Michelle Wie Comes Agonizingly Close To Qualifying For US Open
- Thread starter AAAintheBeltway
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Anybody here ever play Canoe Brook, From the tips it is brutal. The par 3's are a bitch. Back in 1999, I played in a Wall Street charity event there, it took about 6 hours! I played in a group behind Joe Kernan And David Faber.. All anyone asked Kernan was whether or not David Faber was gay! On every back up on the tee, there were 2 or 3 groups stacked up, and every question was Faber was gay or not! unreal, but those were the days back then
Wow, I think it's a little early to start wondering about her nerves - she is, after all, 16 years old!!. Her nerves are holding up pretty well on her approach shots.
Hey, there's no guarantee that Wie will ever do anything significant in golf, either men's or women's. The fact is that she's a phenom. I heard an interview with Paul Azinger today and he said that she is the second biggest draw... in men's golf. The Tour is a business.
Regarding this suggestion that since men aren't allowed to play in the LPGA events, allowing Wie to play in the men's events is some sort of double standard... please. This is PC at it's worst, IMO. Women's bodies don't have the muscle mass (on average) that males have. Women cannot hit the ball as far as men (on average, but we have an interesting exception in Wie). Males would have an unfair advantage in the LPGA by virtue of their genetically determined muscle mass. Women do not have a comparable advantage on men in terms of physical ability. The exception proves the rule, right? Hayley Wickenheiser played on a men's professional hockey team in Finland, but we didn't hear anyone complaining that men weren't being allowed to try out for the women's teams. That would be absurd, wouldn't it?
Bottom line is this - none of us would have much to say if we had the chance to watch her hit balls for a while. I don't think that anyone here would be questioning her right to play on any tour she wants after an hour of that.
From what I've seen, her putting problems are not so much her stroke as reading greens. Give her more experience and she should be fine. Possibly she has some psychological issues going on about actually winning or making the cut in a men's event, but let her close the deal a couple of times and I think those go away. Then, watch out.
Michelle Wie finished a 4 way time for 3rd at the LPGA championship this week.
Michelle has a goal of playing on the men's tour.
Some wonder why.
Look at the prize money for the women's LPGA here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=2480246
Then compare the money to the golfers in this weeks minor golf championship, Barclays classic:
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/features/event?matchId=268
Third place on a unimportant men's tournament payed nearly 5 times as much as the women's major championship, the LPGA championship.
Michelle is working hard for the money (not to mention a big piece of the endorsement pie).
Michelle has a goal of playing on the men's tour.
Some wonder why.
Look at the prize money for the women's LPGA here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=2480246
Then compare the money to the golfers in this weeks minor golf championship, Barclays classic:
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/features/event?matchId=268
Third place on a unimportant men's tournament payed nearly 5 times as much as the women's major championship, the LPGA championship.
Michelle is working hard for the money (not to mention a big piece of the endorsement pie).
At age 16 and with zero LPGA victories, she is already too big for that tour. She has assumed superstar status, that territory where a last name is redundant. Every golf fan, and virtually every sports fan, instantly knows who "Michelle" is. She already has the biggest endorsement income of any female golfer and oneof the biggest in all of golf. And whne she makes a cut in a PGA event, it will only get bigger. What if she qualifies for the British Open? Think that would be a big deal in Korea and Japan?
Will she ever win a PGA event? Probably not, but you can't rule it out. She has the one thing most aspiring women do not, enough length. She doesn't have the short game, yet. Which is why she finds winning on the LPGA difficult. Their courses are set up to showcase short game skill, not power. Does anyone doubt if you put last week's LPGA field on a course set up for a PGA event that Wie would lap the field? I don't.
Will she ever win a PGA event? Probably not, but you can't rule it out. She has the one thing most aspiring women do not, enough length. She doesn't have the short game, yet. Which is why she finds winning on the LPGA difficult. Their courses are set up to showcase short game skill, not power. Does anyone doubt if you put last week's LPGA field on a course set up for a PGA event that Wie would lap the field? I don't.
Magna
Administrator
Agree, she has assumed superstar status, being the 2nd most recognizable and popular golfer in the world behind Tiger Woods. And, yes, her endorsement numbers already lap the womens field and a good portion of the mens, so she's not concerned about tour event purse sizes, or the fact that the womens $$$ numbers are much smaller than the mens.
This year she already announced that she won't be attempting to qualify for the mens British Open, but who knows next year. As to her short game, from what I've seen her iron play is generally excellent, but the flat stick continues to be her nemesis. In the just concluded LPGA Championship she missed a number of very short putts including an embarrassing one from a meager 18 inches. If and when she gets her putting regimen down her game will be formidable. Right now, whether it's nerves or poor mechanics, her putting is definitely holding her back in both the LPGA and the PGA.
This year she already announced that she won't be attempting to qualify for the mens British Open, but who knows next year. As to her short game, from what I've seen her iron play is generally excellent, but the flat stick continues to be her nemesis. In the just concluded LPGA Championship she missed a number of very short putts including an embarrassing one from a meager 18 inches. If and when she gets her putting regimen down her game will be formidable. Right now, whether it's nerves or poor mechanics, her putting is definitely holding her back in both the LPGA and the PGA.
Magna,
Agree. You know, if I were her coach I don't think I would harp on putting too much. The last thing she needs is to go mental about it. To be a great putter, you have to be prepared to miss the odd tap in. Otherwise, you will start trying to steer the ball. I think her stroke is fine. Maybe her concentration or greenreading lapses at times. Sooner or later she puts it all together and wins a women's event by 15 strokes.
Agree. You know, if I were her coach I don't think I would harp on putting too much. The last thing she needs is to go mental about it. To be a great putter, you have to be prepared to miss the odd tap in. Otherwise, you will start trying to steer the ball. I think her stroke is fine. Maybe her concentration or greenreading lapses at times. Sooner or later she puts it all together and wins a women's event by 15 strokes.
Magna
Administrator
As putting is mostly mental, I agree a coach shouldn't harp on it but at the same time there's too much inconsistency in her regimen as I mentioned earlier. Interesting observation in the St. Petersburg Times regarding same:
"One thing Wie will have to learn is to settle on a routine. From one putt to the next, Wie rarely got into a groove. Sometimes she putted without a practice stroke. Other times she took three or four. Sometimes she went quickly, at others she took her time."
[LATER EDIT: btw Z10 she tied for 5th, not 3rd]
Currently she's the Anna Kornukova of golf only not as pretty, IMHO.
Makes bank, hasn't won squat. When she learns to win, and that's the hard part, she'll be fine.
Tiger took the best path by winning everything under the sun in amatuer ranks. That is directly relevant to what has occurred on the pro tour. He's been through the fires before and it's no big deal to him to make pressure shots and putts. Wie hasn't even come close to that level of play. Had Wie taken the same path as Tiger, I have NO DOUBT she'd have been a multiple time winner on the LPGA tour.
Just my two cents
Makes bank, hasn't won squat. When she learns to win, and that's the hard part, she'll be fine.
Tiger took the best path by winning everything under the sun in amatuer ranks. That is directly relevant to what has occurred on the pro tour. He's been through the fires before and it's no big deal to him to make pressure shots and putts. Wie hasn't even come close to that level of play. Had Wie taken the same path as Tiger, I have NO DOUBT she'd have been a multiple time winner on the LPGA tour.
Just my two cents