Jan
17
Stunning news from Gary Van Sickle in his recent column at cnnsi.com:
“It doesn’t matter that Michelle Wie is only 16 and still in high school. The hype about her has gone on so long without her winning anything that it’s becoming tiresome,” he writes. “That opening 79 at Sony hurt her image more than the seven-birdie 68 in the second round helped. She’s going to be an amazing pro at 22 but only if the media, the expectations and the big money don’t ruin her in the next six years. Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel seem much better positioned to succeed in women’s golf.”
Man, this Van Sickle may be on to something!
No, wait ….. where in the heck have I read this sentiment about Wie before!?
| « Get golf equipment tips from PGA pros (minus the Tom Waits spiel) | Crassly cashing in on naked aggression of a Britney Spears insult! » |
Comment feed for this post
Jason Scott Deegan:
The Accidental Golfer:
Katharine Dyson:
Kiel Christianson:
Until then I will bet my money on Wie having a better year than Pressel.
Pressel has yet to prove herself.
Wie and Creamer have proven themselves many times over.
All Pressel has is 1 2nd place finish at the US Open, which is very admirable, but her other lpga finishes are not so good.
Wie and Creamer have proven lpga track records.
Pressel is yet to porve herself on LPGA level and that's why i predicted Michelle will have a better year on LPGA this year.
This too we have to wait and see, of course.
Of the 3 mentioned ladies, Creamer is the only one who has really proved herself.
Wie's high finishes are great and maybe she will join Paula as a winner, but for the moment Paula is the class act out of these three.
Paula will also win more events this season than the other 2 put together.
June,
You don't think Pressel finishing second in the 2005 Women's US Open proved anything.
She also won the 2005 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.
http://www.iseekgolf.com/news/8543
"June,
You don't think Pressel finishing second in the 2005 Women's US Open proved anything."
Becuase the same people who wnats to give those credit to what Pressel did at US Open never seem to be willing to give Michelle's 3 second palce and a third place on another major.
Even so, at least on LPGA Pressel is still one time fluke (?). I am not denying she was a grewat amateur because she was. But the course and playing field on LPGA won't be an easy adjustment for her mainly due to her physical limit (She is rather short and generate only so much of power off the tee.)
My question mark on Pressel on LPGA was and is her tee-to-green game. Her short game and putting are her stroingest point. But because of her tee-to-green game, she will contend only so many times on LPGA.
Generally speaking a player with better tee-to-green game put themselves in the contention more often than those who don't. Closing out the deal is another matter but you have to put yourself in that position first.
So out of three, Creamer and Michelle will find themselves in contention more often than Pressel.
Pressel is indeed a good golfer.
Her US Open 2nd place was a very great achievement, far better than anything she achieved on an amateur level.
She may well be a force next year, but her length off the tee does worry me a little about her.
I think Wie's 4 top 3 finishes shows that she has to be considered a realistic contender in any lpga tournament she enters.
Given a full season, Pressel may also become a contender in every tournament.
Of course both of them were around 20 yards shorter than Annika, 25 yards shorter than Wie and 10-15 shorter than Miyazato.
If you look at the past 4 US Open winners they are all short knockers, relatively speaking.
2002: Julie Inkster
2003: Hillary Lunke
2004: Meg Mallon
2005: Birdie Kim
If you look at the top 20 money leaders on the LPGA tour for 2005 only 4 were also in the top 20 driving distance:
Annika
Lorena Ochoa
Heather Bowie
Pat Hurst
Actually 8 of the PGA top 20 in money were over 100th in driving distance (less than 289 yards) which should be some comfort to Wie.
And who says LPGA course won't become longer as time goes?
Good stats. Thanks.
June,
For the ladies a wedge from the rough isn't as good as an iron from the fairway.
Ronnie we already have your vote logged.
Paula 1 vote.
Could they soon lengthen pga courses to Michelle proof them?
You seem to think that Wie has much more talent than anyone and should go out and win by default. The fact of the matter is it is you that is wrong in this assertion, and in one way, makes you more of a Wie-fanatic than anyone else in these blogs.
Wie's current position in women's golf is that she is a long way behind Annika on lpga course setups. Annika is far far ahead of her so for you to suggest that Wie should be waling away with titles is very over optimistic of her talents.
Yes she is a fantastic talent. She is probably the best 16 year old golfer anywhere, but the fact remains that most golfers don't mature until their 30's, not to mind doing it in their teens.
So, although Wie has buckets of talent and lots of shots, she is not the complete player as of yet, and expecting her to be, is expecting too much.
The other point is, that people don't think Creamer and Pressel are better than Wie. The reason we are saying that they may do better than her is because they are due to play full seasons. They will most likely play about 25 events all on the same type of lpga courses. With all those events the odds of winning improves dramatically.
I can say that if Wie were to play 25 lpga events in a season and not win any, I would be completely shocked, even at her current age.
Playing 8 events is much different, especially when Annika will probably win about 4 of those.
"With her distance and shotmaking ability, she shouldn't ever worry about the likes of Pressel, Creamer or even Sorrenstam, but she does because a miliion dollar body doesn't go well with her ten-cent head."
I beg to differ with your statement Michael. After Michelle's Nike-Sony deal and her appearance money for the Casio it is a 10.5 million dollar body with that ten-cent head.
