The Good News Out of the Wie DQ
1. She was playing, by far, her best golf since mid-2006. Those claims in some quarters that Wie was done - would never be a force in golf again - are obliterated. This young woman has a very special talent, and she's starting to show that talent again.
2. All the trials and tribulations she's endured since the end of 2006, when her health and her swing both started going downhill, have made her a much more sympathetic figure.
Many of those trials and tribulations were self-inflicted, including the scorecard kerfuffle. But most of us love a comeback story. And Wie's story is still in its infancy. Whether it happens later this year or early next, Wie is going to completely regain her former level of ballstriking. And when she does - because her putting seems much improved now - she's going to start winning, and winning often.
And when that happens - whenever that happens - Wie's star will be even greater because of all the bad things that have happened to her and for her over the past two years.
This site is often overrun by Wie bashers when I post about her. In the aftermath of the State Farm Classic screw-up, the comments are almost 100-percent supportive of Wie.
So despite the controversy over the disqualification, there is good news from this week: Wie's play appears on the ascendancy; and the Wie backlash that developed during her best years appears on the wane.
As a Wie fan, I like both those developments. Now, if she can just remember to sign her scorecard ...
Comments
Brent,
Do you know why Michelle is not playing in the British Open? The tournament’s website says she withdrew.
John
Hey John, Michelle did not receive a sponsor exemption into the British, and she was not otherwise exempt. So she would have had to go through the qualifying stages to get in. She was entered in the first-stage qualifier that was scheduled this past Monday - the day after the Jamie Farr ended. But once she made the cut at the Farr, she withdrew from the qualifier. The logistics just didn’t work - finish the Farr on Sunday, get to England in time for the qualifier on Monday, get back to the States for the State Farm …
There’s one LPGA tournament left on her schedule, the Canadian Women’s Open. She can still try to Monday qualify for other LPGA tournaments, if she wants.
Ummm, no Michelle cannot monday qualify for any LPGA event.
Michelle Wie is not a memeber of the LPGA.
Only non-exempt or otherwise unqualified LPGA member can attempt to qualify on monday.
MW should go back to Stanford and graduate. Play the Asian tour during breaks and summer and never play the LPGA again. After graduation, only play the international tournaments and the US Men’s Open (after qualifying). That’ll put a “sutter in the LPGA’s putter.”
Yes, Brent, she broke a rule. She broke a riduculous rule that has nothing to do with play on the course and should have been changed long ago. I can’t beleive you are such a robot with this “rules are rules” bs. If turning in a signed scorecard is such an integral part of the game, why isn’t it televised? The penalty for signing a correct scorecard after leaving the tent should be one stroke, maybe two, but disqualification is ridiculous.
And the responsibility here doesn’t lie so much with Wie as it does with the LPGA for failing to hire and supervise paid officials to ensure that a catastrophe like this doesn’t take place. The Director of Tournament Competition is Sue Witter, and she should be fired for this. This result was foreseeable and avoidable. As a fan, I am comletely turned off the game by this.
I wholeheartedly agree with you, Brent. as with many things in life…..life isn’t always fair. Are you liberlas out there listening?
Seriously, we have all made mistakes. After all, “to err is human”. So basically, Michelle has just proven herself to be human; and a rather talented young woman humsn being at that.
But beyond what I have already stated about the assinine penalty for a simple signature rule, what’s done is done.
Like you Brent, I can only hope this was a “tough” lesson for her and perhaps she will be even more inspired to do that much better in future competition to keep in the running to qualify for next year.
BREAKING NEWS: MW scheduled to play in the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open next week with the men (PGA). Yippeee, the saga continues and does anybody know if she wins 80K or more that would tour qualify her for the LPGA? Need to find out about the TV coverage and where I put the popcorn last.
Wie monday qualifyed at the 2002 LPGA Takefuji Classic. Have the LPGA rules changed?
Or did she have a ‘qualifying’ exemption?