Michelle Wie finishes round at U.S. Women’s Open? Yeah, and….?
So, now that The Big Wiesy has become The Big Queasy, people are lining up to give Michelle Wie a cookie for finishing a round at the U.S. Women’s Open?
Is this how far the flighty have fallen?
OK, so it was pretty much a foregone conclusion, following an opening day 81, that Wie wasn’t going to make the cut at the Open. Gotcha. If you find yourself 14 shots off the lead after day one, odds are you’re catching a flight Friday night. My math skills may not be the greatest, but I’ve got enough fingers and toes to figure out those odds.
But to give Wie the proverbial pat on the back for dragging herself out of bed Saturday morning to finish the one hole in her second round when she really had nothing to play for is a little much.
As loosely as we may use the term, isn’t this the sort of thing that professionals do?
Lest we forget, this isn’t the wide-eyed, too-much-pressure-for-someone-her-age 13-year-old Michelle Wie. Not anymore. Just a few months away from her 19th birthday, that ship has sailed.
In case your memory needs a little refreshing in Golf Etiquette 101, this is the same Michelle Wie who pulled out of Annika Sorenstam’s Ginn Tribute after just 16 holes last year, citing an aggravation to her injured wrist. We won’t even hint at that dreaded 88, the number that Wie was two bogeys away from that day and a digit that would have made her ineligible for any LPGA events for the remainder of the year.
Oh, and talk about the wonders of healing - there was Wie, a couple of days later, practicing on the range for the following week’s LPGA Championship.
“I just feel there’s a little bit of lack of respect and class just to kind of leave a tournament like that and come out and practice here,” said Sorenstam at the time.
Zing.
So far, Michelle is the Thomas Dolby of the LPGA You know, nothing more than a one-hit wonder, although Dolby, as we sit here, is one-up on Wie in that department as well.
Although it may be tough to envision right now, the time will probably come when Wie will get her accolades, her praise, for all the right reasons.
Finishing a round is not one of them.
Annika Sorenstam almost turns back the clock at Interlachen
For a few brief moments at the U.S. Women’s Open over the weekend, Annika Sorenstam flirted with Father – or is that Mother? – Time.
For a while, this was her tournament again. Sure, that wasn’t her nameplate atop the leaderboard at Interlachen Country Club, but that didn’t matter.
Say what you want about Annika and her willingness to tee it up with the boys – and trust me, I’ve got my own thoughts on that – but as Sorenstam gets set to bid adieu to the LPGA, two things are certain.
One, with arms like that, she can still bench-press any golfer this side of Tim Herron.
And two, there will never be another quite like Annika.
It hasn’t exactly been the rosiest of times for both sides of golf’s gender barrier. Tiger Woods will be hobbling around his pad for the foreseeable future, spending time with Elin and the little one, while Annika insists this is it for her. Time to get hitched – with the nuptials scheduled for January – and raise a baby Annika or two.
Somewhere, you may find even-money odds that she will, at one point, return, but for now, this is it. The swan song.
Hey, at least Tiger plans on returning. No one really knows if the LPGA will ever fully recover from the retirement of the world’s most dominant player ever.
Sure, there’s Lorena and Natalie, Paula and Suzann, set to carry the LPGA torch, while others will make a name for themselves for looking damn good on the tee box. Hey, Anna Kournikova made a career out of it, so who am I to judge?
But they won’t be Annika.
With 72 triumphs in her LPGA career, you can bet almost everyone in Minnesota – including Annika herself – was hoping there would be a miracle from the golf gods that would have seen #73 come at this U.S. Open. The closest she came to a storybook finish was dunking her approach for eagle from about downtown St. Paul on her final hole of week.
Just like ol’ times.
Soak it up. There won’t be many more.
Women’s golf will never see another like her.
Tiger Woods injury shows PGA Tour, television execs what life will be like
Over the next nine months or so, PGA Tour officials – not to mention ashen-faced television executives south of the 49th – are going to get a visual of what golf after Tiger is going to be like.
Let’s just say it isn’t going to be a pretty picture.
With the world’s best player on the shelf until, at best, the New Year recovering from reconstructive ACL surgery, there is no need to haul out the TigerVision from production trucks each week. No close-up of an F-bomb as Tiger slams his driver into the ground following a rare errant tee shot, no frame-by-frame slow-motion replay to see just how high the Wince-O-Meter can go as the world’s best does more and more damage to a wonky knee, all in the name of another major championship.
When the smoke has cleared on Woods’s career, he will stand alone as the best golfer of all time. Of that there is little debate.
No one really knows when that time will come, and a lot will depend on just how successful last week’s surgery turns out to be. Truth is, reconstructive surgery and torn ACL’s are not exactly words you want to hear in the same sentence, especially if you are a pro athlete.
No, not even for Woods. As hard as it may be to fathom, with destiny and Jack’s spots in the record book seemingly on borrowed time, Woods, who has undergone four knee surgeries, may not be playing by the time he blows out 40 candles on his cake.
Whammo! How’s that for a little reality check?
Since an unforgettable 12-shot win at the Masters eleven years ago, Tiger Woods has been the PGA Tour’s meal ticket. So while his fellow competitors, those used to playing for second more often than not, breathe a sigh of relief at not seeing Eldrick’s name in the starting field every week, Tour officials and TV bigwigs are holding their breath that Woods will return better than ever – if there is even such a thing.
Sooner or later, it goes without saying, there will be a PGA Tour without Tiger, just like there was without Sam, without Byron, without Arnie, without Jack.
The PGA Tour is about to get a premature look at what that will be like and you can bet they won’t be liking what they see.
Fairways Web Editor Marty Henwood spent more than six years as the Media Relations Director with the Canadian Tour and has been involved in sports journalism for more than a decade, including stints in newspaper, radio, new media and media relations. He will offer his unique take on the world of golf, with nothing and no one off limits.