Michelle Wie has become carnival act and national embarrassment

Yeah, but her bad golf is 78 and 76 on the tele, in front of tour golfers. She plays right now as well as a male club pro. That's not good enough to make it on tour, but it's not as bad as many make it seem.

But RonMon... please remember that MW is
supposed to be the best golfer ever, even
better than Tiger (if you believe what her
followers kept saying for the longest
time).

remember joe ogilvie himself said she was better than tiger. what a laugh.

I've had my fill of smirk-filled writing, JR. My goal for 2007 will be to tell it straight. Tommy, I don't remember that quote. What an unstable limb to go out on! Better than Tiger at what?

Before we were talking about when she wins a men's tournament. Now we are talking about how much longer this carnival act will continue. My how the mighty have fallen.

Funny.........6 months ago I was a racist,
sexist "hater" for saying she was done.
For being ahead of the curve, myself, Alex and the Judge were raked over the coals.

It's tough being a sage in a bolshevik
society.

Hey Tim... get a life. Your article is a carnival act... Amusing at the best... Down right bashing... BTW, who else didn't make the cut? Seems you left that part out. I think if you look back you find that even Tiger missed a cut or two.

Sorry to say but you are an embarrassment...

A carnival act and national embarrassment = tiny Tim with shrivelled manhood. Can't hit and can't perform but can write pathetic blogs... Boy, 'Tis is fun bashing and making fun of others. Have a great weekend, Tiny Tim.

here you go ron mon:

PGA's Ogilvie says Wie better than Tiger was at 16

• Heat exhaustion forces Wie to end PGA quest


By Reid Hanley
Chicago Tribune



SILVIS, Ill. — Michelle Wie, who attracted large galleries at the John Deere Classic this week, has done things that even Tiger Woods didn't do at her age.

So says Joe Ogilvie, the second-round leader in the tournament.

"She's extremely good, and she's going to be good for a long time," Ogilvie said. "She's better than Tiger was at 16. I played with Tiger, and Tiger wasn't this good."

The 16-year-old Wie, whose attempt to become the first woman to make a PGA Tour cut since 1945 ended prematurely with her withdrawal because of heat exhaustion yesterday, is one of the top women in the world.

She has finished in the top five in all four women events she's played this season. She won't be old enough to join the LPGA tour full-time for almost two years.

But along with her long drives, crisp irons and a versatile short game has come criticism, especially for playing in men's events. As far as Ogilvie, who leads the tournament at 10-under 65-67—132, is concerned, those critics don't know what they are talking about.

Ogilvie doesn't see anything wrong with giving Wie a sponsor's exemption. Exemptions are spots in the field given out by the sponsor for any number of reasons. The Western Open gave Woods a sponsor's exemption when he was an amateur. If the exempted player can sell tickets, all the better.

"If someone has a problem with Michelle Wie getting a sponsor's exemption, they don't understand what we're about," Ogilvie said. "Our job is to entertain. That's why we're out here. We're playing golf, but at the same time, it's entertainment. Sports is to entertain the public. We're not curing cancer; we're just putting the ball in the hole."

Though Wie wasn't on top of her game this week at Deere Run, Ogilvie has no doubts about her talents. Critics who complain she has yet to win a professional tournament need to have patience, he said. The victories will come soon and in bunches.

"She's going to win on the LPGA Tour," he said. "She's 16. Chill out. Once she gets to winning, you'll get sick of her winning."








