wie, growing pains
Michelle Wie missed the cut, by a lot, shooting 9 over par for the 2 days. Even though Michelle did tie or beat 16 male PGA golfers (including the highly touted youngster Kevin Na), this year must have been a huge disappointment for the precocious 15 year old year. Last year, she shot 1 over par and missed the cut by only 1 stroke. This year, in more difficult conditions, she could never get anything going. I watched her round yesterday: it was not pretty. Hole after hole, you could see the frustration on Michelle's face as she could never find the range, putting on the beguiling bermuda greens.
I'm a huge fan of the Big Wiesy, but I'm getting a little uneasy that, maybe, the expectations are getting just too high, too soon. All the strain of the tournament reportedly left Michelle in tears by the end of the round, needing consolation from her mother. Not even Tiger had this kind of media attention and expectations so early in his career. It showed in Michelle's demeanor, and her play. After the round, Michelle admitted: "I think I tried too hard. After missing the cut by one last year, I think I took for granted I would play better. Last year, everything went too easily."
Everyone (including Michelle) needs to let her be a teenager and have fun playing golf. The PGA can wait.
UPDATE: Michelle says she wants to play Sony again next year, and Ernie thinks she should. Both Leadbetter students, Els is a pretty vocal defender of Wie: "Look, let's put this in perspective," Els said. "She's 15 years old. She's a girl. She's playing on the PGA Tour. Tiger Woods, I don't think he ever made a cut on tour except maybe in the Masters."
3 Comments:
Mulligan, I agree with your last comment: "Everyone (including Michelle) needs to let her be a teenager and have fun playing golf. The PGA can wait." BUT, Michelle has already broken through the bubble of being a high schooler and setting goals that are so high, that rejection and disappointment will occur unless she reaches the level of Tiger and Jack.
Personally, I think that Wie should continue to play in Amateur Tournaments until she dominates those, and then progress. The so called "Tiger" method. I think that Wie is going to be awesome, but we might have to wait until she's 20-25 until she does something amazing at this pace.
Can anyone say Ty Tryon??
I forgot about Tryon. Yeah, that's always a possibility. Michelle seems so physically gifted that I think it would be harder for her to disappear than it was for Ty.
I agree with your other comments, Jason. If I were her parents or coach, I'd shut down the whole PGA pursuit for a couple years and decrease the number of LPGA events as well. The Tiger plan (dominate amateurs) worked. It's a good model to follow.
Once again, another amateur whose parents are too stupid to know when to say when. I think the tournaments who exempt her are to blame as well. She has a lot of promise and seems to set her expectations way too high. You can have all of the physical ability and shotmaking capability in the world, but without the mental piece of the game you might as well hang it up. I agree with both of you on taking it slow and moving up through the amateur ranks, gaining experience (and hopefully wins) along the way.
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