michelle wie...wowww!!!

[Matt_Cohn]

Again? That's her 2nd 9 in July I think.

[Garland Bayley]

Again? That's her 2nd 9 in July I think.

No Matt,

That's the first 9 in August.

[Dean Stokes]

Another wasted week for her. Shame when she could probably have been contending at Sunningdale.

[Jay Flemma]

Exactly Dean v- competing, making money, and mending fences...

[JESII]

I think you guys have missed something very important in these last two weeks or three weeks...she has turned her game around!

It's a remarkable thing for a 16, 17 or 18 year old girl, with all the money she ever needs, to dig down and find the ability to get in the position she was when the scorecard flap happened, and one off the cut line in a Big Tour event with 5 or 6 to go is awfully good golf.

I agree with those that suggest she could schedule better because I know confidence and winning are irreplaceable in golf but I am not ignorant enough to think she should listen to me.

Her performance through 3 rounds of that LPGA event in which the lead was 18 under par proves that her wedge game has dramtically improved. The Women's Tour does not get to 18 under unless they are hitting alot of wedges, and her scrambling numbers this week show the same thing.

What looked like a train wreck to me 18 months ago looks a whole lot different today.

Her numbers on those last 5 or 6 holes were a result of circumstance...nothing more.

[Richard Choi]

She had a one really really bad hole (4 over) probably trying to pull a miracle with 2 holes to go. I would say it is pretty impressive that she finished up on the next hole with a birdie.

All in all, pretty good outing all things considered. The score makes it look much worse, but she played pretty well.

[Jay Flemma]

I think you guys have missed something very important in these last two weeks or three weeks...she has turned her game around!

It's a remarkable thing for a 16, 17 or 18 year old girl, with all the money she ever needs, to dig down and find the ability to get in the position she was when the scorecard flap happened, and one off the cut line in a Big Tour event with 5 or 6 to go is awfully good golf.

I agree with those that suggest she could schedule better because I know confidence and winning are irreplaceable in golf but I am not ignorant enough to think she should listen to me.

Her performance through 3 rounds of that LPGA event in which the lead was 18 under par proves that her wedge game has dramtically improved. The Women's Tour does not get to 18 under unless they are hitting alot of wedges, and her scrambling numbers this week show the same thing.

What looked like a train wreck to me 18 months ago looks a whole lot different today.

Her numbers on those last 5 or 6 holes were a result of circumstance...nothing more.

That's because her head is straighter than its been in a while.  The two inches between her ears are improving.  That's the crux of the difference.  We all know she has talent.  She just needs to compete at her level.  A life of struggling to make cuts just isn't as accomplished as a life winning tournaments.  Just ask Tiger.

[CHrisB]

That's because her head is straighter than its been in a while.  The two inches between her ears are improving.  That's the crux of the difference.  We all know she has talent.  She just needs to compete at her level.  A life of struggling to make cuts just isn't as accomplished as a life winning tournaments.  Just ask Tiger.

Actually, I think it's because she finally has two healthy wrists. Of course, becoming healthy again does help you between the ears.

So Jay,
I assume you'd tell someone like David Duval that he needs to go back to the Nationwide Tour, start winning tournaments there, and then return to the PGA Tour when he proves he can win again?

How about Tadd Fujikawa--should have declined his sponsor's invitation to Reno last year? How about Rob Grube this year?

Or does your advice only apply to 18-year-old girls?

[Matt_Cohn]

I think you guys have missed something very important in these last two weeks or three weeks...she has turned her game around!

It's a remarkable thing for a 16, 17 or 18 year old girl, with all the money she ever needs, to dig down and find the ability to get in the position she was when the scorecard flap happened....

I agree with those that suggest she could schedule better because I know confidence and winning are irreplaceable in golf...

Her performance through 3 rounds of that LPGA event in which the lead was 18 under par proves that her wedge game has dramtically improved. The Women's Tour does not get to 18 under unless they are hitting alot of wedges, and her scrambling numbers this week show the same thing.

