THE MICHELLE WIE THREAD

[BigLeftyinAZ]

Good to finally hear she played some good golf.Hopefully this will be the turning point of her career

[rcain1us]

Good to finally hear she played some good golf.Hopefully this will be the turning point of her career

Just think, if she played a few tournaments on the Futures Tour where she belongs she might actually learn how to win.

[BigLeftyinAZ]

Good to finally hear she played some good golf.Hopefully this will be the turning point of her career

Just think, if she played a few tournaments on the Futures Tour where she belongs she might actually learn how to win.

I know and understand she is going about it the wrong way.I do wish the best and hopefully she will find her game and make a run after lorena.

[CalleW]

M Wie made a small step toward coming back on a 6200 yard course. Finally, a course she is able to handle. A women's course. Makes sense.

Agree 100%. Never understood why she had to try to compete with the men. She could never ever compete. At best she could maybe make a cut here and there if she got lucky, the course wasn't too long and she played really well. What is the thrill in that? I always thought you played to win. Now instead of having a solid start to her career as a womens golfer she has a ton of problems and grief.

[SinoChip]

International ladyboy front

[SBR67]

Pix

Col. Kurtz? Is that really you?



Just kidding. Thanks for sharing your pics. If you happen to run in to Walt Miller, tell him I said hello.

As far as me jumping the beach goes  The beach is a bad place to be.

[DaveT319]

I was just wondering when Michelle's next missed cut would be...

Guess I was wrong. Though you'd expect a "phenom" to do well against the them...

Dave

[SBR67]

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3434558

Wie qualifies for 2008 U.S. Women's Open

 Despite playing 36 holes on a humid day with temperatures nearly reaching triple digits, Michelle Wie was still able to flash a big smile as she sat down with the media.

Qualifying for the U.S. Women's Open will do that.

Playing on two different courses, Wie carded rounds of 70 and 67 and her 137 total was the second-best score on the day and more than enough to qualify her for the 2008 Open, to be played later this month at the Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn.

"I think I did pretty well. It feels good to be playing good again," said Wie, who has struggled with her game for much of the last year. "There were a lot of shots that I left out there today with the putting and a couple of errant tee shots in the middle, but other than that I'm pretty pleased with my round and I'm really happy to be playing at the U.S. Open."

A sore wrist hurt in March and studies at Stanford University have limited her to just two tournaments on the LPGA Tour this year.

Wie's first 18, played at Woodmont Country Club, was an up and down one with five birdies and four bogeys. After starting out with birdies on her second and third holes, some wayward drives left her at 2-over with five holes to play, but she birdied three of the last four holes.

"I felt like in the middle of the round, my round could have gone anywhere," said Wie. "It could have gone to the bad direction, but fortunately I pulled it back together and made a couple of good shots, good putts, and I felt like I saved a lot of really great pars."

The venue shifted a few miles away to Manor Country Club, but Wie continued to show improvement with her irons that helped lead to another strong close.

Finishing on the front nine, Wie pushed her tee shot on No. 7 into the trees and after chipping back into the fairway, she smoked an iron from 160 yards to within five feet, which she tapped in for par. That was followed up by a strong iron shot off the tee on a 157-yard par-3 that she left 20 inches from the cup for a birdie. For her final act, Wie smacked an approach shot on a par-5 to within five feet for another birdie as she snagged one of the 35 spots open to the 121 players at sectional.

Wie, who was one shot behind Kelli Kuehne's 136, is regaining her confidence. She finished in sixth place at the Ladies German Open last week.

"When you are struggling week after week, it takes a toll on your confidence," said Wie. "Nobody really gave up on me. My managers, David [Leadbetter, her coach], my parents, my trainer, everyone, they never gave up on me. They are always telling me you are going to get through it and you are going to get better."

Wie does not anticipate going to the U.S. Open site prior to the tournament and will return to Florida where she and Leadbetter have been working hard on her game, spending nine to 12 hours a day practicing. Asked if she took time to watch last week's LPGA event, Wie said the bit of television she watched was spent watching a different sporting event.

"Actually I was kind of busy watching the NBA playoffs," said Wie. "I'm a big fan of Kevin Garnett."


****

Nice little birdie, birdie, birdie run to finish.

[ND fan]

Although I have issues with her parents, and I am not too fond of some of her mannerisms she is still a kid and I really do hope she can just get sh-t together and play golf, without having to play against the men where she will fail miserably or without lame excuses, sore wrist?  don't play.

