Take a mulligan: why Wie should keep playing PGA events
To me, the question is very simple now: does Michelle Wie have the shots and capability to compete with men on the PGA tour? Anyone watching her play at the Sony on Friday would have to conclude yes.
The woman drives the ball 290+ yards on a regular basis, outdriving even her male playing partners. Tiger's coach Hank Haney compares Michelle's powerful swing to Tiger's. Michelle hit 7 birdies on a par-70 course with a PGA pro set-up in blustery and rainy conditions, and her Friday score of 68 bested over 100 PGA tour players, including World No. 2 Vijay Singh and a host of other big names (see here). The 68 is an alltime lowest round for a woman in a PGA event. Based on what I saw, the weakest part of Michelle's game is her short game around the green (followed by a somewhat inconsistent putter). She needs more practice in this area, but it's not going to help her much unless she gets that practice at the tougher PGA set-ups (as opposed to the LPGA set-ups).
I'm not suggesting that Michelle should be playing regularly on the PGA tour. But I am saying that her current approach to play a couple selective PGA events a year is a good strategy. Of course, some argue she needs more experience either in winning or playing on the LPGA tour with the women. Well, you forget she is doing that -- she'll be playing in more LPGA events this year than she ever has. But she also is playing with the men in a few tourneys. I think that makes a lot of sense.
Here's why: Making a PGA cut is easier (or the chances are greater) the more PGA tourneys you play, and the more PGA experience you get. Take Lucas Glover, for example. Before his first year on the PGA tour, he played in 7 PGA or USGA tourneys. He missed the cut in his first 4 events; made the cut in his last 3 events (T80, T40, T39). In his first full year on the PGA tour, Lucas missed 13 cuts, including strings of 3 and 5 consecutives tourneys missing the cut. He made more the cut in more tourneys total, however. Last year, his second year, Lucas had a "breakthrough" year with his first PGA victory. But, if you look at his record, he missed nearly the same amount of cuts, 12 total, including one stretch where he missed 5 straight cuts in a row. And, this year, Lucas placed 6th at Mercedes, but missed the cut at the Sony, finishing worse than Michelle Wie.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not picking on Lucas Glover. He's a very talented and promising young golfer. But, if you look at his record, I think it shows that it's fairly typical for young, promising golfers to go through stretches of missing cuts on the PGA tour. Glover missed his first 4 cuts in 2002. But I'm sure with each experience, he learned what it takes to make a PGA cut. Tiger notwithstanding, even the best golfers can miss a cut on the PGA tour because the competition is so great on any given week.
To put things into perspective, Michelle Wie has played only 5 male pro tourneys, and came close to making the cut on the back nine of Friday in 3 of the 5 tourneys. Michelle's "close to success" ratio is probably at or even better than what young, promising male golfers face when first playing on the PGA tour (using Lucas Glover as an example). Even after shooting a 79 on Thursday this year, Michelle showed determination on Friday to make the cut. Next time around, she'll have that PGA experience to draw from.
Bottom line: It won't be any easier for Michelle Wie to make a PGA cut if she played the LPGA tour exclusively. Isn't that what Annika Sorenstam did already, and look how hard it still was for Annika. What Michelle Wie needs is what all young, promising golfers need when trying to make it on the PGA tour: more PGA tourneys and more PGA experience. For Michelle, a few PGA events a year can only help her achieve her goal.
7 Comments:
Correction... she is 0 for 7 in open events, 1 Canadian, 1 Nationwide, 1 Asian and 4 PGA ( 3 Sony and 1 JDC).
Just so we are clear. I dont care if she plays PGA events or not and I even think she should get an exemption @ the Sony Open. That just makes sense for a number of reasons. I just do not think the path she choose, or more likely was chosen for her, playing in open events when she was eligible to play AM events was the best path for her to get the most out of her talent, and by that I mean win early and often, over the long term. And just so we are clear, I do not think she will ever play the PGA tour on a regular basis meaning I do not think she will ever earn a card or earn any sort of status. Just my opinion. Yours may vary.
Now you are correct that she had one great round. She also had one really bad round. The PGA tour does not let you ignore the bad rounds. When you add them both together, the final result was still another missed cut. I told a friend after the Thursday round that now the pressure to make the cut was off, she should be able to post a good score. Those two rounds reinforced what I have always said about her, when the pressure is off, she can go low but when the pressure is on and she just needs to make pars to make an open cut, (JDC, Asia) or win a tourney, (US Open) she has a hard time keeping it together. How many times have we seen her shoot a low final round to finish high up in the standings but was never in contention?