Top

Tim I couldn't agree more, it is a joke. The only good thing I can say is I'm from Canada so she is not a national embarassment to me. However, I feel sad for golf and professional sport. She is no good for the game, and is proving now she has no game. If I was Nike I'd sue her ass.

i am sure that joe ogilvie gets raked over the coals for this call. do you even think tiger gives him the time of day anymore. better than tiger at 16.... whatever.that must be an interesting scene in the locker room nowadays with tiger and joe. and believe me tiger knows about thisand probably has it taped to his bathroom mirror.

tiger would immediately withdraw from any tournament michelle wie showed up at with a sponsors exemption. finchem has let the sponsors ruin a perfectly good tour. no one even wants to watch anymore. did you see that the golf channel's ratings were down 44% from last year. what does that say about the michelle wie draw: "Sports Business Daily reported Friday that the Golf Channel's four-round coverage of the Mercedes-Benz Championship averaged 370,728 households, down 44 percent from last year when the PGA Tour's season-opening event was on ESPN"

i don't think ESPN is afraid to rub a little salt in the wound of the michelle wie hype machine that is the golf channel.

Tommy,
The figures were going to go down from showing any tournament on the golf channel.

The Sony Open was down, as will be the next tournament.

That has nothing to do with Michelle Wie. That is to do with the pga events being on the golf channel.

Tim you are a joke.

Why did you pick Michelle Wie to discuss.
She shot 78 76.

How about David Chin 76 84
How about Abe Mariano 83 82

She was 11 shots ahead of last place, so there is surely someone else you could have picked on.

It's time to pull the media plug on this pathetic under-achieving traveling circus. The sponsors who have enabled this teenage embarrassment to continue have to say "enough is enough" to her show-biz father and admit that Michelle Wie (the golfer) cannot live up to the hype.

Meanwhile, don't expect anything but more sunshine and excuses to come from the mouth of the perpetual optimist herself.

Stanley,

If you had done a little research, you would have discovered that Mr. Chin and Mr. Mariano are in fact teaching pros from Hawaii who do not participate on any tour.

They were Monday qualifiers for the Sony. Neither of these gentlemen compete regularly in any sort of tournaments.

In fact, Abe Mariano said that qualifying for the Sony was the highlight of his golfing career.

Two excellent journeyman pros, Jonathan Kaye and Alex Cejka, were alternates to the Sony field and did not tee it up in deference to two local Hawaiian teaching pros, Chin and Mariano.

If Kaye and Cejka had been in the field instead of the other two, I can guarantee that Lard would have been dead last.

But leave it to a Wie-wee to try to nitpick a cut missed by 14 strokes into something positive for his sweetheart.

Tim isn't right about everything, and at times I couldn't disagree with him more, but in this case he couldn't be more correct.

I do agree that the time has come for Michelle Wie to end her quest on the PGA Tour. But I do feel it's unfair to label her as the "National Embarrassment", you should hold that title for the group of people making decisions and career choices for her, in particular her father BJ.
They are the real embarrassment. Granted you can compare her appearance in these events as a "carnival act" but just like in those situations it is the people running those shows that should be condemned not the "performers" as they are simply been exploited.

stanley

where are all the new eyeballs this phenom is suppose to bring to golf. her sponsors are shitting all over themselves right now. nike does not want to dilute their brand with this crap. they will let her and her contract fade away.

oh and by the way the golf channel is in 90 million homes. granted that is not as many as ESPN but still a 44% decline is huge, and i am sure this not what the golf channel expected or thought they were paying for. who wants to watch a tour that continues to dilute their sport with underacheiving women in the field. hell i might as well watch the LPGA. at least ochoa and sorenstam are good.

Ok did anyone read her press conference. How the hell did she get into Stanford? She can barely put a sentence together without "um like ". And how delusional can one 17 year old be? Holy crap.

What I do find surprising is why Tiger has not told Nike to get out now, before Nike gets embarassed any more.

Sorry,but i'm with Tim on this one.Circus act.C act. Couldn't have said it better myself. Who the Hell is advising this girl?Enough already with the PGA.This girl needs to gain some confidence and try to be competitive with the women on the LPGA.She is self destructing right in front of us.

"National Embarrassment"??????

Please do not include all of us in this. It is she and her sponsors who should be embarrassed. A "Wie" embarrassment is more like it or just another side show freak.

Whoever picked her outfits for this tournament should be embarassed. What is with the hat? It is not even an original look because Se Ri Pak wore that style last year and look a lot better.