What looked like a train wreck to me 18 months ago looks a whole lot different today.

...all of which is exactly why she should be playing in women's events!

[CHrisB]

She is playing in women's events.

[Jim Johnson]

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Michelle Wie failed in her eighth attempt to make the cut on the PGA Tour, shooting a second-round 80 at the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open Friday. Parker McLachlin tied the course record with a 62 to take the lead into the clubhouse at 14-under par.

Wie was 1-over-par 73 Thursday as she attempted to become the first woman since Babe Zaharias to make the cut on the PGA Tour. But a quintuple-bogey 9 Friday helped push her to 9-over 153 at the par-72 Montreux Golf & Country Club.

The 18-year-old, who was making her first PGA appearance since January 2007, had two bogeys and one birdie through her first nine holes and was within striking distance of a cut line that was hovering around even par with several golfers still on the 7,472-yard mountain course.

But she had a double bogey on her 13th hole of the day after she hit her second shot over the green into heavy rough on the 518-yard, par-5 No. 4.

With a difficult downhill lie, her chip came up short, still in the rough. Her next pitch rolled over the green into the rough again before she finally chipped onto the green and two putted.

The quintuple-bogey 9 came four holes later on the 464-yard, par-4 eighth, when she had to take two penalty strokes.

He first tee shot ended up with an unplayable lie in the trees and the second one went left into a waste area with sage brush and pine trees, where she had to take another drop and needed four more shots to reach the green. She finished with a birdie on the 626-yard, par-5 ninth.

Not since "Mildred" Babe Zaharias played at the 1945 Tucson Open has a woman made the cut on the PGA Tour.

McLachlin who has five Top 25 PGA finishes this year and ranks 98th on the tour money list, birdied seven of the last 10 holes and had 11 on the day in a bogey-free round. His hot wedge play put him within 7 feet of the pin seven times - twice inside 2 feet and once to 4 inches.

"Nothing really crazy. It was just pretty solid," McLachlin said about his round that left him at 130 after two days of play.

"Everything went pretty smoothly out there. I hit a lot of fairways, lots of greens and made a bunch of 10-footers. I mean, just kind of the way you like to draw it up," he said.

McLachlin missed a four-foot birdie attempt on the par-4 18th that would have broken the record Bill Glasson set in 2005 and Joe Ogilvie matched in 2006. His previous best on tour was a 65, though he said he shot a 63 once on the Nationwide Tour and carded a 59 at the course he represents in Hawaii, where he was born and grew up.

"I didn't know what the course record was but I caught myself thinking about 59 at No. 14. I had like about a 10-footer," said McLachlin, who had birdied six of the previous seven holes.

                                                                -

Interesting, the order of importance that the media seems to rank these two "situations". McLachlin shoots 11 birdies...ELEVEN...and gets second fiddle.

[John_Conley]

J, I think Doug Dunakey shot 59 once on the Buy.com Tour with a 3-putt at the last.  62 by Parker McLachlin?  Someone shoots around 62 every week.

Like it or not, like her or not, Wie was a story the media chose to highlight this week.

[Jim Franklin]

Let's hope Wie sticks with the women, but since money rules everything, you know it won't.

[BVince]

Is there some reason she is not even listed on the LPGA website?

[Matt_Cohn]

She's not a member of the LPGA Tour.

[George Pazin]

I think you guys have missed something very important in these last two weeks or three weeks...she has turned her game around!

It's a remarkable thing for a 16, 17 or 18 year old girl, with all the money she ever needs, to dig down and find the ability to get in the position she was when the scorecard flap happened, and one off the cut line in a Big Tour event with 5 or 6 to go is awfully good golf.

I agree with those that suggest she could schedule better because I know confidence and winning are irreplaceable in golf but I am not ignorant enough to think she should listen to me.

Her performance through 3 rounds of that LPGA event in which the lead was 18 under par proves that her wedge game has dramtically improved. The Women's Tour does not get to 18 under unless they are hitting alot of wedges, and her scrambling numbers this week show the same thing.

