thing in the past nine months to warrant the granting of an exemption to an elite 20-player field. Nothing.

2)Bubbles hasn't even played in an LPGA event since the last Samsung in which she finished in 17th place out of 20, 21 strokes from first.

3)Unless Bubbles wins a LPGA tournament from now until October 11 and the point becomes moot,there is an excellent probability that she will, by accepting the exemption take the place of a woman who has actually won an LPGA tournament in the past year.

Again, I have no axe to grind as far as the LPGA is concerned. I am not an adoring fan of Paula, Natalie, or Morgan. And I fully realize that the sponsor has the prerogative to grant an exemption to Humpty-Dumpty if they so choose.

But even the most hardened Wie-wee should be able to see the inherent injustice in bestowing such a premature exemption to a non-winner, and so far this year non-playing, non-member of the LPGA.

But I somehow think you Wie Warriors will turn a blind eye to such injustice. Bubbles' dreams and those of her fans are more important.

Alex

Care to explain how winless forever Natalie Gulbis qualified for last year's Samsung? She qualified off the LPGA money list, which Michelle Wie could have done in just 7 events if she had been included on the list, which she was not. So in fact, the exemption rectified what would have been an injustice if Michelle Wie had been denied a spot on the technicality that earnings did not count because she was not an LPGA member at an age that players are not allowed to be members by the LPGA rules. There was, howevewr, an injustice which was not rectified when Michelle Wie was denied a spot in the ADT Championships for which she would have easily qualified of her winnings were consider the same as an LPGA member, and remember she was too young to be a member.

OK Stop Guys! Michelle confirmed on Saturday and Sunday during her personal appearances in Honolulu that she will be playing at the Ginn.

Alex, Judge, Jim and Chrissy your wait is over for some fresh material concerning Miss Wie.

Now we can all kick back and see if Michelle deserves to be in the Samsung or not.

Alex,
Isn't it the case that you were skeptical of Ms Wie playing at the Ginn Tribute? With the confirmation of her playing, are you surpised by that?

Stanley,

No. Anything for free is right up the Wie's alley.