Yes, it’s true there are similarities between Big John Daly, the chain-smoking big guy with the liquor and gambling problem and Michelle Wie, the presumptuous, would-be superstar.
Both are fan favorites, partly because they hit it a mile. Both get far too many exemptions.
And neither can play golf very well at the moment.
Daly didn’t have much to say to anyone after the Ginn sur Mer Classic pro-am Wednesday. He’s had another mediocre year, in which the two-time major winner’s best finish was a 16th at the Buick Open.
“It just baffles me, to be able to hit the ball as far as he does with the talent and the touch he has and for him to play as poorly as he does,” Mark Calcavecchia told seattlepi.com. “That just blows my mind. I don’t see how he can play that bad.”
Wie, of course, has fallen off a cliff this year. She probably wishes she had alcohol, cigarettes and a crazy spouse to blame.
Daly is 41, Wie still a teenager. Daly at least has some big wins under his big belt. Wie has won nothing but scorn.
Here’s one more common denominator: Squandered talent.
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Brandon Tucker:
Jason Scott Deegan:
The Accidental Golfer:
Ron Mon:
Bubbles never hit the ball a mile. And have you checked her distance stats lately?
Those 300+ yard drives by Bubbles are nothing but myths.
When I saw Bubbles play in person for about seven or eight holes at the 2005 Publinks, her drives averaged about 245 yards, and she was outdriven by her playing opponents on every hole I saw.
Of course, it's true -- technically. I also can propel myself faster than any sprinter alive . . . on a bicycle.
Now I agree with Alex that 300 yards is not the norm for Wie's drives, but on occasion she can put it out there. Well, at least when she hits it straight, which isn't happening with great frequency at present.
Again, I'd bet dollars to donuts that the conditions played a huge role in that.
A guy from our firm returned just today from a vacation to Singapore.
While there, he and his wife tooka road trip across the causeway into Malaysia.
They went by tour bus and then taxicabs to Kuala Lumpur.
On the way they saw several large billboards sporting the picture of, you guessed it, Michelle Wie.
They couldn't read the captions in Malay, so they asked the cab driver who was that pictured on the billboards.
The answer was always that "she is a champion golfer from KOREA." They couldn't seem to explain that she was actually a US citizen.
Is the William Morris agengy guilty of false advertising?
I read that part of the reason Nike, Sony & Omega signed MW to $10+ Mil endorsement deals was to make her the face of (Nike, Sony, Omega, etc.) in Asia and ROW. I presume her face is plastered all over Asia hawking various products. Since her parents are from Korea, WM Agency isn't lying 100%. You'll also find American actors hawking unorthodox products in Japan and elsewhere in Asia.
From what I know, the William Morris Agency treats sports and especially golf as a sidelight. Their main interests are movie stars and rock and rap groups.
The fact that promote Miss Wie as a "champion golfer" and "from Korea" demonstrates that they are not very interested in the truth in their ads.
It would be interesting to see if any of these ads are being displayed in Korea, where the people surely would be aware of their inaccuracy, and where they have an abundance of their own young female professional golfers, most of whom have been far more successful than Miss Wie.