Michelle Wie face-to-face with Annika Sorenstam: Wie wilts

Do you have a crystal ball? Can anyone really predict the result of match play? Where was Annika and Paula while Maena and Mina went head to head in the final last year?

I am not saying Michelle will win. Who knows? But saying that she will wilt while others will succeed in this ormat is a BS especially you spent good portion of your own article pointing out Michelle's past good perfromance on match play format.

Baiting for reply? Well, you succeed.

Chumming?

no substance once again

People who don't like Michelle Wie aren't looking forward to her losing to Annika or Paula--they are looking forward to her losing to Morgan Pressel. Pressel will be there, but needs a few more events to qualify for the world rankings.

I think we will be in a much better position to handicap the event after the 3rd Major, the US Open which is held the previous week.

Boring weekend with the wife at the in-laws, Tim?

I dunno Timmy, looks to me like Paula and Annika choke as soon as the Korean express shows up. Annika is currently T54 and after her run up, Paula is now back to T5.
Maybe Michelle won't have so much trouble with the HSBC as you think.

I find it interesting that when Michelle Wie suffers 6 bogies in a round she "chokes". When Annika Sorenstam suffers 6 bogies in a round she "has a bad round".

All in how you look at it I guess.

No Sh*t!!! or if your name is Chris Baldwin or Tim McDonald, lol.
Paula has just choked....erm, I mean had a bad round also. 4 bogeys, although she hasn't choked..I mean had as bad a round as Annika.

It looks like Morgan isn't same player after her melt down against Wie. She shot 77 today and you can't blame it to weather. Jeong Jang and Il Mi Chung started at same score with Morgan and shot respectively 66 and 67. I really wonder whether Morgan cried again today.

Michelle finished second in the '05 LPGA. She was paired in the final round with Annika and beat her by 4 strokes on the day. Agreed, Annika had won the event on Saturday but Michelle definitely did not embarrass herself.

My bets are that Michelle is headed to Palm Desert this week to spend some comfort time in her new home and prep for the Nabisco. The last tournament showed some good indicators. She didn't tire in the final round even though she tanked in the third.

All Michelle has to do to win a tournament is avoid a really bad round. She has demonstrated a charge.

Nabisco Prediction: Final Pairing on Sunday: Meena and Michelle. Second Pairing: Natalie and Paula. Annika will be chasing from a couple back. Result: Natalie will pass Meena for second, Annika will make a valiant try, Paula will fade and Michelle will go legend and lap the field.

And on Tuesday, this MacDonald idiot will tell us Michelle has to win the Grand Slam and the Masters before he believes she is real.

I think Morgan is experiencing the downside of "learning how to win" on the amateur circuit. When you have as much success and dominate the way Morgan did in Junior Golf, it is a tremendous shock to play against the real pros who can hand you your head at the blink of an eye.

Maybe Michelle Wie's choice of swiming in the deepest water she can find isn't so ill advised after all.

FYI Tim, Michelle has beaten Paula 9 out of 12 times they have met and Michelle is even 2-1 against Annika in their last 3 events!

Jeez McDonald!!! How dare you write about Wie!!!!!!! You suck!!!!! Doesn't a golf writer have anything better to do than write about a 16-year-old girl who people, and rankings are saying is the No. 2 woman golfer in the world!! Drivel, drivel I tell you!!!

Oh, sorry, dude, just got swept away.

"I find it interesting that when Michelle Wie suffers 6 bogies in a round she "chokes". When Annika Sorenstam suffers 6 bogies in a round she "has a bad round".

All in how you look at it I guess."

Yeah. This is obviously a conspiracy. I can't imagine why everyone doesn't compare Wie (0 wins) and Annika (67 wins) on completely even ground.

This whole thing of making opinions and judging golfers one tournament -- heck, one SHOT at a time -- is really weird.

--WKW

John Neal
Spot on. Learning to win as an amateur means nothing.

William,

"Yeah. This is obviously a conspiracy. I can't imagine why everyone doesn't compare Wie (0 wins) and Annika (67 wins) on completely even ground.
"

It is an unfortunate fact of life that the experienced worker at any trade is judged by a higher standard than the apprentice who is just learning the craft.

Errr...isn't that the way it usually works?

