2-under after 18 holes. Tied for 11th. If she could sink a putt, she might have been leading the tournament by now.

Of course, a couple of bogeys after lunch could kill it for her, but so far, so good.

Wie played the easier of the 2 courses. It's 400+ yards shorter. But she did make a few nice par-saving putts. This afternoon's round will be a good test for her under pressure.

Not sure about the difference in diffulty between the two courses. So far the low rounds are split evenly between the two. I guess we shall see.

I am very surpised at how well Wie has done so far.

Shanks,
The north course is 400 yards longer, but it is also a par 72 to the south course which is a par 70.

I have checked the stats carefully and they are playing the same difficult. Almost exactly in fact.

The reason the south course was considered easier was it was a par 72. Then they chanced it to a par 70 and the two courses are the same pretty much.

North course is 1.759 over par so far on average.
South course is 1.795 over par so far on average.

So south course is actually playing marginally more diffiult but that is not enough to worry about.

Shanks said:
This afternoon's round will be a good test for her under pressure.
********************

Pressure! She has been under pressure all before lunch.
She has coped extremely well.

She had not dropped a single shot. I still doubt she will qualify, because it is so hard, and she has played at such a high level to be in the position she is.

I expect her to find it difficult around the turn, she tees off at hole 10, there is a couple leading up to 18, and 18 itself that could trip her up.

If she does trip up, it doesn't mean she couldn't handle the pressure, it would just show that it is difficult not to make a mistake for 36 straight holes, which is probably what she would need to do, in order to actually qualify.

Can't even get on The Golf Channel website... something about their web/SQL server being down. Microsoft might get a black eye on this one if it's there SQL server and it can't handle the traffic. Oracle will make a big deal out of this one.

ESPN's website working though. USGA real-time just updated... Michelle is T-13. Gossett & Hartmann, her playing partners, are at +2.

She's starting on the 10th tee on the North Course right now. Wow... this is more exciting that I expected.

She just made a bogey on her first hole (10th) on the North course. Back to -1 for the day. She needs to remain patient... the birdie opportunites with come and if only her putting gets better she can get into Winged Foot.

The Golf Channel website problems started last night, and I doubt it's Microsoft's fault. Being unable to handle a surge in traffic is a common fault of many websites.

Wie was in the bunker off the 10th tee this afternoon. No updates yet on what happened after that.

MikeW, Oracle (or some other DB like IBM's DB2) can make a big thing out of this if ESPN's Real-Time Scoring website is using their product. ESPN seems to be keeping up with the increased traffic to their site.

Norman, everyone is under pressure all day. But if Wie is close to the cut line during her last few holes, the pressure will increase significantly. I hope she can show us that she has learned how to cope with that.

The Sports Illustrated link above works too .......

I think her pressure will subside for the 2nd game. She already knows what she's capable of...the rest is all about patience, as AhhSoo states.

C'mon Wiesy, you can do it!

Golf Channel website just came back up. Seems faster on the updates now. Wonder if Microsoft rushed their "big guns" tech types down there to fix. Ha, just joking.

Hartmann & Gossett, her playing partners, are imploding. Hate to be in Hartmann's shoes when he returns to his LI club tomorrow and has to face the members: "What, a 16 year girl beat you?"

She's more mature than last year and that means she must stay patient and within the moment on every hole. Be like Tiger and don't let what happened on the 10th hole affect your play now.

Shanks,
The toughest holes are 14, 16 and 18.
Michelle probably won't realise this. I hope she doesn't try to force anything, because if she is still at a decent score after those, there are some birdie chances on the way in.

Patience is key.

SHANKS--If Wie is close to the cut line--on which side? If she needs to score birdies to make up strokes, she will need to take more chances. Bogeys then could result if her taking chances backfires--and this need not be any indication of an inability to handle pressure.

She's playing the par 3 14th now. Norman is right about this one, it's a toughie.

She's making those 7 to 10 foot par saving putts. Her frame of mind is to not bogey at all costs. Soon, her frame of mind should change to not to settle for par at all costs.

I think if she can go -3 from here on for the North Course then she's in the US Open. That'll be -4 for the day. She has 3 par 5s left to attempt this.

She pared 14 & 15.
Fair play to her.

Jim, there are no leaderboards all over the course like in a PGA Tour event. She will have a rough idea if she's close - either way. Then, with her nerves jangling, she'll have to perform on the last few holes. To date, this has been one of her bugaboos to get past. It'll be interesting to see how she does in that situation.

