Wie Bitter?

Thanks to reader Tuco for this link to www.michellewiegolf.com.  Just click on it and remember the URL when the page finally opens.

And remember who is paying Wie a lot of money.

Wie Think

Just when they wanted to write Michelle Wie off...she pulls 'em back in with a very impressive 68.

Chris Lewis sums up the state of her game and where she's headed.

John Huggan in his Scotland on Sunday column thinks she should stop playing with the men.

And Damon Hack offers a different look at Wie, who has a nice appreciation for the accomplishments of Babe Zaharias (Michelle, not Damon, well maybe Damon too, I don't know).

Wie and Sony

Michelle Wie is playing the Sony Open (shocker, I know).

You have to love how these appearance fees work on the PGA Tour. At least with Tiger and Buick, he waits until the last minute and doesn't play every one of their events.

Donegan on Wie

Thanks to reader Jay for the heads up on this Lawrence Donegan piece on the Michelle Wie honey bee drop. It was published October 15. (Sounds kind of ridiculous in the big scheme of things to be obsessing about this, but...).

Official's Role In Wie Drop

Here's an interesting discussion focusing on the actions of the rules officials, citing Jim McCabe's story as well as Jim Achenbach's column (which was cited in a reader comment here as well).

Hannigan On Wie Drop

Golfobserver's Frank Hannigan takes a look at the Michelle Wie DQ and her drop method.

This courtesy of reader Tommy...again, for Michelle's reference.

 

R&A Weighs In!?

Here is a strange story from the UK's Telegraph quoting Grant Moir of the R&A, who is eager to let Michelle Wie know that they are on her side.

Are they that desperate to get her in the British Open, or just trying too hard to be liked? Seems they're a bit out of their jurisdiction on this one.

...the R & A were "frustrated" with Bamberger's handling of events. "If he felt at the time that he had witnessed a breach and was sufficiently sure of himself to raise it, he should have found an official at once.

"He should have known just how serious it would be for Michelle if he hung on to the information until the following day."

Meanwhile, GolfDigest.com readers weigh in and frankly, their comments are more interesting. Most are outraged at Bamberger and the overall situation, but in particular most seem to be in agreement that something needs to be done about outside rule violation reporting without time limits.

Shapiro on Bamberger

Leonard Shapiro in the Washington Post writes of Michael Bamberger's actions:

I believe he was dead wrong and did the absolutely dishonorable thing for his profession. He was there as a representative of his publication, given credentials by the LPGA to "cover" the event, not officiate it. If he wanted to mark off the yardage to prove the error of Wie's ways to himself and then to his readers, no problem there. If he wanted to write about his findings in the magazine, again, that certainly was his prerogative.

So if Bamberger waited to spring this on readers in SI instead of reporting it to officials and the player at the tournament (albeit, way later than he should have), that would have been acceptable?I don't think so. 

Bamberger Criticism

The criticism of Michael Bamberger and SI has bothered me for some reason, even though I know he didn't handle the Wie situation too well, as he acknowledges in the SI.com interview linked here in a second. If you want to read more complaints his actions, go here and here. For Bamberger's SI interview outlining the situation, go here. He says:

A: In hindsight, if I could do anything over again, I would try to intercept her between the 18th green and her signing her scorecard. I wish I would've done that.

And I found this comment interesting:

Q: What would that shot have been like for her?

A: From where she played her shot, she took five practice swings. Each time she lightly brushed a 9-foot tall Yucca plant behind her. If she had been 12-18 inches farther back, that Yucca plant would have been squarely in her way.

So I've finally figured out what's been bothering me about the onslaught of criticism.

Bamberger was out there on the course. Many of golf's finest scribblers haven't been seen walking with a player in years, or if they were, it was from the locker room to the parking lot. Bamberger is actually one of the few who walks enough with players to put himself in a position where he might see something unusual happen.

Some of his critics in the media might want to keep that in mind when they ponder how they would have handled the situation. (Assuming they even left the press center to give themselves a chance to see a violation). 

Brian Wacker at GolfDigest.com also puts the situation in perspective by bringing up the antics of Marco Dawson, whose whistleblowing tactics were far more troublesome. 

More SI Coverage Of Wie Incident

SI admirably takes the Wie incident heads on, publishing these photos of the drop (well, 6 of 7 are photos...the 7th is some sort of trivia ad thing), while offering a rebuttal to Alan Shipnuck's piece with SI's own Rob Stanger sort of scolding his colleague, though I don't buy into one of the scenarios he suggested for Bamberger to have considered (calling out to the caddy on the spot right after the drop).

Stanger also gets on Wie and the LPGA. He points out the rule 20-2 drop violation discussed in posts below.