Last year in Annika/Wie events following an Annika win, Annika had 3 tournament wins and 1 tie with Wie. In events following an Annika loss, Annika had 1 tournament win, but trailed Wie the other 2 times.

Wie's has a tendency to choke early in the tournament. At the Sony Open she didn't show her abilities until Friday, but by then it was too late.

She's still a newbie...give her time. Her stats during the 2005 major tournaments were more than respectable.

"Wie's has a tendency to choke early in the tournament. "

Others might say Michelle suffers from the detrimental effects of not being able to play a full tournament schedule when she doesn't shake the rust out until somewhere in the second round which is frequently too late.

Comment from: William K. Wolfrum [Member]

"I find it interesting that when Michelle Wie suffers 6 bogies in a round she "chokes". When Annika Sorenstam suffers 6 bogies in a round she "has a bad round".

All in how you look at it I guess."

Yeah. This is obviously a conspiracy. I can't imagine why everyone doesn't compare Wie (0 wins) and Annika (67 wins) on completely even ground.

*****************

I agree that it is not reasonable to compare Annika and Wie on even ground. Annika is far more experienced and should be held to a higher standard. It sounds like Wie is being held to a higher standard by calling the same round a "choke" for Wie and a "bad round" for Annika.

Notice that Annika shot a 66. She had no realistic chance of winning, much the same as Michelle had no realistic chance of making the SONY cut.

QUESTION

How many people think the pressure was off Annika after her poor 3rd round? How many people think there was more pressure on Annika to put up good numbers Sunday than there would have been if she had been in the hunt for a victory? Now ask the same questions about Michelle.

Headline in the Rolex Daily News: "Annika and Paula both also-rans! Michelle sweeps into first in rankings while sitting on bench!"

Annika is in no danger this week in the REolex rankings--but if Michelle Wie wins the Kraft things could get interesting. In the next rankings, or perhaps, in rankings a few weeks later with Michelle on the bench.

I guess it wasn't a good week for Annika and the rest of the youngsters on the LPGA.

So the young guns fired blanks, the Korean wave washed out, the masterful Swede finished back in the pack--and Ms. "Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt, wore it out, used it for a dust-rag and threw it away" Inkster jumped out of the pack and stole the show.

Persistent rumours of her pending retirement may be premature after all:-) Way to go Julie!

First American win this season, and it took a veteran to pull it off. Great job!

Jim C, Why would Michelle have to win the Kraft? She came all the way to second without winning anything? What are you guys trying to do, change the rules?

The only reason people talk about Michelle Wie choking is the fact that there are a lot of people who don't like Michelle Wie. But nobody talks that way about the woman who lost the lead today--and that is because nobody doesm't like Sarah Lee.

Let's hear it for Jim COULTHARD everyone!

He'll be playing the Laugh Hut in Pensacola, Florida later this week, so get your tickets now!

--WKW

William,
Sorry but Jim is right.

The commentators also said, I think it was Aree Song, that was in contention 7 times in the last round of a tournament, but hasn't won yet.

Michelle hasn't bee in contention that much.

It's pretty funny to watch the Wie fanatics accuse Tim Mac of chumming the waters, and still come swarming with commentary. It's like I tell my kids, if you ignore the guy saying nasty, smart-ass things, eventually he'll quit.

Anyway, after four singles tourneys this year, only one golfer has been in the top 15 for all of them. Any guesses? Here's a hint, it ain't Annika and it ain't Michelle.

Gee Todd, Annika and Michelle are good, but not good enough to place in the top 15 in tournaments they aren't even playing in.

See Todd, that's the kind of lame brained reasoning the gets people PO'd with the Wie bashers.

It's your total dedication to fatious and idiotic rhetoric to make your points.
Not one fact, not one reasoned expression of disagreement with the Baldwhines, the Tim McDooDoos and the Wolf pups of the world will ever get a straight and reasonable answer as to why you dislike a 16 year old girl so much.

Is it race? She is after all a first generation american korean citizen.(Can't honestly see why she'd want to be part of a society that is so quick to put a teenager down for not meeting someone elses standards)

Is it her looks? She looks like a tall lanky girl to me.

