Michelle Wie back on PGA tour this week
Michelle Wie returns to the John Deere Classic this week in Silvis, Illinois. Last year, she missed the cut by 2 strokes. What will this year hold? More disappointment? Or play on Sunday?
At least the 16-year old Michelle knows where to find the ice cream in town. "Whitey’s Ice Cream, for sure. Particularly the ice cream pie with fudge, caramel and nuts.’’ (More here)
12 Comments:
This Wie-whining is a flashback to when Tiger hit the PGA Tour.
"B Game" references and a perceived elitist attitude have been, in both cases, interpreted by fellow players (and some of the media) negatively.
Cut the kid a break. SHE'S 16! Just maybe could it be shyness and immaturity?
Tiger went through the same learning curve.
What will the weekend hold for Michelle Wie? Let me think. Oh I've got it...she'll be watching the final two rounds on TV! She won't make the cut. I feel confident in predicting that she'll flirt with making the cut through most of her round, but she'll blow it on the final few holes like she's always done. This is getting to be a pattern for her (incidentally she seems to do the same thing on the LPGA Tour but in the final round).
I'll watch the men playing in the Scottish Open instead.
I am NOT going to setup Tivo to record the weekend rounds. I have done it too many times when Michelle was in the field and ended up not watching to do it again. Now I am sure she will make the cut just to smite me.
Plus, there is a chance I may be playing a round Sunday morning where the Pub Links is being played this week with the finals on Saturday. Waiting to hear if there is a spot open.
Also... just read a column by Bob Harig where he mentioned Michelle topped the driving distance list at the Women's US Open with an average of 264.9. He then says "the figure of 264.9 yards would put her well behind most of the men she'll compete against this week" Well if you look at the PGA Tour driving stats, 264.9 puts you ahead of just 1 player, Corey Pavin, who is 193rd and dead last on the list.
This circus with Michelle Wie playing against the men is played out. She won't make the cut, we all know that. The only reason she's there is because the field at the John Deere Classic is weak with all the top players getting ready for the Open next week. So she's there for ratings. I accept that the sponsor wants to drum up interest in the event by having her there. Fine, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that she has any chance of contending (I would argue that she has virtually no chance of actually making the cut!). But let's not convince ourselves that she's there for anything more than to generate ratings.
Face it Michelle, you've become, excuse the term, the equivalent of a "circus freak." You can be so much more than that. Just stop playing in the men's events and focus on improving your game to dominate the LPGA Tour.
Re: Andrew's dad / MW As short hitter / Corey Pavin
Better comparisons of MW's distance compared to the PGA tour are available:
http://www.golfweb.com/story/8105526
2005 Sony Open: MW 267.5, field 275.3.
I've looked at these numbers before and MW tends to come in somewhere around the middle of the pack in terms of PGA tour driving distance.
Ernie Els has stated that she has the length to play on the PGA tour.
I don't think 'Bob Harig' is making a solid case comparing MW's distance on a soaking wet course in a single tournament to the PGA tour driving distance list. As a software engineer I'm surprised you didn't catch the weakness in that argument!
I have to agree with SirSpangler on that last point. The course was soaked, and played nothing like its usual setup with running hard fairways. Even interviews with the groundskeeper before the tournament confirmed that the course would not play as usual. In addition, they showed Tiger when he won his amateur there, with a dust cloud appearing as his ball hit the greens.
A better comparison would be to take any PGA tournament Wie has played on and comparing her distance to the field.
While I forgot about the wet conditions, and lets not forget wind, which can be a factor, there is also a factor that the PGA fairways tend to be narrower than LPGA and therefore harder to hit and therefore a player is less likely to bomb away. Also, if you look at all of the official stats for M.W. from last year, which there are not many, she never did average over 270 yards in the handfull of tournies where I could find stats. In fact I could not find a single drive from last year that was 270 or more. I know she was in the low to mid 250s at last years US Open and was in the 260s at both the PGA events where she played. So I think the 264 number is probably not that unrealistic as to the kind of distance she really gets.
All this being said, there is such little officialy driving data, for her, since she is not an LPGA member, that specific courses and conditions could make that number fluctuate 10 or more yards. I wish the LPGA gave driving yardage for each tourney but last I checked, that was not the case.
While 260s is enough length to play, hitting approaches from 20 yards or more behind the average player is going to be a huge disadvantage, especially if she finds the rough and does not have the same strength as the guys to spin the ball.
Got my Sunday morning tee time at Gold Mountain. Woo Hoo!
Michelle Wie isn’t marketed for or to the average golfer.
She’s there to promote the sport to the general public, many who don’t know anything about golf.
The populace cannot recall the names of top golfers but they can remember the names of two good-looking young athletes like Wood and Wie.
She’s doing her job. She’s promoting the sport. And she’s in a great position to learn how to compete.
Never did make my prediction.... either she posts a big number on Thursday, 75-78, but then posts a decent number, 68-70, on Friday to miss the cut by about 5 or she posts a decent number on Thursday but stumbles home on the back 9 on Friday to miss by 2 or 3.
My prediction...
I can't remember when Wie last blew up a tournament aka tiger at the US Open. so I'm going with the explosion, missing the cut by a wide range and providing visions of Duval last year.
I don't want her to, but it is my prediction.
I love those comments about how she's an ambassador to the game, and that she's learning to win. Poppycock! Anyone who's EVER shot a low round of golf knows exactly how hard it is to duplicate week in and week out. Wie doesn't play against her peers because she doesn't have to because we let her, and because she's NOT a real competitor. There was an article a few weeks back on Yahoo Sports where the guy actually said that Michelle Wie is certainly more accomplished at this point in her career than Tiger was at the same age!! Forget Tiger, cause she's obviously never going to be in his class (at 16 Tiger he was on his way to his 4th of 6 straight National Championships), what about Juli Inkster? Anyone remember her three US Amateurs? We disgrace all of these greats players when we allow the media and ourselves to make these statements. Stop saying her age! Start saying her wins!
Common guys, Are u that jealous of Michelle Wie!!! Sure, she hasn't won yet, but she has five (5) straight top five finishes in her last five Women's majors. No other women in the world has accomplished that feat in recent time--not even the great Annika Sorenstam. She may not have won, but she has come closer to winning these majors than 98% of the women on tour. And please remember that she is not competing in a bunch of regular LPGA events with just any LPGA players, she is competing in only majors in women's events against the best women players in the world. And guess what, she beats most of these Finest players in women's golf accept for 3 or 4 players. The event this weekend offers proof. in the Evian Masters, she is in clear 2nd, only one stroke behind Webb and 4 strokes ahead of Sorenstam with one round to go. Tiger never came close to these performances in his first years competing as an amateur on the PGA Tour. In his first PGA event at age 16, he missed the cut by 6 strokes, while in 2004, michelle, in her first PGA event at age 14 (the Sony Open) sht 72-68 to miss the cut by only one stroke. Think of that, a girl 2 years younger than tiger woods scored better in her first PGA event then Tiger. Also remember, she was the youngest male or female to win a USGA Adult event when at age 13 she won the 2003 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship. And in 2005 she was the first female to ever qualify for the USGA Public Links Amateur Championship (not women's) where she reached the quarter finals in match play against an otherwise all male field. OooooH' Wowwwwwww!!! She hasn't won anything????? Show me the record of any male who has acomplished what Wie has accomplished at her age. You won't find any!! Go Michelle!!!
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