Of course I am specifically referring to those unerring prognosticators, like dalej42, Ellis Dee, FoieGrasIsEvil, Dumbguy, and last but certainly not least, gonzomax, who each either predicted she’d be a washout or just expressed general disdain against her accomplishments or ability past present and/or future.
Oh, and last I checked, that’s +2 up on Anna Kournikova, for those still counting. BTW this thread is mainly an experiment to see if anyone on an Internet message board is willing to publicly retract their previously expressed public viewpoints.
I almost literally ran into Michelle Wie in the library at Stanford University a few years ago. I don’t retract a single thing I said about her (under my breath) at the time.
Oh for Caeser’s criminy’s sake-what’s the f*** is that supposed to mean? And you wonder why I put you on my list? Her career doesn’t “need saving.” She’s 20 years old (turns 21 in a month or two), and has 2 more titles than the vast majority of all other female golfers through their age 20 season. Just. Stop. With. The. Not-So-Sly. And Pointless. Putdowns.
She was touted as the next coming. She was supposed to dominate the women and then beat the men. Sadly that is what she had to live up to. It is a high bar , but just beating the women regularly would suffice now. The expectations for her have come closer to reality.
Winning an occasional tournament is not enough though.
If you a Michelle Wie critic, you will focus on what she hasn’t done. (glass half empty)
But here is some facts what she has done. (glass half full)
Finished in the top 5 in the 4 consecutive womens majors at age 15-16 as an amateur.
Won a Womens USGA amateur event at age 13.
Missed the cut in the PGATour Sony open by one shot, at age 14.
advanced to the quarterfinals (finished T5) of a MEN Publinx amateur USGA championship, losing to the eventual winner.
Yes, she didn’t win often as a teenager. But that is about the only thing that she did not do. It is a impressive resume.
And then her game fell apart at age 17,18. She couldn’t break an egg. but she has rebuilt her game and but she is not nearly the golfer that she was when she was a young teenager.
I’d say the problem was with those who were doing the “touting”, not her; by just about any normal standard there’s absolutely no shame in what’s she accomplished so far before her 21st birthday. What’s it to you anyway, Gonzo? Why do you seem to have an inverse hard-on against this young woman? I can already anticipate future threads:
“Hey, Michelle Wie won two majors this year!”
“Eh big deal she didn’t win the other two, what a disappointment.”
Oh, by the way, you’ll need a lot of cement and nice hefty crane to help move those heavy goalposts around, Gonzo.
"She’s very good, and has great potential… though as Casey Stengel liked tosay, “Potential is a Latin word meaning you haven’t DONE it yet.”
“She’s been treated as a much bigger story than she is, solely because she wants to play against the men. That makes her a freak show more than a golfer, in my opinion.”
“I don’t see Michelle Wie making any kind of splash on the men’s tour… but even if she never makes a cut, playing with the men may very well make her a stronger player on the women’s tour.”
She wins one women’s golf major and the best you can do is say that she is a better golfer than a mediocre tennis player is? Talk about low expectations!
Michelle Wie was (and is) a very good young female golfer with the potential to be a star on the LPGA circuit. Nothing wrong with that. But that wasn’t good enough for her or her handlers. By playing on the men’s tour, she became a novelty act, when she should have been working to be the best female golfer she could be.
As Annika Sorenstam proved, even the best of the best female golfers can’t compete with the men. But at least Annika earned the right to try, by winning countless tournaments on the LPGA tour. Michelle Wie tried to skip right to the top. That doesn’t earn her a lot of respect in my book.
I never disliked her, and never bore her any good will. My take all along was that she should get serious and go back to work winning on the LPGA tour.
That was in response to several people in the other threads who were comparing a (now) 29 year old retired tennis player to a (then) 18-19-20 year old active female golfer, and claiming that, since neither had won any tournaments, that Wie was as much of a overrated overhyped washout as Anna was-which was ridiculous since golfers peak much later than tennis players. Note Annika Sörenstam won 8 of her ten majors after the age of 30, while Kournikova hasn’t even turned 30 yet but has been off the WTA tour for 7 years now.
It is not about age or peaking. Many thought she was mishandled and her career suffered because of it. They harmed her and it is questionable if she can get back on track. it is good that she finally won again, but she had had some horrible tournaments lately. The jury is still out.
the problem with michelle, imho, was that her advisors convinced her that she could make more money by being a circus freak rather than being a female golfer.
i am glad for her and now hopefully she will concentrate her efforts on her game.
Michelle is not eanring love on the tour. She was caught grounding the club twice in traps for 2 stroke penalties. She was DQd for an illegal drop. On at least 2 occasions she was shooting so badly that she would have shot over 85 and lost her card. She complained of a sore wrist and walked off the course rather than risk it. Other pros resented her getting all the attention before she earned it.
