Sorenstam Gets Hitched. What Does This Mean for the LPGA?
Oh boy!
Annika just got hitched and you know what that means: limited schedule, retirement, clothing line, course building, babies. I mean, the girl is 36 and has been the best female golfer on the planet for the last ten years. What do you think it means for the LPGA?
Oddly, nothing.
Annika is no Tiger. She's great, don't get me wrong, but "Annika, Incorporated" ain't "Tiger, Inc." Annika is everything a good golfer should be: intelligent, understated, polite, well-spoken and a great golfer. But she is not a great interview nor does she look hot in a swimsuit.
Tiger draws. And draws and draws and draws. He single-handedly made golf the big money sport that it is today. Annika, although dominant on a golf course, isn't anything close to that off it. She has been pushed off the front pages of golf magazines to show Natalie Gulbis in a swimsuit and the continued meltdown of Michelle Wie.
Just look at Lorena Ochoa to see how little attention the top female golfers get in the mainstream golf media. I mean that girl has won three golf tournaments in a row this year, but she doesn't speak English that well so we don't really care.
She's won eight tournaments, including a major. I bet you didn't know that. That fact alone makes my point in spades.
Once the happy couple decides on a wedding date, Annika will start to plan her retirement date.
The great golf seer has spoken.
Labels: Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa, LPGA, Michelle Wie, Natalis Gulbis, Tiger Woods
Oh Michelle Wie, I’m So Sad for You…Not!
I was wondering if the Wie Circus could get any worse. Was I ever wrong.
Now remember, I predicted that this return was
going to be a non-event.
In her inglorious return to competitive LPGA tournament play, the phenom, the queen of hype, Miss Sparkly herself Michelle Wie, has again tripped over her
huge pile of endorsement cash and fell flat on her face (er..wrist). What a joke she has become.
When she quit the latest tournament she said to an LPGA Tour official: "We're not going to play anymore." Oh you big baby. Take it like a professional.
I thought that John Daly was becoming a mockery. Was I ever wrong. Michelle Wie has taken his exalted place.
Wie of the pending 88 before withdrawing after the 16th. Wie of the “poor me…it’s my wrist again” excuse. She has turned into a pathetic golfer and manufacturers almost as many excuses as she does strokes.
She had almost five months to recover from this alleged wrist injury. She got herself a new coach and was going to work hard and point herself in the right direction. She was ready to get out there and prove herself. I guess we discovered how well all that new coaching has worked.
In an earlier post I commented that her wrist injury was conveniently timed so she could gracefully get out of the spotlight after dismal finishes in a couple of men’s events. I was taken to task by a reader accusing me of saying that her wrist injury was faked. At the time, I vehemently denied it. Now, I believe she is faking.
Football players take two weeks off when they sprain an ankle. Basketball players gut it out, limp around and are back on the court after a few games (unless it is a high ankle sprain and then it could be forever). Even Annika Sorenstam, after having sat out with both a ruptured and bulging disc for two months, returned to shoot a round of 72.
What kind of wrist injury takes five months to heal unless you have surgery on it (which she didn’t). This isn’t an injury this is just cover. Her “injury” has now become a thinly-veiled excuse for playing badly. She’s really turned out to be a disappointment.
I thought I’d look back on years past and reminisce over a time when everything looked rosy, the world was Sparkly’s oyster and Ms. Wie’s endorsement contracts were rolling in. I credit the website
www.jockbio.com for these quotes:
"I might go play the LPGA full-time and then, after I get better, go to the PGA full-time. Or just try to play both. It will be fun." -- That’s worked so well now hasn’t it?
"I don't mind when I hit a ball in the woods. I think of it as an adventure. That's when golf really starts to get interesting." – What an adventure. It’s even more fun if it goes in the water.
"I enjoy the attention. I like the cameras. In a way, they make me play better." -- No question about it, the more face time you get, the better it seems to work.
"My favorite player is Tiger Woods. I think I can beat Tiger when I’m 20. It’s a life goal." – Looking forward to it. I’ll put it on my calendar.
"My ultimate goal is to play in the Masters." -- Just like everyone else’s, but like us, you’ll never get there either.
Ah, the innocence of youth. I cry crocodile tears for you.
Labels: Annika Sorenstam, LPGA, Michelle Wie, The Masters, Tiger Woods
Michelle Wie’s Return to the LPGA is a Non-Event
Michelle Wie's announcment that she will
return on May 28th to play in Annika Sorenstam's Ginn Tribute leaves me cold. Maybe in the past I didn’t express it in these exact words, but Michelle Wie is a circus act that is going nowhere. Yes, she has talent. Yes, she can hit the ball 300 yards. Yes, she is reasonably attractive. All these I accept.
What I don't buy is the circus act that has been created around her. She's accomplished nothing on the LPGA and even less on the PGA and I predict that she never will. Her return, which will be trumpeted by the media as the return of the female wunderkind and the savior of ladies golf, will be a non-event. She'll make the cut, place somewhere in the top twenty, and say things like "the layoff has set me back and I’m just now starting to get my swing" or “I was feeling pretty good out there, but just missed a few putts that would have kept me right up there."
The wrist problem she's been experiencing is just an easy way to get her out of the limelight because each time she is in it, especially when playing on the men's tour, she does nothing to help herself or women’s golf. Giving her a break from the tour may have been the first smart thing that "Wie, Incorporated" has done in a long time.
To play whenever it works in her schedule will never accomplish anything. Tiger is constantly tweaking his game. VJ Singh practices 8 hours a day. Phil is always wondering how to make his game better, even after his wins a major. Playing 10 times a year and practicing when it is convenient will never make Ms. Wie a consistent contender. Lorena Ochoa, Natalie Gulbis and Paula Creamer all play the tour full-time and you are starting to see that these ladies are the future of the LPGA. Natural talent only takes you so far. You earn your place on the leaderboard each week. Not when it’s convenient.
Back on June, 2006 in my post "
The Exploitation of Michelle Wie", I took Michelle Wie's father, BJ to task because all it seemed that he was interested in was the money. He, being his daughter's manager, seemed to want to push her far faster than she was able to handle. Somehow he thinks that she can be both a major LPGA star and a normal Stanford college student. It ain't gonna happen my friend. Ask Britney how well living a normal life as an uber-celebrity has worked.
"Wie Incorporated" and the LPGA, are starting to look like laughing stocks in a similar way that John Daly is starting to look like a caricature. The PGA Tour is rightly distancing itself from Mr. Daly because of his book revelations, he sordid past, his bad decisions and his lousy play. For different reasons, the LPGA appears to be distancing itself from Ms. Wie because of her age, limited playing schedule, poor showings on the LPGA Tour, and the embarrassing outings she’s had on the PGA Tour.
Don't get your hopes up that Michelle Wie will win the upcoming tournament or many after that. Yes, she'll get all the attention. Yes, she'll be the lead story into all the media coverage and yes, all the Wie Warriors will be predicting victory. Once reality sets in on Sunday, someone that we barely know like Birdie Kim will probably be victorious and Michelle Wie will have a new set of excuses why she didn't do as well as advertised.
Labels: Annika Sorenstam, LPGA, Michelle Wie, PGA Tour, Phil Mickelson, Women's Golf
