The first major for the 2007 LPGA finished yesterday with its youngest winner ever.  No it was not Michelle Wie because she was at home nursing a sore wrist.  Of course that is just one of her many excuses which continue to grow faster and longer than Pinocchio’s nose.  Last year she pulled out of the John Deere Classic when it become evident she would miss the cut.  Her excuse was “heat stroke” when the temperature was a mild 87 degrees.  Never mind the fact that she had not even played two holes when her symptoms began to set in leading up to her eventual withdrawal on hole number 9.   The facts are that she shot a 77 to open her tournament, one stroke away from the highest score and on hole number 2 she bogeyed to go into last place.  She double bogeyed number 9 and then called it quits.  In all my days of playing golf, heat exhaustion never set in on the second hole much less for a trained athlete who knows all about hydration.  The pull out was an excuse, but I digress.

 

The winner was Morgan Pressel who is beginning her first full year as a professional after having petitioned the LPGA to let her enter as a 17 year old.  The difference between Pressel and her counterpart Wie is much more than the 8 inches Morgan gives up to Michelle; rather Pressel is a winner and Wie is a loser.  I am not talking about in endorsement money because in that regard Wie is clearly the victor, but in terms of wins Pressel won 11 times as an amateur.  Unlike Wie who won once as a 12 year old, Pressel won in every major women’s amateur event before turning pro.   This is the key to why Morgan will have a successful professional career and why I think Wie will continue to struggle.  Morgan knows how to win.  She knows what the pressure feels like and honed her skill against her peers before coming out and attacking the ladies.  On the other hand, Wie won one tournament as a young lady and thought she could then take on the world.  It is not entirely her fault, because her parents and handlers convinced her she was ready for the pros.  Not only did they push her to compete on the LPGA, but before ever winning one tournament they convinced her she  could compete with the men too!  Talk about balls, if Wie were a man she would have a huge pair.  Fortunately for the other ladies on the LPGA, Michelle has been castrated. 

With her confidence all but eroded by playing against the men, she has become an afterthought on the tee box.  There is no intimidation factor when she tees it up.  She may be able to compete, but no one is afraid of her.  Her counterpart on the men’s tour, Tiger Woods, got it right.  Like Pressel, he won at every level before turning pro.  The PGA tour men were shaking in their boots when he arrived and they haven’t stopped yet.  Too bad for Wie, because she is the only one shaking on the tee box as she watches the youngest female winner in a LPGA Major.  Congratulations Morgan!

(Wie is jealous because Morgan is holding something she has never felt, the 2005 US Women's Amateur trophy)

 

 

 

SoCalSPortsFan

 

 

 

 

Michelle Wie is at it again, playing against the men in Japan.  Don’t get me wrong.  She has every right to play against the men if she gets a sponsor’s exemption and clearly the companies which endorse her, like Sony, want her to compete against the men.  The only problem is they want her to COMPETE against the men.  Sooner or later Michelle is going to learn that she is not competing.  She can play two rounds with the men and miss the cuts, but that is not what they are looking for.  They want her to make the cut and make some noise in the final round so that they can get some #### for their buck, but this is not going to happen.

What’s worse is that every time Wie misses a cut or loses she makes statements which are so far from the truth that it is just plain laughable.  Take this statement from Wie after shooting an opening round 81,

 

"I don't think I was playing that bad," she said. "My long game put a lot pressure on my short game. I have to get my confidence back on my drive and just hit the ball the way I always do and I'll be fine."

 

I have news for you Michelle, shooting an 81 in a professional golf tournament is playing badly.  You can remain positive all you want, but until you go back to the drawing board and hone your game against people you can win against, then you will remain a loser.  Playing against the men will not sharpen your game; it will only cause you to doubt yourself even more.  This Thanksgiving as I sit around my table and enjoy turkey and the NFL, Wie will be over in Japan searching for birdies.