What looked like a train wreck to me 18 months ago looks a whole lot different today.

Her numbers on those last 5 or 6 holes were a result of circumstance...nothing more.

As I said to Garland a few days ago, no sense bringing common sense to a Wie thread - only emotion based rants need apply.

[JESII]

I think you guys have missed something very important in these last two weeks or three weeks...she has turned her game around!

It's a remarkable thing for a 16, 17 or 18 year old girl, with all the money she ever needs, to dig down and find the ability to get in the position she was when the scorecard flap happened....

I agree with those that suggest she could schedule better because I know confidence and winning are irreplaceable in golf...

Her performance through 3 rounds of that LPGA event in which the lead was 18 under par proves that her wedge game has dramtically improved. The Women's Tour does not get to 18 under unless they are hitting alot of wedges, and her scrambling numbers this week show the same thing.

What looked like a train wreck to me 18 months ago looks a whole lot different today.

...all of which is exactly why she should be playing in women's events!

Did you actually edit my quote and try to pass it off in your post as exactly what I wrote? There are alot of ways to lose credibility on this site, and that is high on the list.

By the way, the three dots don't work for what you thought, they replace the smilie faces...just ask Peter Pallotta.

I may also disagree with her scheduling, but she may be the first player capable of reaching the top of their respective sport with a different avenue (winning might not mean as much to her as it did to Tiger, and all of our expectations)...and if so, expect a few women in every mens event played 5 or 10 years from now...

[CHrisB]

Let's hope Wie sticks with the women, but since money rules everything, you know it won't.

Jim,
So if you want her to stick with the women, which events should she play in?

As Matt said she is not a member of the LPGA.

How many laymen, journalists and joe sixpacks realize that as a non-member, she is limited to 6 LPGA events per year (not including majors) via sponsor exemptions?

So if she wants to play more than 10 tournaments this year, she either has to mix in women's events in Europe, Asia, etc., or mix in men's events wherever she can find them (PGA, Nationwide, Canadian, Japan, Asia, etc.).

She's already used 4 of her 6 LPGA sponsor exemptions for 2008. She's trying to get competitive rounds wherever she can get them right now.

By the way, she has stated that her long-term goals include playing both the women's and men's tours; how can she pursue that goal if she never plays with the men?

----------------------------------------------------

My problem with Michelle Wie has nothing to do with what events she decides to play in, what endorsements and appearance fees she takes, etc. She's got a right to chase her own dreams and not rely on the "advice" of journalists and joe sixpacks who crap their pants over a 4-footer to win a $2 nassau.

The only things that really bother me are the behavior and etiquette-related things that point directly to how she has been raised and what her parents have and haven't taught her. Things like the WD due to injury from Annika's tournament, only to be seen practicing 2 days later on site for the LPGA Championship; the rules things like the improper drop in '05, grounding her club in a bunker at the Women's British in '06, and not signing her scorecard this year; and the etiquette things that happened when she first started competing with the pros and especially when her father was on the bag for her. No excuse for any of that, and all it does is distract everyone from her incredible talent and how good she could be for golf.

[Glenn Spencer]

Let's hope Wie sticks with the women, but since money rules everything, you know it won't.

Jim,
So if you want her to stick with the women, which events should she play in?

As Matt said she is not a member of the LPGA.

How many laymen, journalists and joe sixpacks realize that as a non-member, she is limited to 6 LPGA events per year (not including majors) via sponsor exemptions?

So if she wants to play more than 10 tournaments this year, she either has to mix in women's events in Europe, Asia, etc., or mix in men's events wherever she can find them (PGA, Nationwide, Canadian, Japan, Asia, etc.).

She's already used 4 of her 6 LPGA sponsor exemptions for 2008. She's trying to get competitive rounds wherever she can get them right now.

By the way, she has stated that her long-term goals include playing both the women's and men's tours; how can she pursue that goal if she never plays with the men?