She should have played a year or two of college golf and won some amateur events, she was thrust into the fire because her daddy said you can do it and Nike will pay you millions, get out there and go get'em.  Wrong start for what could have been a great story.  She may be great one day but the story will be that of 2 steps forward four steps back and let's start all over and be friends again.  I thought it was funny someone said a few weeks ago that Michelle would have been better off placed in foster care with Brittany Spears parents.  Probably not too far from true.

[GrayGolfer]

Good for her. I hate all the exemptions that she thinks she's entitled to, but if she earns her spot it's a different story.

[obsessed_duffer]

It's a shame how easy it has been to forget she has game.

[CalleW]

Wie can play. There is no doubt about that. She has just been managed about as poorly as you can be.

[DaveT319]

...she is still a kid...

No, she isn't. She's 18 or 19 now. That's an adult. And that's why I don't give her a free pass on sounding stupid in her interviews.

And yes, it's obvious she can play. She has just been managed beyond idiotically and has been smothered. She definitely has talent, but I never really thought she was the phenom everyone made her out to be. She's NOT the female equivalent of Tiger Woods, as her "handlers" would have wanted everyone to believe. She was a young girl with a good swing and a lot of talent for her age. The "competing against the men" sideshow did her no good. It destroyed her confidence every time she missed a cut by a huge margin. It was never really realistic that she could compete against the men. She was poorly managed, and her game has suffered greatly because of it.

I am immensely glad that she qualified for the Women's Open, not because I want to see her play, but because I am SO tired of her getting the handouts. If she earns it, she deserves to be there. This one she did, so good for her. Now let's see how she handles the actual tournament.

Dave

[SKrinsky]

The one good thing that can be said about Wie now is that she's quiet. Such a long string of bad results has even the hype-meisters clamming up. She's in the field at the LPGA event this week and nobody noticed. T36 heading into the final round.

[DaveT319]

The one good thing that can be said about Wie now is that she's quiet. Such a long string of bad results has even the hype-meisters clamming up. She's in the field at the LPGA event this week and nobody noticed. T36 heading into the final round.

And that's how it should be until she does something worthy of the attention.

Dave

[gwlee7]

At +7 through 11 holes in the first round of the U. S. Open, the silence should be deafening.

[SKrinsky]

At +7 through 11 holes in the first round of the U. S. Open, the silence should be deafening.

A 9 on a par 4, ouch. I like the scores so far, they're all over the map. -6 is leading and several at +6 or better. That's usually the sign of a fair setup, you can make birdies with good shots and get hammered for bad ones.

[SKrinsky]

Quick poll. Is Michelle going to come back tomorrow morning and finish her last hole or is she going to suffer a mysterious wrist relapse overnight and be on her way home before before sunrise?

[DaveT319]

I think she'll WD, citing recurring prima donna syndrome.

Dave

[SKrinsky]

I think she'll WD, citing recurring prima donna syndrome.

Dave

I'd vote for the WD too. She's about 130th and the only hole she has left to play is the one she made the 9 on yesterday. I just don't think she has it in her to trot out there at 7am and finish with class.

[DaveTheDuffer]

I'd vote for the WD too. She's about 130th and the only hole she has left to play is the one she made the 9 on yesterday. I just don't think she has it in her to trot out there at 7am and finish with class.

She apparently did - although I don't know about class.  A rather pedestrian article on her this morning in the New York Times:

After a Lost Season, Wie Tries to Rebuild Her Game and Her Fame

EDINA, Minn. — Her future once seemed limitless, her path to the pinnacle of women’s golf inevitable. The question was not whether Michelle Wie would win a U.S. Women’s Open or an L.P.G.A. Championship; it was when she would win on the PGA Tour.  She seemed to welcome, even encourage the burden accompanying such expectations. On CBS’s “60 Minutes,” she said she was interested in being the first woman to play in the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, which has no women as members. “I think it’d be pretty neat walking down the Masters fairways,” she said then. “But I think the
green jacket’s a little bit out of fashion, you know?”

