Semi-OT: Did Michelle Wie just save the LPGA?

[Garland Bayley]

OOPS

[David Bartman]

I have seen Michelle Wie up close, inside the ropes, literally.   

What she had done, or leadbetter, to her swing is amazing.  She is really bent over at the waist now, as opposed to standing up in a more athletic position early in her career.  She has diminished her arc and by doing so has given up 20 yards off the tee and her entire advantage over most every other woman on the tour.  Because her ball striking is so average she puts a tremendous amount of pressure on her short game and putting. 

Guess what, short game and putting was never her strong suit and may never be, although there is a lot of room for improvement.   

Michelle shouldn't want to try to compete with the other Women on the LPGA in short game contests, but should stand up, get back her big arc and her 20 yards back and make the LPGA golf courses look small. 

Obviously, she is still really young, and now that she has finished Stanford, she can dedicate all her time to golf.  I for one, would leave Leadbetter and get to Butch Harmon ASAP. 

[JESII]

I wish her well but she looks like she's trying to squeeze a baseball into a shot glass when she's putting a 6 footer for par.

[Tim_Cronin]

The simple way to put it is this way: She needs to divorce her parents. Do you really want your mom showing you how to chip and standing two feet from you the day before a major starts? Or them moving to your neighborhood after you graduate from college? Or hanging around with you all the time?

I think not.

[Garland Bayley]

The simple way to put it is this way: She needs to divorce her parents. Do you really want your mom showing you how to chip and standing two feet from you the day before a major starts? Or them moving to your neighborhood after you graduate from college? Or hanging around with you all the time?

I think not.

Tim,

Are you calling her a liar?

She has told the media to lay off her parents. That she is close with her parents and wants them there. Get over it.

Just because you and other Americans have disfunctional family relationships, doesn't mean Michelle does.

[David Bartman]

The simple way to put it is this way: She needs to divorce her parents. Do you really want your mom showing you how to chip and standing two feet from you the day before a major starts? Or them moving to your neighborhood after you graduate from college? Or hanging around with you all the time?

I think not.

Tim,

She actually likes having her parents travel with her.  They do everything, get her food, dry clean clothes etc etc .. I agree that having them around limits her ability to grow as an individual, which may or may not help her golf game, but they don't force themselves to be there with her, she requests it. 

[Tom ORourke]

I would not give up on her. But I did follow her for a good portion of a round at Seaview a few weeks ago. There were some 3 putts and she did not play well.  But the key was that I felt like all of the naturallness (real word?) in her swing had been coached out of her. Every practice swing she took she was checking multiple positions. Her follow through was truncated, making tee shots look steered. She still has good swing speed but she looks like someone trying to avoid a particular miss rather than the kid who was bombing it out with the guys. Putting / short game is obviously an issue but I think most of her problems are somewhat fixable. One, stop thinking. Two, repeat that often. Just let it go. I would love to compare a tape of her swing now and at age 13 or 14. I will bet the changes are obvious.

And I think Lexi will save the LPGA more than Michelle. Her putting is getting better and when you stand near her on the range a blind person could tell the difference between Lexi and other players. You can hear her swing. Looks like Wie did 6 years ago. Not mechanically, but the flow and power. Fun to watch.

[PThomas]

I would not give up on her. But I did follow her for a good portion of a round at Seaview a few weeks ago. There were some 3 putts and she did not play well.  But the key was that I felt like all of the naturallness (real word?) in her swing had been coached out of her. Every practice swing she took she was checking multiple positions. Her follow through was truncated, making tee shots look steered. She still has good swing speed but she looks like someone trying to avoid a particular miss rather than the kid who was bombing it out with the guys. Putting / short game is obviously an issue but I think most of her problems are somewhat fixable. One, stop thinking. Two, repeat that often. Just let it go. I would love to compare a tape of her swing now and at age 13 or 14. I will bet the changes are obvious.

And I think Lexi will save the LPGA more than Michelle. Her putting is getting better and when you stand near her on the range a blind person could tell the difference between Lexi and other players. You can hear her swing. Looks like Wie did 6 years ago. Not mechanically, but the flow and power. Fun to watch.

reminds me on the Shark was slumping...Harmon watched him for awhile and said "Just start hitting the ball as hard as you can"

I hope she becomes the star that seemed a sure bet...seems like a nice person

[Phil McDade]

Good things come to those who wait.

It was interesting to wade through this last night and look at some of the comments the original post generated. Wie was pretty candid in interviews this week owning up to the odd path she took to get to this point, hinting that maybe it wasn't the most logical thing to do, admitting to mistakes, but not regretting any of it, and suggesting it was all part of a learning process to get to where she is now (and what she accomplished this week).

To me, she demonstrated decent consistency off the tee, a lot of GIRs (T-5 in the championship; it's the real strength of her game lately), an improved short game (no three putts all week), a mindset that appears to take the notion of course management seriously (with one exception on 16 Sunday, but still -- her misses Sunday were mostly in smart places where she could get up and down pretty easily); patience (in past years she has blown up on third rounds in majors, while this Saturday she grinded out a 72 when her game was clearly off); and an ability to make clutch shots with some aggressive play (the eagle on Sunday at 10 set up her entire round, when everyone else was falling away, and the shot and putt on 17 was Tiger-esque).

Among other things, she has a Stanford degree, a U.S. Women's Open title, and a lot to look forward to at the age of 24 (younger than Tom Watson when he won his first major). It was a pretty impressive win, and to me didn't have the appearance of a one-off victory that we sometimes see on the LPGA side in majors.

[Jud_T]

Phil,

It was an impressive win and I'm happy for her after all she's been through, but her parents have got to get a life.  She's 24, been a pro effectively for a decade and her parents are still actively involved in her career and pacing inside the ropes every week.  It's time to cut the effing apron strings already.

It was a phenomenal week for the LPGA between Wei finally winning on a great leaderboard and Lucy bringing eyeballs in on Thursday and Friday, not to mention the back-to-back Pinehurst thing.  Michelle will definitely help their ratings and purses if she starts reeling off a few Majors now.

[Brent Hutto]

And kudos to Stacey Lewis for doing what a World #1 player needs to do...shake off her awful rounds on Friday and Saturday, step in and shoot a miraculous score to keep Michelle Wie's final five holes from being a snooze-fest. Not a one of those putts on 16, 17, 18 would have been anxious if her lead had been four or five strokes instead of three.

[Phil McDade]

Phil,

It was an impressive win and I'm happy for her after all she's been through, but her parents have got to get a life.  She's 24, been a pro effectively for a decade and her parents are still actively involved in her career and pacing inside the ropes every week.  It's time to cut the effing apron strings already.

It was a phenomenal week for the LPGA between Wei finally winning on a great leaderboard and Lucy bringing eyeballs in on Thursday and Friday, not to mention the back-to-back Pinehurst thing.  Michelle will definitely help their ratings and purses if she starts reeling off a few Majors now.

Jud:

I'm going to channel my inner George Pazin and try to refrain from commenting on the role of her parents. I will say this: it has appeared to me that Tiger has missed the influence and guidance of his father since his passing in 2006.