A lot’s already been written about Michelle Wie accepting a sponsor’s exemption to play in the Reno-Tahoe Open, yet the larger truth’s gone unnoticed. This move reeks of sudden desperation from Team Wie, desperation they’d smartly largely avoided for the last year as Wie tried to rebuild a game that had been propped up by smoke and mirrors hype from the very beginning.
Given the slightest taste of the old hoopla that surrounded Michelle’s every move with that run in the State Farm Classic - and for a few moments there last weekend, it was almost like old times for the Wie Warriors and her apparently equally delirious advisors - Team Wie reacted like a junkie who’s found the heroin needle again. They just couldn’t let the attention go. They couldn’t do the smart thing and let Wie build on her play before and after she failed to sign her scorecard before leaving the roped-off scoring area in future LPGA tournaments.
Instead, they completely overreacted and desperately grabbed at any opportunity. Even one against the men on a course that couldn’t be any more ill-suited for her game. There is no sensical way to explain Wie’s sudden need to play in another PGA Tournament at this time. It’s so ludicrous and idiotic a decision that I spent a few days waiting for the punchline - the just kidding, Brett Favre backwards tap dance to come out of Camp Wie.
Team Wie is apparently all attention junkie though.
In one sense, getting disqualified should have been seen as a plus. After all, it fueled the illusion that Wie would have won the State Farm. You actually had sports commentators getting on the radio and TV declaring that Wie was on the cusp of her first victory. As if the fact she’s never closed out a tournament in her life suddenly held no relevance. It was sort of funny and cute.
And Wie could have built on that perception by coming back in another LPGA Tournament down the road and playing well. Instead, she goes desperate. And the only thing worse than the desperation is that it also reeks of a decision made in anger. Against the LPGA Tour. You could hear it in Wie’s statement on taking the Reno-Tahoe Open free pass.
“It’s not every day that a woman is given the opportunity to play on the greatest tour in the world,” Wie’s statement goes. “This is a tremendous opportunity for me to learn from these great players and take those lessons to the LPGA.”
The “greatest tour in the world” … if that’s not a slap at the LPGA, nothing is. Wie suddenly feels the need to make PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem feel good? Remember, this is a statement, put out by Team Wie. These aren’t off-the-cuff press conference remarks from Michelle herself. They had all the time in the world to go back over those words. They said what they wanted to say, took a direct shot at the LPGA a few days after that Tour dared to disqualify the Hype Princess again.
Think it’s coincidence that Wie is playing a PGA Tour event the same week as the Women’s British Open, doing her best to siphon attention away from a women’s tour that needs every bit of spotlight it can muster?
Team Wie seems to have reacted in desperation and anger. Some combination. Some way to run a career.
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The Accidental Golfer:
Brandon Tucker:
Mark Nessmith:
Jason Scott Deegan:
Well, that's the result of taboo marriage, I guess. I'm always impressed that you've come so far, with parents who are also siblings. Good for you, Chris Baldwin, good for you!! We're rooting for you.
That's another sign of inbreeding: inability to comprehend simple things. I'll spell it out...your mom and dad are brother and sister and you have achieved a lot.
While the LPGA elite are over on the south shores of Lake Geneva at the base of the French Alps playing a magnificent old world golf course and staying at palatial hotels like the Evian Royal, Wie and company are stuck with a second tier PGA event in Reno, Nevada. The mental juxstaposition of Evian's affluent European location standing in stark contrast to the The Biggest Little City's golf tournament cannot be lost on Team Wie, who will (no doubt) do their best to put a smiley face on this indignation.
Altitude 4500 feet
Front nine par fours average 422 yds
par threes 196 yds
par fives 567 yds
Back nine par fours average 449 yds
par threes 174 yds
par fives 610 yds
These yardages are within Michelle's distances, if she can hit the fairways. If she only hits 45% of the fairways like she has during 2008, she will not make it to Saturday
(just about)
In a few days, Michelle Wie will become irrelevant, even if she were to win an LPGA event at some point.
By July 31, Michelle will be older than Paula Creamer was when Paula made history: Creamer is the youngest golfer to win a multi-round LPGA event.