The 14-year-old girl who said that is 18 now, a second-year student at Stanford and a professional golfer who has already banked more than $30 million — almost all of it from endorsements.  At 6:45 a.m. Saturday she was on the ninth tee at Interlachen Country Club. She had come back at sunrise to complete the one hole remaining in her second round at the Open. She stood at 10 over par and would miss the cut by six strokes.  Just two years ago, things were different. Wie finished in the top five in the first three majors of the year. She came closer than any woman has to qualifying for
the men’s U.S. Open, creating an enormous stir at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, N.J., before fading to a tie for 59th. On a roll that began in 2004, she would finish in the top 25 in 10 of her first 11 L.P.G.A. majors. In her last 99 holes at major championships, Wie is 34 over par. Comprising her last five major championship finishes are four missed cuts and a tie for 84th.  She has battled an injury to her wrist, a soap opera drama in her professional relationships with other L.P.G.A. players, and has gone through more caddies than most pros have drivers.

It would be easy to look to Wie’s lost 2007 season for answers. She was injured in a fall while running in January, hurting her right wrist, then fractured her left wrist in February while breaking a fall — and protecting her sore right wrist.  What ensued was a series of fits and starts that included bruised feelings between Wie and the L.P.G.A. legend Annika Sorenstam, the host of the Ginn Tribute, over Wie’s abrupt withdrawal from that event in May, and outrage from other players for what followed.  Wie pulled out of the event during the first round when she was 14 over par through 16 holes. The withdrawal raised red flags. She was in danger of shooting 88, a number that would have disqualified her from L.P.G.A. events for the remainder of the season.  That might have been overlooked had Wie not been spotted two days later hitting balls on the range at Bulle Rock Golf Course in Havre de Grace, Md., site of the next week’s L.P.G.A. Championship.

The reality now is that Wie is behind in her development as a world-class golfer. As she tries to rebuild her game, people whom she competed against as a youngster, like 19-year-old Yani Tseng, who won the L.P.G.A. Championship three weeks ago, and Morgan Pressel, who won the Kraft Nabisco at 19, have won major championships.  Wie now must think about how she will earn playing privileges.  She has earned just $21,457 on tour this year and has just three
exemptions left. The L.P.G.A. exempts the top 80 players on the money list, and to get there she will have to win a tournament or earn another $100,000 or so with some decent finishes.  She is calling this year a “work in progress.” Much progress is needed, not exactly the situation Michelle Wie or anyone else anticipated.

LARRY DORMAN

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

I didn't realize Michelle had hurt one wrist and then broke the other. Probably makes coming back a lot tougher and may prevent her from being the player she could have been. I wonder - if you break your wrist is it ever as strong and pain free as it was?

Make no mistake about it Michelle Wie has earned every exemption she has recieved - through her performance. The rules are rules and sponsors can choose who ever they want. Sponsors ultimately choose players based upon performance. Performance gets translated into popularity into a money draw hence if a sponsor invites a player at some point the performance was there. It absolutely matters not whether or not the performance was yesterday or a year ago. Michelle Wie's 30 million dollars says so. If you don't like that - look in the mirror - fans create - the popularity - sponsors cash in - as long as possible.

I wish her well and look forward to a comeback. Oh an she did play 9.

-Ed-

[SBR67]

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3477131

Wie granted sponsor's exemption for Canadian Women's Open

Michelle Wie has been given a sponsor's exemption to play in the $2.25 million Canadian Women's Open, the Royal Canadian Golf Association said.

Wie, who played last year at Royal Mayfair in Edmonton, was added to an already strong field for the Aug. 14-17 event at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.

"Michelle's global notoriety will no doubt attract a following at Ottawa Hunt and I'm sure golf fans will offer her a tremendous welcome as she challenges the world's best players," tournament director Sean Van Kesteren said in a statement.

The tournament field includes stars like Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Paula Creamer and Meg Mallon, as well as Canadians Lorie Kane, Dawn Coe Jones and Alena Sharp.

[DaveT319]

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3477131

Wie granted sponsor's exemption for Canadian Women's Open

Michelle Wie has been given a sponsor's exemption to play in the $2.25 million Canadian Women's Open, the Royal Canadian Golf Association said.

Wie, who played last year at Royal Mayfair in Edmonton, was added to an already strong field for the Aug. 14-17 event at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.

"Michelle's global infamy will no doubt attract a following at Ottawa Hunt and I'm sure golf fans will offer her a tremendous welcome as she challenges the world's best players," tournament director Sean Van Kesteren said in a statement.

The tournament field includes stars like Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Paula Creamer and Meg Mallon, as well as Canadians Lorie Kane, Dawn Coe Jones and Alena Sharp.

Fixed it for them.

Dave

[jsfain]

No one want to notice that Michelle shot a 67 yesterday? Includes a 2 on a par 4. Corner turned? We shall see, but good round for her.