Tim McDonald - Latest Comments on Michelle Wie, withdrawing from John Deere Classic, needs to get tougher if she wants to play with the big boys

Jenney M. [Visitor] in response to: Michelle Wie, withdrawing from John Deere Classic, needs to get tougher if she wants to play with the big boys

Jenney M. [Visitor] — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:09:28 +0000

Her first LPGA event was when she qualified for the Takefuji Classic in 2002. The youngest ever to join the field in a women’s tour event, she broke the record set the previous year by Morgan Pressel, who made the U.S. Open at age 13. Michelle Wie was 12. She missed the cut.

After the Takefuji she won the Hawaii State Women's Open(won by 13 strokes w/ 8-under par). That year she also won the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association's Tournament of Champions. The year before she finished 2nd in the Hawaii State Women's Open.

Previous to that:
2001 Hawaii State Women’s Stroke Play Championship (one of three major tournaments in Hawaii), Youngest winner at age 11
2001 Jennie K. Wilson Invitational (the most prestigious women’s amateur tournament in Hawaii), Youngest winner at age 11
2001 Hawaii State Junior Golf Association’s Tournament of Champions, Champion
2000 Hawaii State Open, Women's Division Low Amateur
2000 Honolulu Mayor's Cup, Champion
2000 Hawaii State Women’s Stroke Play Championship, Third place

Her first LPGA major was 2003 Kraft Nabisco Championship. At the time critics said that Wie should have a better junior record before getting the exemption. She had missed the cut in the 3 previous LPGA events she had played and she hadn't won anything outside of Hawaii. She tied for 9th. She was 13. That year she won the USGA Women's Amateur Public Links Championship and was the youngest to win that event at age 13. Interesting aside, she beat current LPGA rookie Virada Nirapathpongporn who was 21 at the time.

She certainly is helping the game of golf, by encouraging more interest and more young girls are taking up the game. Sure that can be an answer, even though I don't think it's fair that she has this question asked of her when no one else does.

Is Michelle Wie more encouraging than the other female golfers to young girls? Yes, basically because she combines a number of qualities that some of the golfers on the LPGA have, but none of them have all of these qualities.
All are good golfers, some are good looking(Gulbis, Creamer(I don't see it, but apparently old guys dig her)), some are charismatic(Gulbis, Creamer), some have fame outside the immediate golfing world(Gulbis), some are young(Pressel). Gublis is really the only one who has any fame amongst non-golf fans. Gublis' fans are mostly males and readers of FHM ie. NOT young girls.

Michelle appeals to young girls, because she is the most like them. When she's interviewed, she sounds very poised part of the time and like a typical mall going, Claire's shopping teenybopper the other part of the time. She wears the coolest clothes, earrings, and sunglasses. When little girls look at her, they want to be her. She's a tomboy, yet feminine without being too girly-girl like Creamer or too sexy like Gulbis. Pressel may be young, but she lacks charisma and she's really doesn't look as cool. For all her Polo tees, she's no fashionista. And when young girls hear Wie say that she wants to be just as good as the men, young girls can relate to it. Young girls don't see the limitations or the politics or concern themselves with the exemptions.

JRC [Visitor] in response to: Michelle Wie, withdrawing from John Deere Classic, needs to get tougher if she wants to play with the big boys

JRC [Visitor] — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 04:24:01 +0000

OK, whoa there...all I wanted to know is why Wie fans feel it's important that she compete against men, now. The analysis of the limited number of amateur events on the island and high expense of competing stateside is a good one, but didn’t satisfy the question. Did MW actually exhaust all the junior/amateur events in Hawaii? Was she dominating that group of golfers before she ventured into her first LPGA event? I also had hoped that someone would explain how she is helping the game of golf….not the tournament directors, or TV ratings, or herself (all pretty obvious), but the rather the game. And, if one answer is: she’s encouraging young girls to take up the game, which is great, then why is she more encouraging than Lorena Ochoa, Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis, Morgan Pressel, et al?

Mike s [Visitor] in response to: Michelle Wie, withdrawing from John Deere Classic, needs to get tougher if she wants to play with the big boys

Mike s [Visitor] — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 02:13:02 +0000

Jenny, That was the best reply I have seen yet on this subject. I will be anxious to see how the "bashers" respond. I hope that her path takes her where she wants to go. I enjoy watching her golf and if nothing else, she inspired my 15 y/o daughter to take up the game. I kinda understand Tim's and CB's rationalization for always dissing Ms Wie (it is the only thing that gets people to coment on their blogs), but I still haven't figured out the rest of the bashers motivations. To purposely, day after day, dish out hatred and malcontent on a classy young lady like her is beyond me.

Jenney M. [Visitor] in response to: Michelle Wie, withdrawing from John Deere Classic, needs to get tougher if she wants to play with the big boys

Jenney M. [Visitor] — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 23:05:09 +0000

JRC: I don't want to seee a 16 yo female win against the men necessarily. What I would like is for the issue not to be about her gender or her age. The LPGA isn't the PGA "Light", they have different rules there. People keep forgetting that to even apply to qualify for the LPGA, you have to be 18. Michelle Wie is 16. The PGA does not have that age barrier and now that she has turned pro, playing juniors or amateurs is not an option open to her. It's funny how the way people talk about her now re: playing in the PGA, is so similiar to how people used to talk about her previously re: playing in the LPGA.

So as it stands, you would have this girl play only the 6 tournaments a year she's allowed to by the LPGA? It's ridiculous to think that she can develop that way.