 

SoCalSportsFan

As a young golf professional, Michelle Wie is finding out that winning is not so easy.  The world has told her that she is the next Tiger Woods.  She has been told that her time is coming and that no one can stop her.  Luckily Wie has a few other things going for her besides winning, because that ain’t happening anytime soon.

Youth

Michelle is young, very young.  And as Martha Stewart says, “That is a good thing!”  As young as Wie is she can correct many of the mistakes she is currently making and if she doesn’t, she can still go to college and find a new career.  Unlike many men I know today, it’s too late to change careers when you are 40, but for Wie she still has several years to decide what she wants to do.

Endorsements

Wie has millions in endorsement deals already so if she saves her money wisely she may never have to work again.  My advice to her is not to go crazy and spend it all because those deals will eventually dry up if you don’t win, but for now enjoy.  Michelle just signed a new endorsement deal with a Korean construction company.  That deal was reported to be worth close to a million dollars.  With deals with Sony and Nike she already exceeds what I will earn in my lifetime.

Beauty

Enjoy your youth, with those long legs and pretty smile you can always marry well.  Should your earnings dry up, just find yourself a rich guy and get married.  That shouldn’t be too hard.  I bet it’s easier to do than win the Women’s British Open.  Leave that for the likes of 46 year old Inkster or some of the other old ladies of golf.  It’s not like you are dominating the elder stateswomen of golf, so beat them at the marrying game.

These are just a few of the ideas I have for  Michelle (Winning Isn’t Everything) Wie.  If you have other ideas, just add them to the list.

SoCalSportsFan

Yesterday I went golfing with a pro and a friend of mine and the subject of Michelle Wie came up.  Of course we did not know that she had withdrawn as we were playing at 7:00 am, but he said something very interesting about Wie.  He said, “Everyone loves a 13-16 year old phenom, but when she turns 18 if she has not won anything, people will turn to the next 13-16 year old phenom.”  I would say that I have to agree with his assessment.  We are always fascinated with the next great anything.  Wie burst onto the scene as a 13 year old who won an amateur event and suddenly the expectations went through the roof.  I am as guilty as the next guy and would love to see Wie win and have a tremendous career, but I now believe it is next to  impossible.  Mostly, I blame her parents for her lack of success, but there is plenty of blame to go around.  In this post, I will attempt to give the reasons I think she will end up with a mediocre career unless there are drastic changes immediately.

Many sports have a psychological component that either makes the gifted athlete a great athlete or an average performer.  Golf is such a sport.  Physically, golf is not demanding.  Almost anyone can pull a club back behind their back and then swing it forward to make contact with the ball.  Doing it repeatedly the same way can also be learned.  Grant it, it is harder than it looks, but physically it is possible.  It does not take brute strength or surely the women on the LPGA tour would not out drive most of my playing partners, but they do.  I contend the mental aspects of golf are about as tough as any sport possible and maybe the toughest.  This psychological sword has two edges.  There is the part that has to do with your inner strength and the aura you convey to others. It is on these two battle fronts that Wie has lost the battle and maybe even the war.

When Tiger burst onto the scene, he first won as an amateur, winning an unprecedented 6 times, three times each as the junior amateur and then 3 times at the amateur.  He then went onto the NCAA where he won again.  By the time he went to the PGA tour, his legendary status had grown to where he was seen as invincible before he ever teed it up against the men.  Wie has lost the ability to do this to the women on the LPGA.  They already know they can beat her.  Her peers, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Brittany Lincicome do not fear here and they never will.  They may respect her game, but she has never beaten any of them. (Annika Sorentsam has that psychological edge over her opponents every time she tees it up.)   Michelle Wie has lost the chance to build a legacy as an amateur that would have enabled her to strike the same type of fear that Tiger once did.

Wie also has her image to worry about.  Because she chooses to compete against the men and the women at select events she is always seen missing the cut or losing.  She is seen as a choker.  This repeated behavior is not good for her psyche.  She must start winning or eventually her endorsements will dry up.  Grant it, she may always be able to snag a clothing deal with those long legs, but again, does she want to be known as the Anna Kournikova of golf, beautiful but never a winner.  In fact, I think her agent, parents, and IMG marketing group should tone down her clothing so that people will focus on her beautiful swing, (golf that is), and not ooh and ah every time she bends over to pick up her golf ball.

