by Ken L
To the editor of the TravelGolf.com news letter: I enjoy reading almost all the news letters I get from you except the ones that you include from this idiot Chris Baldwin. I can’t believe you keep publishing his hateful remarks about the young golfer Michelle Wie in your news letters. What has Michelle ever done to him to cause him to relentlessly put her down? If you read the responses to his articles that he writes, if you can call it that, about Michelle Wie you will see that 99.99% feels his comments are inappropriate, obnoxious and that he has gone too far. What kind of an adult can speak this way of a teenager, a child, which Michelle is, and not be considered verbally abusive?
I can not stomach Baldwin’s stupidity any more. So, if you keep publishing his articles please remove me from your mailing list because I do not need to read this garbage any more. I implore everyone else who feels the same way to also unsubscribe. Golf is a wonderful and challenging game and I think Michelle, like Tiger, will do a lot for the sport. Please do the right thing!

by jd
I read your articles occassionally.
Write about something worth reading.
this is junk

by margo
Don't put yourself in the category of the liberal rags like Time. Stick to good ole golf stuff. Limbaugh is open prey to be villified on whatever he talks about. He meant no criticism of Ms. Wie.

by Ivory Rubin
I agree that Rush's comment meant no criticism to Ms. Wie. And, that's coming from someone who thinks Rush is an absolute ultra-conservative jerk, who has been rightly villified for his public racist comments and his hypocritical stance against those who become dependent on drugs.
Time magazine is a liberal rag? Then, I wonder what value should be put on Pulitzer Prizes?

by Duanne
Neither one have made a significant
contribution to society or golf.

by Ken
Call me when rush says anything worthwhile and Wie wins anything

by Bill
Ruch Limbaugh is an awesome ambassador for golf. He, like so many of us, love the game and all that it involves. Time magazine or any other media outlet that tries to bash and take what he says out of context is wasting their time. If Rush played golf as well as his radio program does then watch out Tiger Woods. Leave Rush alone and let him play golf. In fact maybe a foursome- Tiger, Rush, Ted Nudgent, and Michelle Wie....Rush's treat!

by Nick
Here we go again. Seems Rush (or anyone else)can offer a true, accurate, or honest assessment or opinion of anything unless it is also politically correct. What he said is undeniably true. It is all marketing at this point because 1) Wie has not won anything as yet; and 2) Wie is a very marketable commodity. So what's wrong with that? And what's wrong with saying so? I think Michelle Wie will become a very good professional golfer -- but she isn't yet. As for competing with the men -- if Anika, undeniably the best of women golfers --can't compete with men, no other women can either. Fact is fact. Truth is truth. Accept it; and stop trying to create an imagined reality that fits the desires of the liberal media.

by John Bernard
I've watched Wie play in person, heard her talk of her goals in multiple interviews. Her goals are lofty, but her game has great potential. Even though she has not yet won "the big one," her game attracts crowds who are taken with her power and grace. Golf, in person, and for most of us, is not always about winning, it's often, in itself, a thing of beauty, just in the manner in which it is performed. Maybe Wie's critics would like her to be more "aw shucks" about her goals, but she does not show any of the arrogance in her speech or her demeanor that her detractors themselves so often exhibit. The dreaded "marketing" is being done by those who are piggy-backing her talent in order to swell their galleries, peddle their products and to fill their sports columns.
Rush, on the other hand, has modest golf talent but enough arrogance for both of them. And speaking of marketing! Rush is a master,he gets as much--or more--notoriety as people who have actually DONE something! So, when Rush speaks of someone being a product of marketing, he ought to know!

by Bill
Rush was correct, of course.
Earlier this year my wife was watching a televised tournament with me. She has never watched a tournament before and knows nothing about golf or the players, including Wie. Wie was in this PGA tournament, which was being played on her home course. My wife asked me who this girl was, and I briefed her on the Wie thing. Then I mentioned she was, at the moment, 128th in this tournament and had never won a woman's tournament.
My wife, not normally at a loss for words, said, "What?! You've got to be kidding! I thought she was winning!"
And if you didn't know better you would have thought so, too. Wie received by far the most coverage of all the golfers, and the glowing commentary from the announcers made it seem like she was Ben Hogan. So it IS a marketing phenomenon . . . but there is more to it than that, and the more-to-it is important: My wife, as it turns out, was rooting for this girl even though she had no idea who Wie was and doesn't know a putter from a umbrella. When she found out that Wie was not, in fact, waxing the men she was playing against but was actually near the bottom of the list, she became visibly put out. She felt she had been conned. This girl couldn't begin to compete with the men but my wife had been lead to believe she was trouncing them, so she was rooting for the girl to beat the boys.
In marketing the worst thing you can do is dash expectations; it always blows up in the face of the marketeers in the long run. The little vingette of my wife's expectations being dashed and her resulting peeved backlash is a tiny example of what may await Wie on a much larger scale as this apparently greatest golfer ever continues to rack up losses. Would be much wiser in the long term if the promoters presented her as a talented, big-hearted girl who is taking on the nearly impossible task of finishing decently in a PGA tournament.

by FRED
I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY.
BILL YOU HAVE SAID IT ALL. WELL STATED AND I AGREE 100 PER CENT.
LETS TALK ABOUT WIE AGAIN SOME TIME--WHEN THERE IS SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT.

by Ivory Rubin
When a 15 year old plays on the LPGA well enough the it would equate to over $675,000 and finish second in the U.S. Women's Open...that's something to talk about.