Dear Michelle Wie: practice
After a 5-over round in which she failed to convert a number of makeable birdie opportunities, Michelle Wie needs to regroup. In fact, she was the only player among the 138 players who failed to card a single birdie in her round. She currently is in 124th place.
Looking at Michelle's Round 1 statistics, it's quite obvious what is the biggest weakness of her game: putting. 34 putts yesterday is 10 more putts than the best PGA player struck yesterday, and is a number so large that it doesn't even register in the 200 listings of PGA tour player averages. For the tournament, 34 putts was tied for the second to worst -- 4 PGA players had 35 putts. Time to change that balky Nike putter, or call in putting guru Stan Utley.
And, once this tournament is over (most likely, today), the Wie camp needs to regroup. Its strategy is not working. Michelle's weaknesses are being exposed every time she tees it up with the men, yet there's little sign that anything is being done to address those weaknesses. In fact, after a few close calls in making a PGA cut, Michelle seems to have gone in reverse. Next year, Michelle Wie should only play one PGA event, the Sony Open. It's played on the course she's most familiar with, has come the closest, and has the home court advantage. Getting an LPGA victory should be priority No.1.
7 Comments:
Quote: "While the 16-year-old Wie is among the longest hitters among the women, she outdrove only two others with her 259.3 yards average. That left her constantly facing long iron shots on the 7,550-yard Mystic Rock course, the third-longest on tour."
Those stats you list are misleading because they only count a couple of holes....4 I believe. The true numbers show her biggest weakness is lack of distance combined with poor putting. Never a good combination.
Wie's average driving distance for the 1st round was 274.6 yards, ranking 95th among the 138 golfers. Distance is not her problem. And she beat John Daly scorewise yesterday.
Well, maybe someone will give her a trophy for each PGA player she beats. Maybe a new stat? Forget about making the cut, how many tour players did I beat?
Amateurs have beaten pros ... seniors have beaten kids ... Annika killed a bunch of men ... even Bill Murray took down a couple of pros at the pro/am (at least on one hole)...and if you throw cards toward a hat, every once in a while one goes in.
Wie is in the wrong league. She's spitting into the wind. She's embarrassing herself, disrespecting the LPGA, and frankly really pissing me off with her naive arrogance (and $$$$).
This is a media event, it ain't golf. It is fodder for bored golfers and dirty old men to talk about. Which one am I? Don't even ask.
Man, criticism is totally valid, but I'm so tired of people assigning crimes to Michelle that she hasn't done.
Disrespecting the LPGA? I hear this most often from people who don't care about the LPGA! Did you hear her quotes about how she felt it was such an honor to play with Laura Davies and Karrie Webb in the final round at the Evian? She also chose a more competitive US Open qualifier that was located closer to the LPGA Championship so she could compete in both. If she had picked the one in Hawaii she most likely could've claimed a spot (she had already beaten the person who did) but she couldn't have been at the LPGA championship.
I'm just so sick and tired of people building her into some kind of monster because she's been overly ambitious. I think she or her team have made some poor decisions in her career, but I think people really hate what she stands for (someone who DARES to compete with the men) as opposed to who she really is. Oh, and sure, she gets paid a lot, but so what? It's not your money! If only we Americans got so pissed off in regards to drug use in sports!
mulligan, I agree that she should limit herself next year, but I think she should also go for the US Open qualifier again. No one can say she doesn't deserve to be there if she makes it through.
Be sick and tired, but she is disrespecting the LPGA by denying worldclass players a chance to compete against her, while she wastes her time on the PGA before she's ready.
I love the LPGA and I did before all the glam girls hit the scene. So don't make judgments about my tastes in general, just form your own opinions and let us know what they are.
I'm an old school tour fan. Most players earn a spot on tour, and if they don't play well, they lose their card and go play in the minor leagues until they earn their way back. Let Wie get through PGA Q School, then we can have a serious discussion.
I'm more irritated that we're even discussing this nonsense. No offense meant to anyone here, of course.
You may have a point about her wasting time on the PGA tour, but I don't see how she can play more on the LPGA tour than she already does (using the maximum number of exemptions allowed her), and how that is disrespectful.
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