Shanks,
She performed well enough down the stretchat The Fields Open to take the clubhouse lead, which could have won it for all she knew.
She performed well down the stretch at the SK to make the cut safely.
She performed extremely well down the stretch of the local qualifier and really pulled out all the stops on 17, getting an up and down from 180 yards, to save a par.

What proof exactly do you want from her?

She needs to make one more birdie with no more bogeys on the first nine. She can, realistically, get 2 more birdies on the last nine holes. She does this and comes in at -4 overall for 36 holes and she will be at Winged Foot next week.

Her mindset has to change soon... settle for no pars where she has an opportunity to birdie. I think she's gripping the putter handle to hard... she needs to relax her grip.

What do I want? A simple up & down from the fringe on the 18th hole - which Wie didn't do at Kraft Nabisco. A bold putt for birdie on the last - which she didn't do at Fields. At the SK she was comfortably ahead of the cut line. Is she learning and has she improved in handling pressure? Yes, without a doubt. But still not where she wants to be yet.

Shanks,
Hole 14, one of the most difficult.
She has a 50ft lag putt which she putts to 2 feet for a par. There was something like 3 birdies and 27 bogey on that hole.

Hole 16, has a 50 ft lag putt again. Putts to 10 ft not making it up a very steep slope, but sinks this vital 10 foot putt.

She has class. I still don't think she will make it. Not because of pressure, but because top 18 from 153 in a high class field with 4 dozen pga tour players, many nationwide and many top club pros, only 17 amateurs in the field. So 135 other pros to contend with. The odds against are huge. She is doing extremely well to be still in with a chance with 10 holes to go.

I said 14, 16 and 18 were difficult.
She has navigated 2 of those successfully.
18 is key. A par there on the 600+ yard par 5 would be great.

A birdie on 17.
Excellent stuff.
That is actually a hard hole.

However 18 is really really hard. This is the big one. The toughest hole on the course.
Go Wie.

This is where she needs that 327 yard drive she made in the practice round the other day. She just out-drove her 2 playing partners on the last one.

Could be she's getting stronger now or at least retaining her strength while her other 2 partners are tiring. Remember, in relation to Michelle, those other guys are old men.

If most of the leaders start fading because of the "grind" of a 36 hole day then she might only need to go -3 overall to get to Winged Foot.

Michelle just got her par on the toughest hole of both courses... the 601 yard par 5.

Now, comes the last nine. Looks like she's getting stronger. Her 10 footers and inside are starting to drop. If she can start dropping the 12 to 15 footers then she's in.

The margin for error is so tight. One bad shot could kill it for her. Still, she's done great to be in a position to qualify so far.

AhhSoo said:
Could be she's getting stronger now or at least retaining her strength while her other 2 partners are tiring. Remember, in relation to Michelle, those other guys are old men
*********************

Okay Hartman fine.
But Gossett is just 27. He will be fine. He has just not been good enough so far.

Six holes to go. Still -2. Needs at least one bird, probably two, to qualify. Still possible.

Probably all over - she 3-putted for bogey.

The U.S. site says Wie is T-58

34 golfers have better scores than Wie, but are still out of the running

8 golfers are deadlocked at T-17. If they take the top 18, those golfers would be in a playoff for the final spots.

So Wie would have to pass 34 golfers just to get into the T-17, which is where the cut line is located.

I suppose if Wie does not make it, that could open up the floor for questions about her ability to perform down the stretch, since she was in a much higher position after her first round.

-George

NO WIN WIE - HOLDING STEADY !!!! CHOKE !

Or put it another way, the group that would be in the playoff is now T16, -4, and several of them are in the clubhouse.

Wie finished well behind, at T59, 5 strokes from where the cut line is now.

Wie definitely weakened as the day went and the pressure, presumably, increased. Her cumulative score rose as well.

-2 for R1, and +3 for R2

Some might say Wie failed in her quest this week.

I disagree.

I do believe Wie accomplished her goal: to generate publicity for herself and enhance her marketing status.

Wie's real quest was never to get into the U.S. Open.

So, mission accomplished.

-George

John D--How did you do today, or were you already exempt into the Open?

GEORGE

I suppose Paula Creamer could have done better--but she is focussing her attention on the LPGA. Funny thing about that, Michelle Wie's worst result on the LPGA this year is better than Paula Creamer's best.

Jim, your arguments have become as repetitious as Michelle Wie's close-but-no-cigar career.

When (and at this point, it's when, and not if) Wie fails, you and the other Wie Warriors can be relied on to say:

--you're not a pro golfer, so your opinions carry no weight
--Wie did better than so-and-so, even if Wie has yet to win
--somebody is a jealous old man.