What's more embarrassing, Wie's quest or the fact the PGA Tour has no legitimate excitement except for about a half dozen tourneys a year so they try and fill the void with a circus freak?

I think the argument should be moved beyond Wie and at the Tour's lackluster players who are mostly boring and look the same and make it impossible to watch four hours of golf any weekend besides majors. Maybe this new 16-year old can get some of Wie's exemptions.

brandon good point. that's what i was kinda getting at. you should blog on it. the tour is a joke. boring and for the most part unwatchable. the tour needs more guys like daly even though he plays up his bad boy image at least he's interesting and doesn't list his hobbies as sports, fishing and movies (how many guys on tour have those original hobiies listed).

on a side note, i loved david duval before he melted down. he was my favorite golfer. if he could melt down that badly why did anyone for one second think this couldn't happen to michelle wie. and remember ty tryon.....

I believe that the problem golf is currently experiencing relates to the fact it grew very quickly and well beyond what a sustainable market justifies.

Hmmmm. Who else missed the cut? Oh yeah, Stuart Appleby. But don't stop trying Stuart. Just eat a little crow and carry on.

And Michelle... Keep on doing it your way! No one ever accomplished anything listening to coach-potato naysayers.

Ghet Shlemiel,

No one every accomplished anything listening to couch-potato sycophants, either.

By the way, what is a "coach-potato."
Does Mr. Potatohead have a new job now?

hey numbnuts (get rheel) i am sure stuart appleby earned his way into the tournament. if stuart had been given 800 exemptions, and failed to qualify in every one of them, then i guess you would have a point. also, i am sure i could have missed the cut as well if i had been given an exemption. your have no point. between every action there should be a pause with thoughtful contemplation before a reaction. in other words think before you opine.

Well, I see that Ghet has emerged from the doldrums and is back to his inane postings.

Welcome back, Ghet, we missed your rants. How are things at Astroturf Central? Have you filed any lawsuits lately against any critics of Lard?

I think that Tadd's performance may just put the screws to the Golf Channel's hyping of the chubby one. At least we can hope so.

One-Putt seems to have thrown in the towel as a Wie-wee. How about you, Ghet? When are you going to bail out?

Alex,

I think Ghet is the type who goes down with the ship because he thinks the rising water is just an illusion created by astroturf conspirators.

Hey, I think I'll bestow a new moniker upon old Ghet: "Mr. Potatohead." LOL, it fits.

Hey Get Rheel (sp?)
Stuart Appleby shot a 72 71 and missed the cut by three strokes. Clearly not a good round for him and one he probably is not happy with. But at his bad day, he was still 11 shots over bubbles, who had a decent outing considering that she has been having difficulty breaking 80. Bubbles is certainly an incredible talent and has a wonderful golf swing with power. But she does not belong on the PGA and should not be getting all these unjustified exemptions.

I do hope that she improves somewhat in early 2007; otherwise, we may run out of Wie-Wees to debate.

Tim,

I do not agree that she is an "embarassment" at this time as she has played some great golf over the past few yew years in men's and women's events and is still only a kid. But if she continues to enter PGA events and miss cut after cut after cut, then the word "embarassment" will likely become more appropriate. Flip side is that she has received $20,000,000 in from her sponsors. Hell, I would make an ass of myself in front of anyone for that kind of money,

I would not expect her to withdraw from men's golf anytime soon though. For $20,000,000, I would become an "embarassment"

What is up with that wierdo Tadd Fujikawa.

He's not supposed to be in the spotlight!

He's not from a rich family!

Like oh my god! He's goes to a public high school (ew!)

He has no multi-million dollar endorsements

Where's his book deal from Jennifer Mario?

Michelle is supposed to be there not him!

Brandon Tucker,

For a guy with his own golf blog, at times your lack of understanding of the game is abysmal.

