Wie bogeys final 2 to miss cut by 1 at men's Casio Open
Michelle Wie almost made the cut again at a men's pro tournament, but she suffered back to back bogeys coming in on the final 2 holes. That left her one above the cut line, having shot rounds of 73 and 75 at the Casio Open in Japan. (More here.) Don't worry about Michelle, though, she did pick up $1 plus million in appearance money.
UPDATE: ESPN's Eric Adelson has this excellent report from Japan. In it, he explains Michelle's Achilles heel: her putting. In Japan, she three putted too often to make the cut. "Asking how good Wie would be if she putted like Tiger is like asking how good Shaq would be if he made his free throws."
Growing up in Hawaii playing on bermuda greens has been a disadvantage for Wie. "Leadbetter says Wie may eventually live in Florida, in part so she can get more practice on different surfaces. Whatever the cause, she never looked comfortable on the slippery greens in Japan, and even short putts turned into white-knucklers."
9 Comments:
Am I the only one that is seeing a pattern here? 82 in the final round of the US Open after starting the round T1. Going double bogey, bogey with 4 holes to play @ JDC to miss the cut by 2, finishing bogey, bogey to miss the cut by 1 @ Casio.
That "she needs to learn how to win" arguement is looking more and more credible.
Learning how to win? I don't think that's too relevant here. Let's put things into perspective: Michelle is a 16 year old girl playing with a hundred or so pro male golfers. She's just trying to make the cut. I'd agree with Andrewsdad if we're talking about Michelle "learning how to overcome her fears." But I think she can do that by playing more regularly against the men. She doesn't need to win a bunch of tourneys against 16 year olds to get better. She needs to play more and more against the men. She's only a kid, remember.
Just trying to make the cut??? Not according to her..."Hopefully, I'll be able to put together four good rounds under par here, and my goal is to win the tournament," said Wie
http://www.pga.com/news/tours/european/casio112205.cfm?rss When you make statements like that, you need to be able to back them up or take the heat when you do not.
Let me clarify... maybe "learning to win" was not the most accurate phrase I could have used. To me, making the cut should have been the goal and I am somewhat surprised she did not do that. She is now something like 0-6 in making the cut in open events. At some point the public is going to start questioning her decisions on what events to play. She wants to play in the Masters and tries to qualify for the US Open and has stated she is interested in qualifying for the British Open but can not make the cut on an Asian Tour event or win an LPGA event. I would argue that she should spend more time playing against her peers, which right now are LPGA players. I think she should cherry pick some events where the course and maybe a lesser field would give her a better chance of winning. Get a couple of W's under the belt first and then try to step to the next level.
What bothers me is she seems to have a habit of folding when the pressure is on. As I mentioned, the 82 in the US Open, the JDC collapse, the bogey, bogey finish @ Casio. Its not so much that she has not won (or made an open cut) its how she is not doing it. More than once she has been in great position but so far she has not shown she can close the deal. If Tiger or Annika were inside the cut line with a few holes to go or T1 in a major, we would all be surprised if they did what Michelle is making a habit of doing.
Finally I have a problem with all of those who say, you go girl, she should be playing against the men in open tournies and then when she does not get it done, everyone responds with "she is just a 16 year old girl, give her a break". Well you can not have it both ways, if you think she deserves to play an open event because she is good enough then dont use the she is just a girl excuse when she does not perform. These are open events, its survival of the fittest and so far she has not shown that she belongs in open events. The cut is the way the tourney says, "sorry, that was not good enough, please go home." I do not have a problem with her taking sponsors exemptions, I am just more than a little tired of setting Tivo to record the weekend rounds of a tournie I would otherwise not watch and then not having a reason to watch it.
Andrewsdad raises some legitimate questions, but I think Andrewsdad may be expecting too much too soon from Michelle Wie. The standard Wie should be compared to is not Tiger Woods or Annika Sorenstam today. The standard should be a 16 year old phenom trying to break through. She needs time.
Let me throw out a comparison: Phil Mickelson was 22 years old when turned pro in 1992. During that year, Phil missed 6 straight cuts. He had no wins at all. His best finish was 2nd at the New England Classic, a tourney with a "lesser field." Phil would not win a major championship for the next 12 years (although of course he went on to win 20+ tourneys). Many people called Phil a "choker" in the majors.
So what does it mean that Phil Mickelson missed 8+ cuts in his first full year on the PGA tour? What does it mean that he never won a major for 12 more years?
Well, today, it means absolutely nothing. You've got to give Michelle Wie more time to develop. Just think if she were your daughter.
I do not see how I am the one expecting too much too soon from Michelle Wie. If anything I am on the opposite end of that scale, sadly I no longer expect her to make an open cut or to even be in contention during an LPGA event. I am almost to the point of watching to see what she does this time to take herself out of contention. I am not the one putting her in PGA and other Open events and telling her to say she expects to win when she so far has not made a cut and realistically has almost zero chance of contending, that's Team Wie doing that, not me. I am the one saying she should pull back and play the lesser events and gets some wins.