This of course is an argument that will never be settled. Regardless of if Michelle Wie wins 90% of all future tournaments she enters or never wins a single pro event. We will never know how she would have done if she had taken the other path just as we do not know how Tiger would have done if he had skipped the AMs and instead of winning 6 straight national AMs and played college golf, had played Open events instead. Maybe he would already have eclipsed Jack's major record. I personally doubt it but I guess its possible.
All I know for a fact is the best of the best had dominating AM careers and the two dominate players today, Sorenstam and Woods, both won numerous AM events and had very successful college golf careers and the most successful example I can think of that took the Michelle Wie route is Ty Tryon.
adad,
i agree with your interpretation. i wanted to add that psychologically playing with the men can help, but michelle has the tenacity of a danty princess, while somebody like m.pressel wants to (literally) punch her in the face and take the trophy just like "shooter" mcgavin (happy gilmore).
watch any of the ams, i am not convinced that she would have made any of the comebacks or have the mental discipline even comparable to a woods.
the ty tryon comment makes me smile. thanks for that comparison. i agree.
until i see some mental tenacity of even a m.pressel in wie...i am not convinced. physical tools can make it easier, but still doesnt put your name on top of the board.
somebody needs to break michelle wie now, so she can become stronger tommorrow.
thanks for your time.
-jarrod
jj jj jj, dude, someone did break michelle wie on the PGA tour. did you see the look on her face when she was +11 for the tourney?? if a computer could measure "despair" from the TV, michelle wie would have rated 100% despair at the time.
To say that MW has the tenacity of a "dainty princess" is way offbase, given the fight she showed to shoot 68. if anything, that sounds more like princess leia. (http://www.answers.com/topic/princess-leia)
I am a female golfer who enjoys competing against men more than women. To Andrewsdad I would ask: Are you jealous of a teenage girl who has the tools to compete against grown men? Let her choose her own path to her success, if it isn't the right choice then she will figure that out on her own. I think she is a great role model for all young women who believe they can and should be able to compete against the best male or female competitors, if in doing so she should win, then I guess she should be congratulated for sticking to her guns and following her heart!
Two comments:
Had Wie decided to stay amateur, play in more amatuer events to possibly get experience winning, and play less professional events, she never would have been able to capitalize on the media show she has created and become the highest paid female golfer. It just makes economic sense. Bird in the hand...
And yes, this goes against the nature of the game to take money over your love of the game, but remember that professional golf is an occupation, and not a hobby.
Second point: because she is limited in the number of LPGA events she can attend, and can no longer compete as an amateur, doesn't it make sense to play in as many men's events as she can get invited to? Sure, she may have little chance of making a cut, but getting as much tournament experience as possible is a necessity until she reaches the age where she can playon the LPGA Tour for a full schedule.
No arguments from me on those two points Power Fade. 1 question for you though... do you agree with my logic that she turned pro when she did, maybe earlier than she would have liked, because Creamer and Pressel were walking off with trophies and Wie was no longer THE up and coming young player but was now ONE OF THE up and coming young players and if she continues to not win LPGA events and / or miss open cuts, that 10 million eventually becomes 8 or 6 million?
I think Team Wie optimized the bank account at the expense of golf trophies, which maybe fine in her book but is not how I, as a fan, would have preferred it to play out.
As far as being limited in the number of events she can play, I would think there are plenty of events available to her, both open and female, including lesser open events such as Nationwide, Canadian, Hooter tour etc. I am not 100& sure but I do not think those would count against any exemption limit.
Perhaps Wie should try qualifying for her PGA spots. I do not have a problem with women playing on the men's tour. Assuming they have earned their position like the majority of the men do (through years of hard work in most cases), but having a 16 year old girl with absolutely no credability other then media hype, endorsements and sponsorships takes something away from the game. This also raises the question of why can't the last man to not make their PGA card be able to go play in the LPGA.
What has Wie done to deserve these PGA spots. Top five in most of her LPGA apperances (don't know the exact number). If this is the case then shouldn't players like Ochoa, Inkster etc (Annika probably continues to get offers)get their shot first if simply placing in the top five is the criteria for selection.
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