----------------------------------------------------

My problem with Michelle Wie has nothing to do with what events she decides to play in, what endorsements and appearance fees she takes, etc. She's got a right to chase her own dreams and not rely on the "advice" of journalists and joe sixpacks who crap their pants over a 4-footer to win a $2 nassau.

The only things that really bother me are the behavior and etiquette-related things that point directly to how she has been raised and what her parents have and haven't taught her. Things like the WD due to injury from Annika's tournament, only to be seen practicing 2 days later on site for the LPGA Championship; the rules things like the improper drop in '05, grounding her club in a bunker at the Women's British in '06, and not signing her scorecard this year; and the etiquette things that happened when she first started competing with the pros and especially when her father was on the bag for her. No excuse for any of that, and all it does is distract everyone from her incredible talent and how good she could be for golf.

Chris,

Behavior and etiquette?? I don't know about that, think about your own knowledge of the rules at 15-18. It is not as if she tried to cheat, just "remembered a few rules wrong" as she once said. I still don't understand what was wrong with practicing. Sometimes golfers just know it isn't their week, so she WD'd. She had a tournament coming up that she was hoping to play in, so she was practicing for it. Where is the harm? I can't remember the details, but I do remember thinking Danielle Ammaccapane sp?? overreacted in that early situation.

[CHrisB]

Chris,

Behavior and etiquette?? I don't know about that, think about your own knowledge of the rules at 15-18. It is not as if she tried to cheat, just "remembered a few rules wrong" as she once said. I still don't understand what was wrong with practicing. Sometimes golfers just know it isn't their week, so she WD'd. She had a tournament coming up that she was hoping to play in, so she was practicing for it. Where is the harm? I can't remember the details, but I do remember thinking Danielle Ammaccapane sp?? overreacted in that early situation.

Glenn,
As you can tell from my posts, I am very sympathetic to Wie and what she is trying to accomplish in the face of her nay-sayers.

The incidents I mentioned do bother me because they provide fodder for the nay-sayers and more openings for criticism, which she (and golf) really doesn't need (and have you ever seen a teenage girl receive this much widespread criticism?). As you said, they are all understandable but in her position given what she is trying to accomplish, it would be nice if she was air-tight in those areas so the focus can be on her golf.

BTW, Tiger's behavior and etiquette also bothered me when he was 18.

[Glenn Spencer]

Chris,

Behavior and etiquette?? I don't know about that, think about your own knowledge of the rules at 15-18. It is not as if she tried to cheat, just "remembered a few rules wrong" as she once said. I still don't understand what was wrong with practicing. Sometimes golfers just know it isn't their week, so she WD'd. She had a tournament coming up that she was hoping to play in, so she was practicing for it. Where is the harm? I can't remember the details, but I do remember thinking Danielle Ammaccapane sp?? overreacted in that early situation.

Glenn,
As you can tell from my posts, I am very sympathetic to Wie and what she is trying to accomplish in the face of her nay-sayers.

The incidents I mentioned do bother me because they provide fodder for the nay-sayers and more openings for criticism, which she (and golf) really doesn't need (and have you ever seen a teenage girl receive this much widespread criticism?). As you said, they are all understandable but in her position given what she is trying to accomplish, it would be nice if she was air-tight in those areas so the focus can be on her golf.

BTW, Tiger's behavior and etiquette also bothered me when he was 18.

Certainly it would be nice. It does provide fodder, but I am sure that you are smart enough not to listen to any of that.  No, I haven't seen anything like this, it is unique. I think most of comes from insecure men not wanting her to do well and taking pleasure when she fails and pointing it out to everyone. Tiger didn't show up to receive the college player of the year trophy after committing to the tournament, that trumps anything that Michelle has "done". She is not perfect, but I think she has a hell of a lot going for her compared to most 18-year old kids on and off the golf course. The fact that some "journalists" are openly rooting for her to fail because of the supposed "indiscretions" of her past, tells me what I have always known about sports journalists, it would be a better world if we could just watch the games in peace.

[Tim Bert]

Interesting, the order of importance that the media seems to rank these two "situations". McLachlin shoots 11 birdies...ELEVEN...and gets second fiddle.