So my answer to what will help Michelle is to let her go back to being a kid for the next two years.  Unfortunately, now that she has turned pro she can not go back to the amateur ranks and defeat all of her peers and put the fear of God in them.  When they eventually play one day, they will be winners and ready for the next level while Wie will be resting out from under the sun.  If she continues to compete against the men, then her legacy will resemble her body on that stretcher.

SoCalSportsFan

*For the record as I posted earlier today, Wie did not have heatstroke and this picture was just a way for her to bow out without the media attacking her for missing the cut against the B rated players on the tour.*

Reports are that Wie started feeling sick almost from the beginning of the round.  She played slowly and was a distraction to her playing partners, especially Jeff Grove, and may have cost him a chance at advancing as he missed the cut line by one stroke.  The real question is why did she withdraw?  Was it a heat related illness or did she use that as an excuse to exit off the stage because she was never going to make the cut.  Like so many adults who want a day off from the office, Michelle Wie called in sick, or at least that is my take on the subject.

A lot of pressure rests on this teen to succeed and yet my contention is she will never succeed under these circumstances.  She is playing against the men and her goal is just to make the cut.  That is how her success is measured.  When making the cut is your goal, you will never win.  When Wie plays against the women, she thinks she can win and she has come close.  Golf is such a mental game that if your psyche is not in synch you will never win.  Wie is playing to lose when she plays with the men and the media is playing right into it. 

As for why she withdrew, I contend she “faked” an illness to escape the pressures of telling the world she missed another cut against the second tier class of PGA golfers.  The best men golfers in the world are not even in this tournament.  They are over in Loch Lomond warming up for the British Open next week.  That does not mean that the competition is not tough, because as the commercials state, “These guys are good!”  Wie is finding out just how good!

Wie is in top shape for a 16 year old female and golfs on a regular basis.  The temperature that day was 88, which is close to the year round temperature in her home state of Hawaii.  Golfers also know about keeping themselves hydrated throughout a round and Wie is no exception.  Her playing partners said they gave her plenty of water.  Heatstroke is a serious condition where the internal core temperature is above 106 degrees.  Medical staff treating Wie just called it “heat-related illness”, not heatstroke.  She only went to the hospital because Illinois law required it.  She was never in danger.  She withdrew because she did not want to finish the round when she was 8 strokes over par and completely out of contention from making the cut line, no where close to winning the tournament.  The tournament medical staff said they did not treat any players for heat related illnesses only spectators. 

Is it possible that she withdrew because she did not want to face reporters once again after losing to Annika last week?  She has become adept at facing them and saying things like, “I played really well out there.  I hope to win soon, but overall I am happy with my game.”  Really, you are happy losing week after week?  Once again, let me state what is so obvious to me and not to others, “Michelle Wie will never win on the men’s tour and will be lucky to win on the women’s tour if she continues to pursue golf in this manner.  I will elaborate later on this weekend, but I have already posted on this back in December. 

Wie was successful in diverting the attention away from her missing the cut to her illness.  No one is talking about the fact that she was 8 over par at the time of her departure.  She was even par for the day until she played number 9 and took a double-bogey.  All of the headlines on the sports pages are saying Wie withdrew due to illness.  They make it sound as if she had continued to play that she would have made the cut and maybe gone on to win. (Wie Bows Out Early, Illness Forces Wie to Withdraw:  These are two that I found.  Sorry guys, illness aside in 9 more holes Wie was gone anyway.)  They do not come right out and say this, but their headlines are so misleading.

Things are not going to get easier for the teen, only harder.  Wie is growing up quickly and learning to call in sick just like so many adults do.  The only problem with that is if you keep doing it, you might just lose your job.  Sponsors are not going to want to keep paying her millions for losing, unless they are her clothing sponsors, but that is a topic for my next post. 

