S***, I wish I could shoot a 79 on the front 9! Good luck to her. I would like nothing better than for her to turn around and shoot a 66 and tell her critics to f*** off. I don't care if it's PGA, LPGA or the Hooters tour. She's 16 years old. Imagine what she'll be doing in 5 years. Hopefully what she will be doing in five years is giving up on her and her family's foundering publicity stunt and concentrating on actually winning some maddog tournaments among the people we know she can compete with: other females! The whole circus is all driven by her and her family's chutzpah in trying to make her a living legend before she is even an adult. She's being promoted as if she was The Next Jackie Robinson, breaking the barriers, etc. It's nonsense -- Wie's not even the next Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the last female to make a PGA cut. When Zaharias played against the men, she was already an all-around athlete nonpareil, the distaff Jim Thorpe; an All-America basketball player, a two-time Olympic track and field gold medalist, and had a Sorenstamesque dominance on the LPGA tour (which she helped found). Let's see now, when facing off against world class peers, what's Wie won? (Here's a clue: nothin.') "Imagine what she'll be doing in 5 years?" Ha! How many times has that question been asked about young athletes who are barely memories today? The more and more Wie fails to reach her unheard-of goals, the more she seems like she could potentially be the golf version of Mary Pierce. Think about it: Pierce, circa 1992, and Wie today have so much in common; they're young, attractive, around six feet tall, powerful, and underachieving, and they both have love-hate relationships with their fathers (Wie's father is much better behaved than Pierce's, but that really isn't saying much). By the way, don't make the mistake of comparing Wie with Danica Patrick. Patrick proved she belonged with the elite racers when she had the fastest qualifying time at the Indy 500 last year. In the actual race, Patrick actually led the race for a while, finally finishing fourth. Wie doesn't have any accomplishment close to matching that. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being promoted as a world-class athlete at a tender age. Just make sure that you live up to your hype. Kobe Bryant went from high school to the NBA amid ridiculous publicity. He got a video game named after him before he cracked the Lakers' starting lineup. But Kobe has lived up to his hype. So has Danica Patrick. Tiger Woods has exceeded his hype, if you don't count his father's prediction he would be bigger than Jesus. Wie is a multi-millionaire now because people are hoping she becomes the superstar they want her to be. The reality is that despite the fact she's being handed opportunities to shine, she's not delivering. Never mind the stuff they say Wie can do, let's see her -- as her sponsor Nike says -- just do it. And if she can't, get her out of the spotlight until she can.
Hopefully what she will be doing in five years is giving up on her and her family's foundering publicity stunt and concentrating on actually winning some maddog tournaments among the people we know she can compete with: other females! L.N., I read this and immediately started thinking you were going to be a dick about this. But the thing is - and here's the thing: you're right. That, backed by the rest of your post is completely, totally, 100% correct. I wouldn't want to be Michelle Wie. I mean, except for the part where sometimes I dress up like an Asian girl and dance in front of the mirror. If you do the eyeshadow just right, you can give the impression of epicanthal folds. But that's neither here nor there. The money for that poor kid, that's nice. But the pressure for that poor kid, that's awful. Give her a chance to shine before she goes against the best in the world. It would be very sad indeed if her career was destroyed because she was thrown into the shark tank before she can even swim.
loumal: im so tired of the over hype with this girl she cant even beat women,so what makes people think she can win in the mens pga. oh the same men who live for uconn womens basketball Not to derail, but enjoying watching a succesful woman's college team competing in a female only league does not equal thinking that Michelle Wie is going to win a Men's PGA tournament in the near future. I mean, unless you were just trying to slip in a totally unrelated slam on men who were so "girly" that they actually would enjoy women's basketball. Or women's sports. Since, you know, women aren't really atheletes. Like men are. Because men are, you know, men. Which makes them atheletes. And women are not men, so they're not atheletes. Was that what you meant? /snide derail
If you can play with the big boys, go for it . . . But she can't. Well, other than yesterday when she shot a 68 that was bettered by only 11 people in the field. But other than that, sure. Even her 79 on Thursday didn't put her in last. I don't see how that means she can't "play with the big boys", which is a phrase better suited to a shitty t-shirt than a cogent argument.
Is she playing this weekend or not, yerfatma? And can you point out the part of my argument that didn't make sense? She missed the cut despite shooting a 68 on Friday, which 1) shows how incredibly badly she played on Thursday in relation to the rest of the field and 2) shows the consistency players need to make it on the Tour. Am I saying she won't ever play on the PGA Tour? No. I don't think she's mentally ready to play at this level, and the 68 to me might mean she was relaxed and loose for the second round. She certainly wasn't that way in the first round, and I'm sorry, but crying in the press conference afterwards? Only Dick Vermeil can get away with that and seem mature. I think she'll be a permanent PGA fixture by the time she's 21. But for right now, Wie again proved that, no, she's not ready to play with the big boys. Let her go to the LPGA or compete on the mini-tour level and get her game, both mental and physical, in order. I believe both Wie and the game will be better for it.
It's too bad that the gender red herring even exists. Ignoring gender altogether and considering her youth, you have to ask whether it makes sense for a 16-year-old to be seriously trying to break into the top league at this time in a sport where the median age of top players is a good bit higher. If it was a 16-year-old boy, seems like the answer would be the same, no?
LBB, you can't call gender a "red herring" in this situation. The talent in the PGA is a serious step above the talent in the LPGA. There's no fish there. "Ignoring gender altogether" is unrealistic.
Samsonov, do you not think that a 16-year-old boy would be in a very similar situation, i.e., facing legitimate questions as to whether he should be putting that much effort into trying to play in the top league?
Yes, I agree with that. It's still waaaaay more fucked up that for some reason she's playing against the guys. The "gender issue" is an issue in this case. Wie can hold her own in the LPGA.
LPGA. There's no fish there. Clearly you've never been near the locker room.