Michelle apparently is not at Evian, which would have been her last chance at erasing Paula's record.
When Michelle failed to win last wee's tourney, Wie's shot at that piece of golf history fizzled.
It's ironic that Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel are LPGA record holders. And Michelle Wie is not.
Paula is the youngest to win an LPGA event (18 years, nine months, 11 days)
Morgan is the youngest to win an LPGA major, at 18 years and 313 days. The Women's British Open is the last major this year that Wie could win.
Even better, Paula and Morgan are probably the two golfers who infuriate the Wie Warriors the most.
-George
Go George !
Oh, btw, I am and was quite happy when Paula one her titles. Nothing wrong with that, I think that is her purpose for being in the LPGA.
I'd be even happier if Morgan would live up to her personal opinion of herself and win again.
That being said, whenever MW wins, will be fine with me also.
Because when all is said and done, your opinion and my opinion of what Michelle does, matters not in the grand scheme of things.
That should read won instead of one, just to keep the spelling nazis happy.
So what year was that when Michelle was going to win her first LPGA title?
-George
surely after all these years, you must have caught a clue!
It's not Michelle that we rational folks are making fun of ...
It's the Wie Warriors such as you, Jim, Norman, Jennifer Mario, and so forth.
It's the shenanigans of stage parents exemplar B.J. Wie and his wife
It's you Wie Warriors with your drooling devotion to Michelle, you're the ones who provide the entertainment.
Michelle? Who really cares, when you get down to it. She's looking more like a footnote with every passing week.
Nope, it's you Wie fanboys and Wie fangirls.
We skeptics and rationals laugh and point at you Wie Warriors, as you rotate around Michelle, hoping to bask, even if only faintly, in her reflected light.
-George
Nothing surprising here. Remember, Bubbles is in the stable of the William Morris Agency. Their specialty is making "stars" out of cacophonous punk rock groups and no-talent bimbos like Britney Spears.
Their credo is "there is no such thing as bad publicity."
And their approch has worked among a large segment of the populace. I've overheard folks several times referring to Bubbles' mythical 300 yard drives, and her being a "champion golfer."
Of course, none of this is true, but these good people are neither golf fans or sport fans.
These are the individuals that they hope to attract to the Reno-Tahoe Legends. The less a person knows about golf, the more he'll appreciate Bubbles.
Alex USMC 1969-73
"It's not Michelle that we rational folks are making fun of ... "
If you are rational, then Michelle will win at the Montreux Country Club
this weekend.
As it presently stands, I wouldn't bet on either being true.
Whatever it is you smoke or imbibe, it can't be legal.
There are few things I'd agree with Alex about but I wouldn't bet the farm on MW making any cut this weekend. I'm always willing to be surprised though.
Sounds like we need a Congressional Investigation into payola within the golf broadcasting world. ESPN must be getting paid by WM to support such myths.
Sky Caddy must be part of this great conspiracy with ESPN. The ESPN announcer between the ropes was standing next to Miss Wie's ball with a Sky Caddy in her hand, saying it was a 337 yard drive. We all know that was a bold faced lie.
Alex I recommend you write your Congress person immediately to get this vast conspiracy investigated. You might mention in your correspondence that aliens may have invaded ESPN.
thank you for displaying your incoherence when Michelle Wie is the topic. And also, thank you for proving my point.
The Wie skeptics such as myself have nothing against Michelle.
The people who Wie skeptics are really taking to task are the crazed fans such as P4P, Norman, Jim C., and so forth.
Bottom line: All of those rosy predictions made by P4P, Norman, Jim C. and the other Wie Warriors have fizzled to this point.
The folks who have been skeptical -- myself included -- about Michelle have been proved to be right.
Remember when Baldwin said Michelle Wie would never -- as in never, ever -- be as good as Paula Creamer?
At the time, I thought Baldwin was nuts or vicious to make such an outrageous comment. At the time.
But today ... there's actually nothing to disprove that. Things can chance, of course. But we do have to use the evidence at hand. And would not wins be a good benchmark?
And now, the first benchmarks to measure who is the better golfer are going in favor of Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel, when compared with Wie.