SoCalSportsFan

Let me say one more time for the record that I am not bashing Michelle Wie.  She can outdrive me every day of the week on the golf course, (not in her car because she still does not have her license), but I do think her and her dad have taken the wrong turn if they want to be successful in terms of victories on the golf course.  Success means many things to many people. 

If success is getting lots of endorsement deals for the first few years, Michelle Wie is a success.

If winning tournaments is an indication of success, Michelle Wie is a huge disappointment.  Look up her record, she has never won an official tournament.  She did win a pub links amatuer tourny at 13.  Isn't that what made Anna Kournikova the laughing stock of tennis?She was hot, but never won.  She had endorsement deals, but no wins.  I am merely stating the record for those who are on her bandwagon.

As far as comparing her to Tiger, well he is the best on the men's tour and even he struggles to win each and every week.  We are really expected to believe that Michelle Wie will compete with Tiger, Phil, Jose, Retief, and Ernie?  I think not.  If Wie competes on the LPGA I think she will win, and maybe even be the best ever.  Unfortunately, I think she will develop a long learning curve because of the track she is taking.  This is my opinion and I have a right to believe it and express it.

Lastly, I must remind everyone who so desparately wants her to win to remember that she is only playing on sponsor's exemptions.  She is in the Sony Open this week because they gave her a 5 million dollar endorsement deal and they need her ratings.  They want her to win, but they need her presence to make money.  Do they care about Wie?  They care about dollars.  Michelle Wie cannot play on the LPGA either.  Why?  She does not have a LPGA card.  Can she be invited to tournaments by individual tournament directors?  Yes, and most believe she will get about 8 invites to LPGA tournaments. 

I only wish her parents would let her have as normal a childhood and college career as other students.  She will have plenty of time to win tournaments as an adult.  Believe what you want, but I think Michelle Wie is losing more than tournaments right now.

I posted an article on Michelle Wie a month ago, but now that the golf season has officially begun I thought it appropriate to add a few comments and repost this article.  With all of the attention to the plagiarism scandal, I wanted to post something else for the bloggers to comment upon.  Tell me if you think I am wrong, but read my entire case against Michelle Wie before you condemn me.  Also please understand that I think she is capable of winning should she compete at her level, the LPGA after going to college.

Michelle Wie is a phenomenal talent. If any woman should be allowed an exemption to play on the men’s tour, certainly she should qualify on the length of her drives. The problem with Michelle Wie, as I see it, is that she will never win a significant amount of tournaments to go into the LPGA hall of fame much less be remembered as a great golfer. She will be remembered as the teen golfing sensation that signed a lucrative endorsement deal with Sony and Nike but then fizzled after repeated attempts to win on the men’s tour. Here are 5 reasons in no particular order that I believe will make this all come true:

1. Michelle Wie is not a winner; Tiger is. The simple truth is that Michelle Wie has never really won anything. Oh, she won the pub links amateur once, but since then what has she won. Tiger won on every venue he could before going on to become a pro. He won the US Junior Amateur three times, the US Amateur three times, and finished with the NCAA title before turning pro. Do you think Tiger could have gotten exemptions to play on the PGA tour like Wie is doing now when he was 15 or 16. Of course he could, but learning to win on your own level is more important. After winning on the college level, ten times, at the age of 20 he become a professional, but not before he was a proven winner. Winning breeds winning. Losing, well, that breeds losing also. If Wie continues to compete against those that are far better than her, she will never feel the thrill of victory and get a taste as well as the experience she needs to mount a charge on a Sunday or hold on to a lead. For everyone who wants to compare the two, you cannot. They do not have the same approach to winning.

2. B.J. Wie: Tiger had Earl who instilled a love for the game in Tiger early. He also instilled discipline and many other wonderful virtues that are evident in Tiger’s Foundation. By the way, I am not a huge Tiger fan, but there is no comparison between the ways that Earl has raised his son to the way B.J. is raising Michelle. Earl hired the best caddies for Tiger and got out of the way. B.J. has been on the bag and clearly has no respect for other players.