Between you and Ron Mon's silly blatherings about somebody named Avery, you hit the Trifecta yet again.

Now, let's actually talk about Wie, the nominal subject of this thread.

Wie supposedly has two measurable golf goals beyond wearing "sparkly" stuff on the links:

1. Win on the LPGA and/or a big-time men's tour

2. make the cut in a PGA event or some big-time men's tour.

So far, Wie is zero-for-whatever.

Is Wie really going to get that much better?

Wie can -- but only if she can stop booting key chips and key putts in key situations. What's she going to do, figure out how to drive it 400 yards?

She'd still have to make chips on just about every hole, let alone putts.

Wie has the same problem she had last year and the year before. Wie doesn't seem to respond well to pressure, and her short game seems suspect.

And no, one 60-foot chip doesn't make up for all the putts in the teens and pre-teens Wie missed.

-George

George is asking for Michelle Wie to make up for putts she missed when she was 12 years old or younger.

Golf channel talked to Michelle Wie after her rounds today. She did say that in the past she she had not liked working on her putting--but she was working on it now. It does seem that Wie's shorter putting game is weaker than other parts of her game. But as a woman it seems there is no reason she could not improve in this area. It could also be harder when you have to adjust to both LPGA and PGA type greens.

Long ago, in a galaxy far away...(Actually, last week on Jennifer Mario's blog) I stated my standards for a "good performance" by Michelle. She finished at the high end of my expectations for a "good" performance. I offer no excuses for her performance because it needs none.

14 of the 18 qualifiers today have World Golf Rankings. Half are in the upper 500. To finish just under the top 1/3 of that field is a good day of golf for just about anyone.

Yes, Michelle needs to work on her putting. 4 putts skinned by the hole and one hit the backside and kept going because of too much speed. 5 fewer strokes would have put an entirely different expression on her face walking off of 18 on her way to the shoot out. But then, most pros are well into their 20's before their final putting game comes together.

So I stand pat with my standard from last week. Not a superb finish, but a very good one.

Hey one over for thirty six with that kind of pressure ain't bad at all.

I imagine the 82 guys who finished behind her in the field just might have some issues to deal with after letting a 16 year old girl finish ahead of them.

Of course with the logic George and Alex live by, they all deserved to be there, but not Michelle. Give me a break.....

Well for the people who claim anything about pressure down the stretch they are simply wrong. No doubt about that.

Wie hit 3 bogeys in a row, but at that stage she was 2 shots from scraping into a playoff.

If she were 2 shots inside the cut line, and then had those bogeys, then pressure could have been claimed as the main factor.

However she just wasn't in that position. So it was just some poor play at a couple of holes.

To be honest I was kind of waiting for a stretch like that, because when you have a run of putts just scraping by the hole earlier, it tends to catch up on you.

Michelle's overall performance led her in a tie for 58th. Before the tournament, I had a look at the field and said she would do very well to have a top 70 finish.
She did this, and it was a job well done. I certainly didn't expect her to qualify, not even after her magnificant first round.
However she certainly shows alot of game out there and once again surprised me at just how good she is.

"You drive for show and putt for dough." Unfortunately Miss Wie still has not been able to make three foot putts when she had to. Why are the Korean women winning so many tournaments on the LPGA?...putting, putting, putting!! I find it interesting that MW never asks her caddie for advise on her putts. Obviously she really has trouble reading the line espescially on the short putts. It seemed that she had six birdie putts fron 4 to 12 feet during her first round and missed them all. Hopefully she will finally get the putt monkey off her back and start winning some tournaments. In the past, the last 4 to 6 holes have always given her trouble when she had the chance to either make the cut or win a tournament. It seems her mindset is "Hmm, what can I do to miss the cut or lose the tournament." On to the next LPGA event!

Michelle deserved to be there by virtue of the local qualifier. She just doesn't deserve to be in the U.S. Open by virtue of her play yesterday. Not much to debate today.

What's with all this talk about the "pressure"? Listen, she's a girl playing against men, thus, many would say she has nothing to lose. In fact, some would say that the guys may feel more pressure. After all, is the thought of being bested by this chick a relaxing one for most pros?

Are you saying that trying to make history carries no added pressure? Not to mention all the fan & press attention. Please.

The overwhelming majority of that field were professional golfers. They don't concern themselves with who might beat them. That's a childish playground mentality. Just trying to finish in the top 12 percent of the field carries enough of a burden.