Those are the benchmarks of the youngest winner of any LPGA tourney, or an LPGA major.
Those record-setting honors go, respectively, to Creamer and Pressel.
Wie would have to win the Evian Masters and the Women's British Open to get those records.
The Evian opportunity, of course, is gone. Gone as well, apparently, is the British Open chance.
And like I said before, Paula and Morgan are probably the two young ladies who infuriate the Wie Warriors the most.
Tick tock, tick tock, Wie Warriors. Time's just about up.
-George
But I digress.
I have never made any prediction about what Michelle Wie will do. I leave that to fools such as yourself.
Paula has earned every title she has won and is without a doubt an excellent golfer.
Morgan on the other hand fell into her major and is still struggling to play up to her own opinion of herself.
I really doubt that she will win all that many titles over the length of her career.Unless of course she can control her temper and her emotions, then maybe she will win a few more titles. But she just is not that good.
Morgan is another of those overhyped kids with great expectations.
She and Natalie Gulbis are LPGA eye candy, good for the SI swimsuit editions. Well, Natalie is. Poor Morgan is built more like a short barn
As for being infuriated by Paula or Morgan... ROFLMAO.(Google it, george)
I cannot think why either of them would infuriate me or anyone else, for that matter.
You Wie'd Whackers are so busy being mad about anything Wie, that you lose all objectivity.
As for incoherence, that seems to be the stuff of which your diatribes are made.
Regardless of who you think is better, I still enjoy watching Michelle (and Paula) play golf.
There, that ought to give you and the rest of the Wie'd Whackers days and days worth of stuff to B*tch about.
Carry on, georgie boy, you are amusing.
What's the scoop with the ROMO weasel redneck fans from Irving/Arlington/Fort Worth (anywhere BUT Dallas itself)??? Have they stopped commenting on your blogs? That was pretty funny - can you poke ROMO again?? See what stirs up???
PS - Ms Wie in a PGA tournament. I'll definitely be tuned in Sunday to see her triumphant march down the 18 fairway on her way to winning the event......LOL.
Miss Wie getting a PGA Tour card for two years with a full field event win. I can hear the bodies thumping off the pavement as Alex, George and a few others jump off the highest building around.
I bet she signs her score card on the first tee from now on for crying out loud.
Try this one. After Wie wasn't invited to the finl ladies' major--she does better against the men than the great Annika did. That might very well happen, and she could even make the cut.
Tr
T
Bubbles already has the record for accomplishing something as the youngest female golfer.
And her "record" is likely never to be approached.
You see, she owns the record for being the youngest female golfer to ever miss the cut in eight consecutive PGA tournaments in which she received a sponsor's exemption. Since Annika is the only other female to receive such an exemption in the last half century, and that was only for a single freebie, and since no other woman golfer is angling for an exemption or is even hinting of doing so, her "record" would seem to be safe.
That makes her appearance at the Reno-Tahoe a win-win situation for Bubbles and her phalanx of Wiebots.
If by some miracle she makes the cut, she will be forever enshrined by you, Jim C, and the others. Her feat will be trumpeted as greater than the invention of the wheel or the development of sliced bread.
If, however, she more likely misses the cut, she will add to her incredible string of failures. No teenage girl will ever be able to top nine straight and counting.
Alex USMC 1969-73
Jim C had been predicting Bubbles' first LPGA win from about 2004.
When 2006 rolled around, he confidently stated that she would win BOTH the Evian and the British Open in consecutive weeks.
In June of 2006 he almost defiantly said that he was certain before that Bubbles would win at least one major in that year and he was sticking with his prediction.
When none of that came to fruition, Jim C and the other Wie-wee's changed their tune. Now it would be 2007 for sure. Of course, there was then the series of life-threatening injuries suffered by winless. And then 2008 and so on.
Since most of these birds have gone into hiding, it's difficult to tell when they expect their sweetheart to break through.
Now they are saying that Bubbles making a cut in a marginal PGA tournament like the Reno-Tahoe would be a far greater accomplishment than winning anything on the LPGA tour.
For entertainment value, you just can't beat these Wiebots.
Alex USMC 1969-73