Chris B:
Appreciate the 101 psycho analysis assessment.
Here's the deal ... I admire golf talent that can produce when all the hype says it's an automatic. You have Wie genuflectors, gushers, apologists, call them what one will, on this site who simply ASSUMED she would continue to march on with greatness and be the next Tiger albeit from the femal side.
It has not happened as simply as they might have believed. Guess what too -- it might never happen. That's not an unfamiliar situation in golf's history.
Let me point out a case study of a guy named Eddie Pearce who in '68 won the US Junior in a field that contained none other than Ben Crenshaw -- in fact, Ben years later claimed his visit to the Northeast to TCC where the event was held inspired his later love for architecture and golf history.
Pearce was seen by many as a shoe-in for future greatness. His spread ahead of the others was that great. Guess what happened?
Eddie Pearce played the PGA Tour briefly and with just a hint of the future success predicted for him. Even Crenshaw and others he routinely beat thought Eddie had the goods to be a really great one.
The situation with Michelle Wie is that often times you'll get junior players who are far ahead of others when in the early stages of their competitive lives. As they mature sometimes their passion for the game wanes -- sometimes their overall talent level maxes out as well. In response to that the other competitors can surpass them because their games improve faster and their passion for the game only deepens.
I don't know what the overall passion level for Michelle Wie is. I can say this though -- I see her as a tremendous talent but talent alone is not going to take her to the highest fo levels. I've watched her at few tournaments and while her driving his impressive and much of her long game the closer she comes to the green the more it appears that her short game and putting are not anywhere near the highest of levels.
Let me point out another fact -- you have people on this thread and other similar ones - who give Michelle a huge benefit of the doubt but never connect the role that Team Wie -- which Michelle is part of albeit in a narrower manner -- plays in this entire situation.
All these people see is the girl and not the rest of the elements tied inexorably to her.
You have people who fall back on the predictable but lame responses ... "she's a teenager," or "she's been injured," or whatever else can fit the moment of the day.
I simply mentioned previously that the ongoing fascination with men's golf is a worthy dream but it's turning into the circus carnival show. It's more about the side-show than delivering the goods. Competition at its most basic levels means the wherewithal to compete. That was the type of comment that Vijay made when Annika stepped forward at Colonial a few years back. Guess what? Vijay was labeled some sort of male-dinosaur when all he said was that people who want play at that high level should earn it like he and countless others did.
Annika understood her limitations and while clearly sports is about pushing the boundaries -- it also means realizing that when the hype is simply hype there will be those -- myself and others -- who are not going to guy the endless parade of mindless promotions when frankly there's little there that really delivers the goods.
Michelle should get her LPGA card and focus -- if golf is still her passion -- to build a record against the best female golfers in the world. But the clock is not going to stop and her competitors won't be passing the hat imploring Michelle to do what I have just stated.
Chris, the obnoxious nature you mentioned really deals with the fact that as careers progress there will be assessments made along the way. You have people who can't stand to admit that the sure thing they bought into may not really be the sure thing they originally believed. When someone like me and others challenges those assumptions you then get the usual response that I and others are beating up on her and other such inane statements.
John C makes the ignorant and erroneous comment that I have labeled all Wie supporters as "idiots." And then goes forward with his juvenile approach with "cuckoo" this and "cuckoo" that. I've outlined numerous times that the so-called Michelle Wie express train has simply derailed for the moment. She may reclaim that momentum but I have not jumped off the ledge of sanity with this rush to proclaim her the next anything.