According to Gary Van Sickle at SI (see the blog) "Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel seem much better positioned to succeed in women's golf". That sounds to me like he is saying that his expectations are much higher for Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel than for Michelle Wie--and I was saying that I believe I that Michelle Wie will actually far exceed these expectations by actaully doing better than at least one of those LPGA pros(namely Morgan Pressel) this year in the tournaments that all 3 play.
It sounds to me like the anti-Wie brigade wants to say that Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel are much better than Michelle Wie--but then be unwilling to admit that Michelle Wie has exceeded THEIR expectations if she does better than one or both of those ladies. If you really believe that Morgan Pressel is much better positioned than Wie, it should be a recognized acomplishment if Wie outperforms her. It will take a lot more than beating Morgan Pressel for Michelle Wie to exceed my expectations. I will acknowledge that Morgan Pressel has exceeded my expectations if she does better than Wie. Will the people who say Morgan Pressel is much better positioned to succeed say the same if Wie outperforms Pressel?
If any publication were going to be careful to avoid politically incorrect criticism of Michelle Wie it would be SI. But SI reporters are quite free to express themselves pro or con on the subject of Michelle Wie.
Michelle Wie is far more gracious and ladylike than Morgan Pressel has been--but in that regard I am hoping for a change in Morgan once she gets away from the grandfather who has made her into a spoiled princess. But I assume Gary was talking about her golfing image. In that regard NORMAN should be able to answer the question of whether SONY helped or hurt her image. What happened to the jodds on her winning LPGA Majors as a result of SONY?
This will probably bring the highest ratings ever for the LPGA in 2006 tournaments where Anika, Paula, Morgan, Brittany and Michelle (and a few others)will all be in the field.
As for the girls making cuts or winning on the PGA Tour, in 2007, open 10 EXTRA spots (so as not to deprive any deserving pro) in the 4 majors on the PGA tour and give them to the 10 best women golfers including these top prospects. Top field, top courses, lenght, rough, slick greens etc...This should settle the argument.
[i]Michelle Wie is far more gracious and ladylike than Morgan Pressel has been[/i]
They're both kids and shouldn't be held to ladylike judgement.
What Pressel has shown though is personality. Something MW is devoid of.
All you ever get out of Michelle Wie is a little squeaky, giggly psuedo-answer or non-sensical response.
I want to get some chocolate. I need a GPS on my ball. It wasn't my day. Making birdies on a PGA course is, like, cool.
When asked which one is more important to her, winning in the LPGA or making a PGA cut she answered, "Both".
I don't think it's all Michelle's fault. It's very clear she is the product of overly controlling parents.
I read about that somewhere.
Does she need to win all six to gain some respect from the Anti-Wie Jackboots?
Tiger, Annika, Paula, Vijay and the other pro players do not win every event they enter although the talent and work ethic is there to do so. How they do win is by minimizing errors and avoiding bogeys during that particular 3 or 4 round event.
Tiger entered twenty regular PGA events and won six, finishing first on the PGA/World money list.
Vijay entered twenty-five regular PGA events and won four, finishing second on the list.
Annika entered twenty regular LPGA events and won ten, finishing first on the LPGA/World money list.
Paula entered twenty-five regular LPGA events and won two, finishing second on the list.
The one stat that tells me Michelle belongs on the Pro Tour was her productivity during the few LPGA events she entered, where she averaged $96,000 (if she had taken the money) in winnings per event.
Paula Creamer who ended up second on the LPGA money list averaged $56,000 per event entered.
If Michelle maintained this pace during a full season of twenty events (not twenty-five) she possibly would have been the second leading money winner on the LPGA tour without a win in 2005.
Michelle can be quite proud of what she accomplished as a fifteen year old girl playing with the Pros.
Looks like a winner already!
She's no longer 14, she's 16 and she is no closer to making a cut on the PGA tour and has exactly the same amount of wins on the LPGA, 0. Hey I don't have a problem with her being winless at age 16, but wouldn't it stand to reason with all her talent, skill and undeniable physical gifts she would have won by now.
**********************************
Jackson,
It would stand to reason that she should have won, if she was playing full season of golf.
However playing just 8 lpga events, means the chances of winning are greatly reduced.
In my opinion, if any woman player excluding Annika, was to enter just the 8 events that Michelle entered, then they would not have won either.
In that regard NORMAN should be able to answer the question of whether SONY helped or hurt her image. What happened to the jodds on her winning LPGA Majors as a result of SONY?
*******************************
The 2nd round at the Sony showed just what she is capable of. Given that it was on a pga course and she made 7 birdies, which was more birdies on that day than everyone in the field except 1 man, shows just what talent she has.
I think the sensible bookies will realise how this should help her this season on the lpga tour, and I think the odds on her winning will have shortened considerably.
There is still more of a chance of Pressel winning, than Wie winning, this year, due to the volume of events each will be playing. 8 versus 25 so it is obvious.
Michelle Wie simply needs to continue to develop a complete game and she will win on the LPGA tour. I expect that none of the new crop of women (Wie, Creamer, Pressel and others coming up) will be able to dominate on the LPGA tour the way Annika has in recent years. There are too many young, talented and very athletic girls coming up through the ranks.
Of the three of them, I would take Pressel as my pick to have the most wins in 5 years, Creamer second, and Wie third. I just think Pressel is a winner with the mentality to get the job done.