Is it the fact that she hasn't lived up to YOUR expectations?
Lets see, Baldwin says she hasnn't won a thing in 30 plus starts. The simple idiot is counting every non-amateur event she has ever been entered in since she was 12?!?! 12 years old. What other moron in his right mind figures a 12 or a 13 or a 14 year old is going to be able to live up to the hype HE and his FELLOW
Journalists?!? have fomented and perpetuated just so they can put food in the bellies of their undeserving offspring.

That is what gets me angry, and you are just as bad Todd. Not one person has won an LPGA event before age 18 but you all keep right on with your outrageous expectation and yell like the little children that you are when your toy is yanked away from you again for a week or so.
Quite frankly, there should be a law against Anal orfices like baldie and Tim Mcpoo being able to exploit a 16 year olds name for their own selfish endeavors.
The talk about child pronography is all the rage at the moment but what this set of bloggers is doing is every bit as outrageous as the Porno exploiters.
Go get a real job, William, Chris, Tim. I'm sure you can find a doggy doo pick up service that might hire you.
Better yet, go rage at Nike, Sony and the Publicity handlers for these teenage people, but for gods sake, grow up and feed on adults, not on kids. If you don't like what you see, then go after the cause of your anger. And quit trying to get Paula and Morgan and others embroiled in your lunacy.
Ahh, hell, go grow up and get a real job.

Ummm, I wasn't bashing anyone. P4P, your vitriolic reaction is misplaced.

"It's pretty funny to watch the Wie fanatics accuse Tim Mac of chumming the waters, and still come swarming with commentary. It's like I tell my kids, if you ignore the guy saying nasty, smart-ass things, eventually he'll quit.

Anyway, after four singles tourneys this year, only one golfer has been in the top 15 for all of them. Any guesses? Here's a hint, it ain't Annika and it ain't Michelle."

Cancel that. If anything, I'm bashing McDonald for his gratuitous shot at Wie. And you comparing potshots from minor league bloggers to kiddie porn is horrifically offensive to anyone with common sense. It's YOU that needs to grow up and not flame out whenever someone disagrees.

The scariest thing about you, putt-for-par, is that you seem to have the ability to use words like "doo doo" and "poo" without any hint of embarassment.

Did your mommy not toilet-train you right? What's next: "pee-pee?"

What exactly does "fatious" mean anyway?

LOL, Todd, you are exactly right. It was a bit harsh. But you see, I will just give you the same arguments that William has given, and Tim has given... It's an opinion, right?

All I can say in my defense is that I hope when it comes time for anyone to criticize the children of Tim, William and Chris, that they are gentler and kinder than the fathers of those children.
That is what I get upset at. As I have said before, if you want to verbally punish the real guilty parties, go after Michelles Dad, her public relations guys and the big name sponsors.
Then get on Tim, and William and Chris's case for using such outlandish expectations. They seem to believe their own hype.
Oh, and I want you to go and read what Tim has to say about professionals choking. Give the yong golfers the same courtesy, Tim, Chris and William.

Now as to what MW does, only time will tell. I have no expectations for her other than to watch some golf. I also don't give a darn if Morgan blubbers all over the place. (might make a good candidate for a Kleenex Sponsor). That is Morgans nature, move past that.
Call what AS did this week anything you want but a choke is still a choke, no matter if you are 16, 17, 19, 23 or 35 years old.
Every golfer does it sometime. They all eventually overcome it.

My main issue with these blog guys is...If you are going to do an opinion peice, hold all your targets up to the same standards. High, low or in between, don't just set an unnecessarily high bar for one then let everyone else kinda slide on through.
There, done. And my apologies to Todd for bashing you too harshly.

Mis-spelled word, Tim.
Fatuous:complacently or inanely foolish. But then I am sure you had that figured out before you posted
As to the above mentioned words, Darn, I need a new spell checker.

" She's young and naive enough to let herself get suckered into this arrangement. The problem is all this marketing has turned a segment of what would normally be normal Wie fans into fanatics and lunatics, and they are the ones dragging her down."
T. McDonald in his other article.

What a moron! You criticize the so-called "fanatics and lunatics," yet, you don't see the irony in a lot of your articles, constantly mentioning about Wie this and Wie that. Can't make a decent living without including her in your article, aye? Or, is it that you have some type of fetish for this high school girl? Idiot