The 2006 season for Michelle Wie (photos) begins Thursday on the PGA Tour at the Sony Open. With more golf fans joining the Wie backlash - or at least just getting tired of waiting for her to win - this is shaping up as an important year for the young phenom.
Heck, it's an important week, as the AP's Doug Ferguson explained in an article last week:
As for that Wie backlash, as Ferguson wrote, "There is a sense the novelty is wearing off..."
Anyone who has jumped off the Wie bandwagon needs to take a step back in time, say, about four years. Before Wie almost Monday-qualified for the Sony Open as a 12-year-old, before Annika Sorenstam played Colonial on the PGA Tour.
What was the universal opinion, back then, about the chances - even the hypothetical, some-day-down-the-road chances - of a woman making a cut on the PGA Tour? Never gonna happen. Impossible. Crazy.
If someone had asked you four years ago whether a 16-year-old girl might have a decent shot at making a PGA Tour cut, or a very good shot at winning an LPGA major, what would you have thought? I would have thought it was an absurd notion, and you probably would have agreed.
Nobody thinks that anymore. Michelle Wie has changed the paradigm. It's a sign of how extraordinary she is that the predictions of what she can't do by some of the PGA Tour's old guys have evolved.
A couple years ago, Scott Hoch mocked the very idea of Wie playing in the Sony Open and coming close to making the cut. If she breaks 80, it'll be a miracle, Hoch and others said. Wie posted a 68 that week - still the lowest score shot on a traditionally men's tour by a woman - coming within one shot of making the cut. And, oh yeah, beating Scott Hoch.
Now, the old guys say Wie will never win on the PGA Tour. Nobody questions that she will make a cut. There's no doubt that some of Wie's detractors will always have a "yeah, but" response to anything she does. If she wins a USGA adult championship at age 13, "yeah, but she hasn't won a pro event." When she consistently posts high finishes in LPGA Tour events and majors, "yeah, but she hasn't won." When she does win a pro event, "yeah, but she hasn't won a major." When she wins a major ... well, you get the picture. See Mark Calcavecchia, from Ferguson's article: "She's going to make a cut eventually. She's never going to win, period."
But nobody questions that Wie will make a cut on the PGA Tour, perhaps even this week. That's an amazing shift in expectations, in beliefs about what's possible in professional golf.
So let's not forget how remarkable Wie's accomplishments really have been. Even though she hasn't made a cut yet on the PGA Tour, and hasn't won an LPGA Tour event yet, she's consistently doing things that nobody before her has ever done at such a young age (or, in some cases, at any age).
I don't know if Wie will make a cut this year on a traditionally men's tour, but I do think this is the year she'll win on the LPGA Tour. This is a big year for her growth. She's changed the paradigm, all right. And this year, I think she'll be winning back some fans from backlash to the bandwagon.
Michelle Wie on About.com
Heck, it's an important week, as the AP's Doug Ferguson explained in an article last week:
Like any other 16-year-old, Wie had to get through her semester exams in her junior year of high school.Semester exams in chemistry and Japanese, a PGA Tour event, then a driver's license test. Michelle Wie sure isn't your typical 16-year-old girl.
"Oh my God, don't remind me," Wie said earlier this week from Ko Olina Golf Club, where she took a break from studying to work on her golf game. "I have to take my quarter tests and my semester exams."
It started with a chapter test in Japanese on Tuesday. Chemistry and Japanese midterms, plus her quarterly test in math, came on Wednesday. The midterm for math was on Thursday.
And then comes another big test.
Wie will try for the fourth time to become the first woman since Babe Zaharias in 1945 to make the cut on the PGA Tour when she joins 143 men at the Sony Open.
...
On the Tuesday after the Sony Open, Wie goes for her driver's license.
"I haven't even learned to parallel park yet," she said.
As for that Wie backlash, as Ferguson wrote, "There is a sense the novelty is wearing off..."
Anyone who has jumped off the Wie bandwagon needs to take a step back in time, say, about four years. Before Wie almost Monday-qualified for the Sony Open as a 12-year-old, before Annika Sorenstam played Colonial on the PGA Tour.
What was the universal opinion, back then, about the chances - even the hypothetical, some-day-down-the-road chances - of a woman making a cut on the PGA Tour? Never gonna happen. Impossible. Crazy.
If someone had asked you four years ago whether a 16-year-old girl might have a decent shot at making a PGA Tour cut, or a very good shot at winning an LPGA major, what would you have thought? I would have thought it was an absurd notion, and you probably would have agreed.
Nobody thinks that anymore. Michelle Wie has changed the paradigm. It's a sign of how extraordinary she is that the predictions of what she can't do by some of the PGA Tour's old guys have evolved.
A couple years ago, Scott Hoch mocked the very idea of Wie playing in the Sony Open and coming close to making the cut. If she breaks 80, it'll be a miracle, Hoch and others said. Wie posted a 68 that week - still the lowest score shot on a traditionally men's tour by a woman - coming within one shot of making the cut. And, oh yeah, beating Scott Hoch.
Now, the old guys say Wie will never win on the PGA Tour. Nobody questions that she will make a cut. There's no doubt that some of Wie's detractors will always have a "yeah, but" response to anything she does. If she wins a USGA adult championship at age 13, "yeah, but she hasn't won a pro event." When she consistently posts high finishes in LPGA Tour events and majors, "yeah, but she hasn't won." When she does win a pro event, "yeah, but she hasn't won a major." When she wins a major ... well, you get the picture. See Mark Calcavecchia, from Ferguson's article: "She's going to make a cut eventually. She's never going to win, period."
But nobody questions that Wie will make a cut on the PGA Tour, perhaps even this week. That's an amazing shift in expectations, in beliefs about what's possible in professional golf.
So let's not forget how remarkable Wie's accomplishments really have been. Even though she hasn't made a cut yet on the PGA Tour, and hasn't won an LPGA Tour event yet, she's consistently doing things that nobody before her has ever done at such a young age (or, in some cases, at any age).
I don't know if Wie will make a cut this year on a traditionally men's tour, but I do think this is the year she'll win on the LPGA Tour. This is a big year for her growth. She's changed the paradigm, all right. And this year, I think she'll be winning back some fans from backlash to the bandwagon.
Michelle Wie on About.com
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