Golf is not a sport that lends itself to histrionics. Basketball has the slam dunk and an occasional riot, Football has exaggerated celebration and high-fiving when a defensive player makes a tackle, and in Soccer, everybody goes bonkers when the game's goal is scored.

Golf is not that kind of game, and never will be. We get an occasional fist-pump after a long putt finds the cup, but that's about it. I have yet to see a PGA golfer do any backflips when he successfully executes a sand shot to save par.

As for your thought that Tadd should get some of Lard's exemptions, don't be silly.

Tadd turned 16 less than a week ago. He is a high school SOPHOMORE. He is an AMATEUR. If he gets any exemption, it should be to next year's Sony Open.

The sport of Golf doesn't need a repeat of the farce carried out with Bubbles, or rather, Lard.

Ghet UnRheel,

When you equated Appleby's missing the cut at the Sony with that of Lard, you outdid yourself in the category of imbecility.

Stuart has 8 PGA victories, which speak for themselves.

There were also about 30 other players who have won on the PGA tour who missed the cut at the Sony. Four of these golfers have won among them five MAJOR championships.

These 30+ players have about 100 PGA wins among them. To put no-win Double-wide in the same categoty with a slew of proven winners is stupidity beyond the pale, even for a numbskull like you.

Michelle keeps doing it her way... that's the problem.

This is an embarassment for golf, and quite frankly for all of us too.

We allowed a young golf talent to be exploited by large corporations. We allowed it, and enjoyed watching her crash and burn.

Never mind the fact that there are millions of dollars fueling Michelle's ego.

Why be humble? She's already a millionaire without even winning a tournament.

Shame on you Sony and Nike! Shame on you for blantantly exploiting Michelle for your own financial gain.

I agree with Tim. Michelle's current state is sad, and it is precisely what I hoped wouldn't happen when I used the sideshow/carnival/circus freak metaphor on Sept. 16 of last year.

http://www.travelgolf.com/blogs/kiel.christianson/2006/09/15/please_please_please_don_t_let_michelle

Question: What did Wie mean when she said in her press conference "I made a lot of good birdies here this week"?

Was she actually at the Sony Open or did she have a body double play in her spot while she was out playing a round of mini golf somewehere putting up all of those "good birdies"?

Smudge,

Obviously, Bubbles' conception of a lot of birdies is at great variance with her conception of a lot of hype. Over her two ignominious rounds at the Sony, she made a total of four birdies. Is that a "lot"? Well, perhaps if you're a fifteen handicap, but I don't think there are too many pros who would categorize it in that manner.

Judge,

Tadd's performance at the Sony Should enlighten, begrudgingly no doubt, all but the most ardent feminists. I refer to those like our MIA Brit pal, Norman, who is certain that there is no difference in the hand speed, wrist strength, and manual dexterity of men and women.

Tadd, a five foot one inch 16 year old high school sophomore, a lad of such diminutive stature that he strongly resembles a miniature version of Craig Parry, accomplished two things that no woman golfer has ever done and most likely never will do.

That assessment includes the greatest female golfer the world has ever seen, Annika Sorenstam, and, of course, the biggest, and I do mean big, fraud ever perpetrated on the golf world, Lard Wie.

Tadd not only made a PGA cut easily with three shots to spare, he battled the tough weekend pin placements and finished T20th.

Will this exhibition by young Tadd silence the feminst PCer's? Maybe for a very short while, but permanently? Not a chance.

Wie-wee's like Ghet, Norman, Jim C, Candace Polski, and Patricia, among others, have far too much invested emotionally in the Rotund One to abandon the HMS Wie now.

These yoyo's will remain on the bridge with stiff upper lips until Double-wide sinks beneath the waves.

Tim - great story on Pinehurst. One quick correction - the U.S. Amateur Championship has been moved to 2008, and will be played on both No. 2 (celebrating its Centennial this year, in 2007) and No. 4.

Let's hope the USGA continues its great relationship with us.