3. The endorsements will dry up if Wie doesn’t win. Tiger signed a 60 million deal with Nike when he turned pro. Wie signed a 4-5 million dollar deal with the same company. A lot of money for sure for someone who has never really won an official PGA or LPGA tournament, or Asian tour, or Nationwide tour, or any tour that Wie has played on. I repeat, she has gone to all of these men’s tours, even the ones where it is the B and C caliber professional and lost. Wie will continue to get invites over the next few years, but as her novelty wears thin, she will lose those invitations and the endorsements will stop.

4. Commitment to one tour: Wie needs to commit to one tour. Winning on the PGA Tour is hard enough for the likes of Tiger. Today the talent level on the men’s tour is only getting better. Winning on the LPGA is also harder. Granted Annika makes it look easy, but after Annika there are the new kids on the block like Paula Creamer and all of the Park girls. The Koreans are taking the LPGA by storm and if Wie wants to win there, which is where she should be playing as a professional, but that is for the next post on Wie.

5. Hormones: Wie will eventually meet someone and get sidetracked with love. It happens to the men on the tour as well, and most of them have a drop-off in performance for a year or two until they get refocused to their craft, Tiger excluded. Wie is still very young and once the hormones kick in she will be dealing with all kinds of emotional issues besides her overbearing father and a lack of winning. Not to mention that she has not stopped growing and maturing physically as a woman. Her swing mechanics may change as her mammary glands grow.

I could be wrong, but I doubt it. I like Wie and I want her to win, but I personally think she has headed down the wrong path. Many teenage phenoms pup up each year on the men’s tour and most never reach the potential that is hyped upon them. Sergio Garcia was hyped as the next Tiger and certainly he is a very good golfer, but by now Tiger had 4 majors under his belt. Justin Rose, another good young English golfer who made his debut at the British Open as an amateur at 17 and was heralded as the next Nick Faldo. It has not materialized. Tiger is the only golfer who lived up to the hype, but he did not attempt to go pro until he was 20 and had won on every circuit below the pros. Who needs to win when you get 10 million in endorsements? Get used to seeing this face on Wie when she struggles year after year.

It seems that ever since Mark McGwire admitted to using Andro, which was completely legal at the time, everyone has gone on a witch hunt for steroids in baseball, but only for the hitters.  Lots of baseball players began using Creatine.  Remember Brady Anderson of the Baltimore Orioles?  He had a monster season in 1996 and hit 50 HR.   By the way, does anyone remember Luis Gonzalez of the Diamondbacks who was in the HR Chase along with Barry Bonds and Sosa back in 2001.  He had 57 home runs and did anyone accuse him of steroids.  He was a thin wisp o####uy who was jacking HR’s out of the park and up until that date had never hit more than 31 in a season and since his highest is 28.  He never had a season like that before or since.  Was it steroids?  So here is my beef:

Why don’t we accuse pitchers of performance enhancing drugs?  Why is a Curt Schilling allowed to get a pain relieving shot in his ankle just before a game when clearly he couldn’t pitch without it?  Why can a player get a cast and play in football or a shield for the face in basketball and still play?  Doesn’t that aid the player in some way?  Today we have golfers and baseball hitters using contact lenses which have been designed to help them read the greens on the golf course or pick up the seams on a fastball earlier(Maxsight Sports Contacts).  Clearly these are enhancing these players normal abilities.  For that matter is Lasik performance enhancing?  Tiger had it done as well as Tom Kite and many others.  Who is to say that if Kite had Lasik surgery when he was in his 20’s he would not have won more majors?  Does anyone remember the Coke Bottle lenses he wore before surgery?  Come to think of it, Jack Nicklaus has bionic hips.  That’s right, he had hip replacement surgery and went on to win on the Senior Tour.   The worst part of it is that a good guy with great records can have his name slandered without any proof.  Once the accusation is made, no one can clear that person because a certain contingent of people will believe what they want to believe and sportscasters seize on the controversy and never let it go away.  Look at Lance Armstrong.  If anyone should have had chemicals coursing through his veins he did.  It's called Chemotherapy!  Now everyone will look at Lance differently. 