Now what I think is really happening is Team Wie is putting the available cash on the table as priority #1 and her golf performance as priority #2, which makes us, the golf fan, the big loser. Do I blame them for that? Not really, economically, its probably the smart play although I would have thought that if they put golf #1 then the cash would more than take care of itself as clearly she has the most potential out there. She just needs to figure out how to turn that potential into performance.
Now on Mickelson.... not sure how that is a good comparison, Wie played limited Am events, winning just one, and Mickelson went the traditional Am and college golf route winning the US Am title amongst others. The year before he turned pro, he won a PGA event, his 6th open event he ever played, the last time an Am won a PGA event. Wie is 0-25 in LPGA events, 0-6 in Open events. Phil in fact made the cut at the US Open, the Masters and the British Open, all as an AM along with making 7 of 8 cuts in open events that year. The big difference though is that Wie has yet to win anything against her peers for the last two and a half years but is still entering events above her peers level, saying she is there to win, now taking appearance money and missing the cut.
Obviously nobody can predict what will happen in the future and 30 years from now we may look back and remember Michelle Wie as the greatest female athelete of all time or we may see her as all media hype. All I know right now is if I were to put her media hype on one side and weigh that against her performance, right now, today, media hype appears to be ahead in that race.
OK, if you really no longer expect Michelle Wie to contend or make a cut, just let her play. Why be "sad" about it?
The Mickelson comparison seems more apt than you think. You are right Lefty had a storied amateur career -- but that's exactly my point. That storied amateur career didn't keep Phil from facing a rough start in his 1st year as a pro and for the next 12 years in majors. When you criticize Michelle for being 0-6 in men's cuts, someone could have said the same thing about Mickelson in 1992. When you say that Michelle collapsed at the US Women's open, someone could have said the same thing about Mickelson for all those 12 years when he went 0-48 in majors.
I'm not defending Team Wie's current strategy, but I think we all need to cut her some slack. No women was made a cut at a men's event in over 50 years.
I did not say I was sad, I said sadly I no longer expect much out of her. Now I should be sad because it is the end of the golf year and I saw Michelle Wie in contention for a title a grand total of zero times this year. I saw her successfully execute zero crucial shots with something on the line during the year. I was anticipating a years worth of Annika vs. Michelle fighting it out to the finish to see who was the best and got a total of zero, nada, nothing from the Michelle half of that equation. I saw a ton of media on her, heard her and the TV talking heads talk a good game, just did not see her back it up on the course.
I am a big fan of quality golf. That is why I am a big fan of Sorenstam. I want to see the best players playing their best fighting it out at the end. Annika may not have a flashy game but it sure gets the job done. On the other hand I do not want to see her make a double on 18 to still win by 8, that’s not fun to watch. I was discussing the ADT Championship the other day with someone and we both agreed that Annika did not play all that well, specifically her wedges and putting but still won by two. I was hoping Wie would step up and force Annika to find another gear. I was too young to see Palmer vs. Nicklaus. Was hoping this year would be the start of a female version of that. Guess not.
The Mickelson situation is apples and oranges. A better analogy would be a minor league baseball pitcher who has yet to record a win wanting to pitch in the majors. So lets continue to use Phil as the example… if you remember, he had a tryout with the Toledo Mud Hens but his “fastball” was clocked at about 68mph. He was not given a 1 game contract to play. Last I checked Phil has not attempted to pitch in the majors since then.
Now for the record, I do not think I have criticized Wie for going 0-6 in open events, I have stated that when she is in position to win or make the cut in open events, she somehow manages to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. Others have called it choking, I have not. There is a difference between getting beat and losing. Clearly in the JDC and Casio events, she was not beat, in both events she was inside the cut line with a couple of holes to play and could not keep it together. In the US Open, nobody went low and hid, a round of even par 72 would have won the US Open for her but instead she posted the next to worst score of the entire field.
Now I am not an expert on Phil’s majors but I can not think of any times where he had a 4th round meltdown, where the tourney was his to lose and he could not keep it together but feel free to correct me, just do not mention the ’99 US Open, Payne Stewart beat him.
Now let me ask some questions… does anyone think this has been a successful year for Wie? Does anyone think that the path Team Wie went down, playing open events but not playing women’s am events has helped Wie? My answers are no to both for on the course results and yes for both in the bank account.
How can Michelle be serious competition for Annika when she can only play a limited number of LPGA events. You expect too much. Give her a break. If you have such a problem, ignore her and focus on Creamer and Pressel.
I do happen to think Wie had a good year. She clearly improved her record from the prior year. What better measure is there? She also provided lots of competition to Annika et. al. in the limited LPGA events she was allowed to play in, even in the US Open where she tied Annika.
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