Tim, I can well understand and indeed sympathize that your column is in danger of being displaced as a premier "carnival act and national embarrassment." But, good news, I believe its current content will put you squarely back into the running! And, well, if it doesn't, there's always that job as a "carnival barker at the first tee." Cheers!

Comment from: smudge [Visitor]
Question: What did Wie mean when she said in her press conference "I made a lot of good birdies here this week"?

She was just remembering all of the Tee Markers.

Alex,

Yes, the dyed-in-the-wool Wiemen will die with their boots on. With that kind of perseverence and tenacity, if we could just change their focus and send them to Iraq, we'd have the country pacified inside of a month.

All this whining from the Grinches, and yet they can't stop talking about her... 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Strangest thing I've ever seen.

I guess Mr. Potatohead hasn't seen too many strange phenomena.

Judge,

Ghet UnRheel IS a strange phenomenon.

We're off to Aruba in about three hours. See you boys in two weeks.

Ghet Rheel, be sure to take your medication faithfully, or you will end up in a room with rubber wallpaper.

The question is whether or not she is proceeding in a way that will advance her golf career. In terms of playing more than a token PGA event, that's a fair question that's been asked by knowledgeable and sympathetic pros for quite some time. I've got a hunch she's caught in no-man's land, between playing in these tournaments or feeling like a failure for pulling back, with its long-term consequences. That's not an easy predicament to be in. Or, she could be going through a phase like Tiger did when he was reshaping his swing. One's not sure whether to be patient or feel sad. It's her career and we'll see sooner or later. I don't know, but suspect branding and money has much less to do with it from her standpoint than some people think. In any event, she's certainly providing fertile ground for cheapshot artists such as this blog's author. At 16, she's shown more maturity and a more level head than those types will ever have.

Travel safely, Alex, and have fun.

Roger--Michelle is not showing maturity or poise, she is actually behaving like a petulant child. She is childish in her manner of speech, arrogant in her assesment of her game and stubborn in her refusal to acknowledge what we have known for years--She is simply not good enough to compete against the world's top men, or even middle of the road men. She embarrases herself each time she laces up her Nike's, everytime a little more. I truly feel for you if you are someone like GhetRheel who bought into the hype and has spent the better part of two years defending Michelle and telling anyone who would listen that she was going to revolutionize the game of golf. I remember crying when I found out when Santa Claus wasn't real, Poor Ghet has finally realized that Michelle Wie is an even bigger hoax played on the people of the world.

Michelle remind me alot of those sad sad rejected contestants on American Idol. Not the one's going away crying, but the one's who remain in denial and insist that they have the talent and will one day be famous.

But I fear Nike and Sony are setting up poor Michelle for a reality-check breakdown. But, it well may be the best thing to happen to her. She'll face reality and mature alot.

I've never doubted the fact Michelle has talent, but I have a suspicion she thinks that she is a "natural" and doesn't have to put in the effort needed at the highest level. Unfortunatly. Nike and Sony's money validated her attitude.

Her weight gain is a clear indication of her inability to grasp at the magnitude of the the opportunity life has given her.

But she will :) hopefully soon

Ford and Bad Joke,

You both said that very well.

The bottom line is that Bubbles is able to play PGA events for one reason and one reason only: She wants to. Even the most ardent Wiemen have to realize that she's done nothing of late to demonstrate that she has any more reason to be playing on the men's tour than 15-20 other LPGA players.

I know, I know, they'll say Bubbles is singular in her potential and that this distinguishes her, but that dog don't hunt.

She had her chance, nay, she had her chance and about ten other people's. Quite frankly, I'm at a point where I think I'll just say that anyone still supporting this charade lacks character.

Tadd really threw a monkey wrench into their delusions.

I mean, it could have been any amateur...

from any hometown...

in any tournament...

But someone from Hawaii, who is perhaps the exact opposite or best decribed as the "Anti-Wie"...

on what should have been Michelle's home field advantage..

man,

Funny how life is

:) :) :)

Will MW go the way of Britany Spears? I hope not.