Shanks, Bubbles had her personal swing coach, David Ledbetter, present at the tournament, along with the rest of her entourage. She practiced feverishly for FOUR days prior to the sectional. According to BJ, she was as ready as she would ever be. She is probably as wealthy as the rest of the field combined. She is the mighty Bubbles. Mistress of all she surveys and soon to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. She is way too good for the juniors or the women, according to her fanatics, fully capable of competing on the PGA tour. Do I believe that there was too much pressure on her? Hell no! To paraphrase the words of Lee Trevino, pressure is playing a round for ten dollars a hole when you only have five dollars in your pocket. In this case, I believe the immortal words of BJ Wie. He said that although she is disappointed, he is very proud of her because she played her best. I agree. Yesterday we saw Bubbles at her best. I'm also proud of her.

Alex, there is some validity to your remarks. Some. However, you are obviously shading your remarks as a result of the activity of some of Wie's more ardent followers. I think even you realize that if she had a real good day with the putter, the previously unimaginable would have happened. The development of her short game - especially under pressure - will dictate whether or not she can make the jump to the next level. Because she can flat out play from tee to green.

Shanks , As I have stated on other threads, if ALL four of Michelle's bogeys could have miraculously been converted to par saves, and thus Bubbles had played bogey-free for 36 holes in the sectional for the US Open, she STILL would not have qualified. She didn't not even come close to qualifying, she was never a factor and she was thoroughly out-classed by a slightly better than mediocre field. Bubbles will be similarly out-classed whenever and wherever she tries to compete on the PGA tour. If she really wants to compete against males, she should TRY to get a card on the Nationwide tour. There is no guarantee that she could even get a card on that tour let alone retain it.

**And no, one 60-foot chip doesn't make up for all the putts in the teens and pre-teens Wie missed.**

* George is asking for Michelle Wie to make up for putts she missed when she was 12 years old or younger.*

Sorry, Jim, I forgot you could be reading-impaired.

I meant distance, not age. Wie missed a number of putts from 15 feet or fewer. Some kept birdies off the board, some caused bogeys.

If Wie's putting doesn't improve significantly, it will largely be the same story and same whining from the Wie Warriors as always.

-George

* Comment from: Shanks [Member] · http://www.travelgolf.com/blogs/shanks
Because she can flat out play from tee to green. *

Generically, so can John Daly, for the most part.

But how did Daly ultimately lose that playoff to Tiger at Harding (my stomping grounds, BTW)? Daly missed an easy putt. Too much pressure. Just like Michelle.

Alex, as you undoubtedly know by the media saturation covering EVERY stroke Wie made, she missed something like a dozen putts between 18 inches and 10 feet. What I said was that if she had a "real good day" with the putter - and by that I mean make at least half of those short putts she missed - history would have been made. Now, as to how successful she could be at the next level, you may or may not be correct.

Daly is a bad example, George. Besides his blow-ups, he has also won 2 major championships.

Shanks,

Another way of making your point is that if the stars aligned just right . . .. Listen, if she had had a great day with the flatstick, maybe her long game would have been lacking. That's golf, you know.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda . . ..

Looks like you were right about Michelle Wie not being good enought this year to qualify . I'm sure she'll be back next year and I think she will do it then

David, You have the right attitude. Try to sell it to the other Wie Warriors. Just as the Cubs and old Brooklyn Dodger fans used to say, "Wait 'til next year."

The funniest thing in all this debate is that the anti-Wie brigade actually believed that she was good enough to make it.

As I stated before Sectional begun, I did not think she was good enough to get in the top 18 in a field of 153, 135 of who were professionals.

As it turned out I was right. She wasn't good enough this time. However to any right minded person, they will know that she showed plenty of game out there.

Tee to green she was excellent. Weren't there many debate questioning a womans ability to get the ball on the green and hold it there, or to make long enough drives that they would have a short enough approach shot.
A least these debate have subsided and the anti-Wie brigade have accepted that she is long enough and strong enough.

Instead putting and the mental side of the game have been attacked.

As regards putting, yes she needs to improve, but her stroke is fine. I believe that the lpga championship greens will prove easier to read than those at Canoe Brook did.

As regards the pressure, as the learned Alex stated, she wasn't in contention so she didn't have that sort of pressure at Canoe Brook.

However, I think she will be in contention at the lpga championship, so for those who want to assess her mental game while in contention, just watch the lpga championship.

SHE MADE THE TURN INTO THE FINAL NINE HOLES ONLY A STROKE OR 2 OUT. TO SAY THAT PRESSURE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH HER COLLAPSE ON THE LAST SIX HOLES IS JUST NAIVE.

Billy, Bubbles collapse? How dared you write those two words in the same sentence? Your membership in the mental institution chapter of the Wie Warriors is hereby revoked!