Now people might argue that Michelle Wie shouldn't have turned pro. However, they forget that Wie wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Wie's parents estimated that it cost them $50,000/year for Wie to play golf. Partly the high costs were due to having to fly into the mainland all the time for tournaments. The winnings from tournaments that Wie had to turn away, because she was an amateur would have paid for all her golf. People argue that Michelle should have played in more junior amateur tournaments, but she did play in all the ones that were available to her in Hawaii and she did win those. However Hawaii is not the mainland. Grace Park's parents knew that too and moved Park from Hawaii to Arizona for high school. Michelle Wie's parents didn't see it as an option for them. People seem to forget how expensive it is to play golf when you're just a junior or an amateur and it's much more expensive the further away you live.

To the argument that Michelle should win on the LPGA before she even attempts to make the cut in the PGA, reminds me of when Sorenstam tried to make the cut at Colonial. Sorenstam didn't make the cut, but I felt at the time the whole process was too overwhelming for her. There was too much stress and everything became about her gender. At the time, there were people who were very opposed to her even trying. And now the same people are the ones who are saying that Michelle Wie should follow the route of Sorenstam?

The issue is people are telling Michelle Wie to follow the conventional path and when she looks at some of the people who've followed that path, they have only failed. Sorenstam never tried to make the cut again and has said the PGA is not for her. Despite the fact that Sorenstam is the best female golfer in the world, why would Wie see that route as the best way for her to eventually play in the PGA? And as for learning how to win in the juniors/amateurs as the prescribed method of success, there are so many examples of when that doesn't work out. Gulbis after 4 1/2 years on the LPGA has failed to win. Gublis has a fairly impressive record of winning as an amateur. Now Pressel, who is the posterchild for following the prescribed method, has even a more impressive list of amateur wins. Pressel was considered the top ranked girls junior and women's amateur player for 2005. Pressel also was the AJGA Player of the year in 2005. When Wie has finished ahead of Pressel at every tournament they've been in together this year, including one where they played in the same group, it's pretty ridiculous to tell Wie to go back to amateurs and juniors and prove she can win there.

Wie, of course, needs to develop and improve if she wants to make the cut. No one is delusional enough to think she's going to win in the PGA as a 16 yo. I just think she should be allowed the opportunity, because right now she doesn't have as many options as people may think.

Tim McDonald [Member] in response to: Michelle Wie, withdrawing from John Deere Classic, needs to get tougher if she wants to play with the big boys

Tim McDonald [Member] — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 22:03:56 +0000

Good question. The answers -- if they're not too cowardly to answer -- should be telling.

JRC [Visitor] in response to: Michelle Wie, withdrawing from John Deere Classic, needs to get tougher if she wants to play with the big boys

JRC [Visitor] — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 21:30:23 +0000

"...I would love to see a 16-year-old female win a PGA Tour event—..." This quote comes from an article by a columnist named Woodson who writes his articles in the sports section of the Rochester Business Journal. He’s also reevaluating his position as a Wie-booster on MW’s readiness to take on the men of the PGA. In reading this sentence, nearing the end of his article, I asked myself...why do you want to see a 16 year old female when against the men? What possible benefit or value to golfing as sport and profession could come of it? So, I thought I would pose the same question to the Wie-booster contributors of this blogdom...Why?

One-Putt [Visitor] in response to: Michelle Wie, withdrawing from John Deere Classic, needs to get tougher if she wants to play with the big boys

One-Putt [Visitor] — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 10:45:12 +0000

"Comment from: UnderPar [Visitor]
Here's a question I have about LPGA exemptions. When MW "Bubbles" turns 18 yrs old, does she have to apply for membership for the LPGA or can just continue playing on exemptions?? In other words can she play on exemptions from the LPGA until she's 25 or however long and not go thru Q school or even apply for membership to the LPGA?"

A golfer is not required to join any tour, but they give up some benefits and limit their ability to qualify for events.

On the LPGA tour there are only two events that they can qualify for thru previous high finish or a win. The US Women's Open and the British Women's Open are sanctioned by different bodies and players can earn a next year entrance finishing high in the order and a five year exemption for winning the event.

If a player from outside of the LPGA Tour wins an event, they have only one option to qualify for a 2 or 5 year (depending on the number of events won or winning a Major) exemption and that is to join the tour. If they choose not to join they are not given automatic entry as a defending champion in the next same LPGA event.

Professionals playing from outside the tour do not earn ADT points and their playing statistics do not go into the official LPGA records. They don't have voting rights or participate in the pension plan.

Freelancing is a hard route to take, since you can only enter six regular LPGA events on a Sponsor's exemption. Only non-exempt LPGA members or amateurs can participate in Monday qualifying.

If Michelle shows up with her driver, wedges and putter in one event and wins, she and the LPGA will have some choices to make: allow her to enter the tour before she is eighteen as an fully exempt member in the next season with all the limitations that entails or turn her down and she continues to freelance from outside the tour for a couple more years. That is of course if Michelle would accept those limitations in the first scenario.

For Alex: did I fail to mention her amateur LPGA record as a fifteen year old? It was quite stunning actually.

UnderPar [Visitor] in response to: Michelle Wie, withdrawing from John Deere Classic, needs to get tougher if she wants to play with the big boys

UnderPar [Visitor] — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 02:44:13 +0000

Here's a question I have about LPGA exemptions. When MW "Bubbles" turns 18 yrs old, does she have to apply for membership for the LPGA or can just continue playing on exemptions?? In other words can she play on exemptions from the LPGA until she's 25 or however long and not go thru Q school or even apply for membership to the LPGA?