All I am saying is steroids are a problem in sports, but please give me a break.  Don’t put an asterisk next to Mark or Raphael’s numbers without putting one next to Roger Clemens or any number of pitchers who are pitching well past their prime. 

 What about transsexuals?  They have hormones, (mostly steroid derivatives of testosterone and or estrogen) racing through their bodies, but several governing bodies are allowing them to play competitive ladies golf and tennis.  Tell me that isn’t a double standard.

Michelle Wie is a phenomenal talent.  If any woman should be allowed an exemption to play on the men’s tour, certainly she should qualify on the length of her drives.  The problem with Michelle Wie, as I see it, is that she will never win a significant amount of tournaments to go into the LPGA hall of fame much less be remembered as a great golfer.  She will be remembered as the teen golfing sensation that signed a lucrative endorsement deal with Sony and Nike but then fizzled after repeated attempts to win on the men’s tour.  Here are 5 reasons in no particular order that I believe will make this all come true:

1. Michelle Wie is not a winner; Tiger is.  The simple truth is that Michelle Wie has never really won anything.  Oh, she won the pub links amateur once, but since then what has she won.  Tiger won on every venue he could before going on to become a pro.  He won the US Junior Amateur three times, the US Amateur three times, and finished with the NCAA title before turning pro.  Do you think Tiger could have gotten exemptions to play on the PGA tour like Wie is doing now when he was 15 or 16.  Of course he could, but learning to win on your own level is more important.  After winning on the college level, ten times, at the age of 20 he become a professional, but not before he was a proven winner.  Winning breeds winning.  Losing, well, that breeds losing also.  If Wie continues to compete against those that are far better than her, she will never feel the thrill of victory and get a taste as well as the experience she needs to mount a charge on a Sunday or hold on to a lead.  For everyone who wants to compare the two, you cannot.  They do not have the same approach to winning.
2. B.J. Wie:  Tiger had Earl who instilled a love for the game in Tiger early.  He also instilled discipline and many other wonderful virtues that are evident in Tiger’s Foundation.  By the way, I am not a huge Tiger fan, but there is no comparison between the ways that Earl has raised his son to the way B.J. is raising Michelle.  Earl hired the best caddies for Tiger and got out of the way.  B.J. has been on the bag and clearly has no respect for other players.
3. The endorsements will dry up if Wie doesn’t win.  Tiger signed a 60 million deal with Nike when he turned pro.  Wie signed a 4-5 million dollar deal with the same company.  A lot of money for sure for someone who has never really won an official PGA or LPGA tournament, or Asian tour, or Nationwide tour, or any tour that Wie has played on.  I repeat, she has gone to all of these men’s tours, even the ones where it is the B and C caliber professional and lost.  Wie will continue to get invites over the next few years, but as her novelty wears thin, she will lose those invitations and the endorsements will stop.
4. Commitment to one tour:  Wie needs to commit to one tour.  Winning on the PGA Tour is hard enough for the likes of Tiger.  Today the talent level on the men’s tour is only getting better.  Winning on the LPGA is also harder.  Granted Annika makes it look easy, but after Annika there are the new kids on the block like Paula Creamer and all of the Park girls.  The Koreans are taking the women’s tour by storm and if Wie wants to win there, which is where she should be playing as a professional, but that is for the next post on Wie.
5. Hormones:  Wie will eventually meet someone and get sidetracked with love.  It happens to the men on the tour as well, and most of them have a drop-off in performance for a year or two until they get refocused to their craft, Tiger excluded.  Wie is still very young and once the hormones kick in she will be dealing with all kinds of emotional issues besides her overbearing father and a lack of winning. 

Well, that is it for Michelle Wie for now.  Look for the next post on my blog titled "Wie has it Wong or is it Wrong."  Add your thoughts.