Golfweek's Rex Hoggard writes what most people are thinking: Michelle Wie is insane to accept a sponsor's exemption at next week's Reno-Tahoe Open, a PGA Tour event. Wie is fresh off rounds of 67 and 65, which were promptly followed by a "DQ" after she forgot the bit about signing your scorecard immediately after finishing putting out on 18.
And now, with the season winding down and her chances of earning her LPGA Tour card dwindling, Wie (or, more likely, her parents) has decided to tee it up on the men's tour. Shockingly, some PGA Tour members are, well, baffled by the decision.
"When I saw it I actually thought it was a joke, quite honestly," Jay Williamson told Golf Channel. "I know she is going to sell a lot more tickets than I will, but I would say it's surprising. I don't think it's a real popular decision out here."I can't disagree with that, but, frankly, I'm beyond caring what Wie decides to do with her career. It hasn't reached Jennifer Capriati mismanagement-followed-by-meltdown levels, but there's really no reason Wie, at 19, shouldn't have her tour card and a few tournament wins. Instead, she's gone from teenage phenom to teenage has-been in the span of three years.
Playing the Reno-Tahoe won't do anything to change that perception, but when you're the highest-paid female golfer on the planet and have done nothing to earn such a distinction, maybe playing on the PGA Tour doesn't seems like such a wacked-out idea.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-24-2008 @ 5:17PM
LB said...
Why do you care? At this point she is the highest paid female golfer so she has done a LOT of things right. If she wants to play she should play.
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7-24-2008 @ 6:28PM
ryan said...
"Why do you care?"
Um, let's see, I wrote: "...frankly, I'm beyond caring what Wie decides to do with her career." So, what I think I'm trying to say is, well, I don't care. You know, just in case it wasn't clear the first time.
7-24-2008 @ 7:44PM
Kilroy said...
Wie should not be allowed to play on the men's tour. She has not earned the right. There are at least 30 women golfers better than she is. She takes the place of a superior male golfer, all for the sake of publicity. That is reverse gender bias but when the bias is against a male the women are always allowed to do it.
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7-24-2008 @ 11:21PM
Dan Gibson said...
At first, I rooted for Michelle Wie ... but now it's getting harder and harder. She was a golf phenom -- that is, until the day that (14-year-old) Kimberly Kim won the US Women's Amateur. And now the incident on Friday, and also the news that Mom & Dad will soon be moving just off campus at Stanford.
And let's not forget that she's trying to "cash in" on a spot that a deserving men's player should have, at Reno-Tahoe. And as long as I'm piling on, we must not forgot her proclamation a couple of years ago, that someday she will "win the Masters".
ENOUGH .... go to the Futures Tour, work on your game, and EARN a spot on the LPGA Tour ... and START GROWING UP ... is that too much to ASK ?
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