Think about it on another level.  This is a fabulous web site where we discuss the architecture of the finest golf courses in the world.  Right or wrong - Michelle Wie's name is in 2 of the threads with the 20 most replies... and she's quickly rising in a few more of them.

Love her or hate her (or somewhere in between), people love to talk about her.  She's big news and will be big news for a while.  By signing her up, this week's tour stop ensured that she was "bigger news" than anything that could have happened - McLachlin going low at a tour event that plays alongside a WGC event included.  Maybe Nike released the press report above! 

[Dennis_Harwood]

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Michelle Wie failed in her eighth attempt to make the cut on the PGA Tour, shooting a second-round 80 at the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open Friday. Parker McLachlin tied the course record with a 62 to take the lead into the clubhouse at 14-under par.

Wie was 1-over-par 73 Thursday as she attempted to become the first woman since Babe Zaharias to make the cut on the PGA Tour. But a quintuple-bogey 9 Friday helped push her to 9-over 153 at the par-72 Montreux Golf & Country Club.

The 18-year-old, who was making her first PGA appearance since January 2007, had two bogeys and one birdie through her first nine holes and was within striking distance of a cut line that was hovering around even par with several golfers still on the 7,472-yard mountain course.

But she had a double bogey on her 13th hole of the day after she hit her second shot over the green into heavy rough on the 518-yard, par-5 No. 4.

With a difficult downhill lie, her chip came up short, still in the rough. Her next pitch rolled over the green into the rough again before she finally chipped onto the green and two putted.

The quintuple-bogey 9 came four holes later on the 464-yard, par-4 eighth, when she had to take two penalty strokes.

He first tee shot ended up with an unplayable lie in the trees and the second one went left into a waste area with sage brush and pine trees, where she had to take another drop and needed four more shots to reach the green. She finished with a birdie on the 626-yard, par-5 ninth.

Not since "Mildred" Babe Zaharias played at the 1945 Tucson Open has a woman made the cut on the PGA Tour.

McLachlin who has five Top 25 PGA finishes this year and ranks 98th on the tour money list, birdied seven of the last 10 holes and had 11 on the day in a bogey-free round. His hot wedge play put him within 7 feet of the pin seven times - twice inside 2 feet and once to 4 inches.

"Nothing really crazy. It was just pretty solid," McLachlin said about his round that left him at 130 after two days of play.

"Everything went pretty smoothly out there. I hit a lot of fairways, lots of greens and made a bunch of 10-footers. I mean, just kind of the way you like to draw it up," he said.

McLachlin missed a four-foot birdie attempt on the par-4 18th that would have broken the record Bill Glasson set in 2005 and Joe Ogilvie matched in 2006. His previous best on tour was a 65, though he said he shot a 63 once on the Nationwide Tour and carded a 59 at the course he represents in Hawaii, where he was born and grew up.

"I didn't know what the course record was but I caught myself thinking about 59 at No. 14. I had like about a 10-footer," said McLachlin, who had birdied six of the previous seven holes.

                                                                -

Interesting, the order of importance that the media seems to rank these two "situations". McLachlin shoots 11 birdies...ELEVEN...and gets second fiddle.

Comment #1-- Why am I posting in this thread? I need to go to a shrink!

Comment #2-- Press priorty is clear. If you want to follow good golf you are watching Firestone this week.  If you want to watch disasters you focus on Miss Wie.

Last time I looked the terrible car wreck made page 1. The driver getting a citation for perfect driving was buried on page 8 (that is about all the pages newspapers seem to have now, but that is different subject).

[Brent Hutto]

I think with Tiger out there is almost nothing that would make most people watch Firestone or where ever they're playing this week. Michelle Wie's escapade was the difference between golf being mentioned a few times in the general media vs. golf being mentioned hardly at all.

And with football season coming up it'll be Ryder Cup or nothing from here on out. I think it's no coincidence they have to hype a rah-rah team "event" in the fall to have any hope of competing with football, at least for one week.