Another good point Stanger addresses involves the LPGA players and reminds us what a debacle Trump National was with so many needing rulings. Same thing at Bighorn, including an incident with Annika.

Is it the golf courses and the many environmental areas, or as some are saying, players not knowing the rules well enough? Or a little of both? Or maybe the LPGA not having enough officials (hard to imagine that being the case at the tiny field Samsung).

Either way it seems this incident will ultimately force several issues to be addressed (DQ for day-after rulings, outside the ropes reporting of violations, player knowledge of rules, etc...), likely for the betterment of the sport.

While We're Nitpicking

Here is Wie making what I believe is the infamous drop.

 

According to Rule 20-2: "A ball to be dropped under the Rules must be dropped by the player himself. He must stand erect, hold the ball at shoulder height and arm’s length and drop it. If a ball is dropped by any other person or in any other manner and the error is not corrected as provided in Rule 20-6, the player incurs a penalty of one stroke."

Reader Blue Blazer and other readers have pointed out that they noticed the almost waist-high drop as it was happening, and thought to themselves that Wie's dropping methodology left a lot to be desired. Hard to say definitively from the photo if she's at waist level, but it appears she's somewhere between the shoulder and waist.

Just something she might want to correct since her future ball drops will be closely scrutinized.
 

Even More Wie DQ Follow Up

George White looks at the issues raised by the Wie DQ incident, namely, why is it in golf that these things can be reviewed the day after, while in other sports they'd never hear of such a thing.

Meanwhile at Golfobserver, David Barrett says throw out such analogies. He also makes this point, which might answer George White's questions regarding fairness.

I would like to see unknowing violations that come to light after a player has signed his scorecard be penalized by adding the appropriate penalty strokes--and maybe even two extra strokes--instead of with disqualification.

There are already a couple of principles embedded in the Rules that could lead in this direction. First, there is what happens at the end of the competition. Once a competition is closed--for a multi-round event, that means the final round is over and the result announced--a player is disqualified only if it comes to light that he knew he incurred penalty strokes but did not report them. This could be extended back to the time of signing the scorecard.

There's also an existing, but seldom-used, way to tackle the problem. The Rules give the committee the power to waive or modify a disqualification penalty in "exceptional individual cases." However, the Rulesmakers view "exceptional" to mean extremely rare...

More Wie DQ Follow Up

Nothing gets media juices flowing more than a story involving...itself! Lots of interesting reactions to the Wie DQ incident and Michael Bamberger's role in it.

Alan Shipnuck defends his SI colleague.  Tom Hanson in the Naples News says Wie is a victim of the SI jinx without even making the cover, and is pretty tough on Bamberger.

In the UK, Lewis Mair looks at all the losers in this, namely Annika Sorrenstam, whose easy win was forgotten, and whose post round press conference was deserted 5 minutes into it by the scribblers much more interested in the Wie story. Finally, Lawrence Donegan reports on an "angry altercation" between Wie's caddie and Bamberger over the incident. Jeese, it's just the Samsung World Championship. Let's all get along!

Wie DQ Follow Up

TheGolfChannel.com (again) has the first and best insider's take on the Wie DQ. Brian Hewitt talks to Michael Bamberger for his insights into the incident (that he precipitated).

Jim Achenbach says Wie did nothing wrong and will some day laugh about it.

So far, no one has mentioned reader Blue Blazer's observation that Wie was dropping the ball just above waist high, which is a lot lower than shoulder high. Kind of makes me long for the old over-the-shoulder days.

And just in case there was any relationship left between Wie and SI (ah she'll forgive them, won't she?), Gary Van Sickle finally asks a few tough questions that no one has dared to bring up regarding some of the claims made by Wie's family with regard to her plans on earning a college degree.

Wie Q

Doug Ferguson's AP story on Annika's win at the Samsung and Michelle Wie's DQ.

“I learned a great lesson,” Wie said, her voice choking with emotion. “From now on, I’ll call a rules official no matter where it is, whether its 3 inches or 100 yards. I respect that.”

Wie hit a 5-wood shot into a Gold Lantana bush Saturday and was barely able to find it. She told her playing partner, Grace Park, she was taking an unplayable lie, dropped away from the bush, then chipped to 15 feet and made the par. It was a critical save, and Wie steadied herself to get within five shots of the lead.

Michael Bamberger, a reporter for Sports Illustrated, told tour officials Sunday afternoon that he was concerned about the drop. Rules officials Jim Haley and Robert O. Smith reviewed tape from NBC Sports before taking Wie and caddie Greg Johnston to the seventh green after the tournament ended Sunday.

“If I had to make the ruling based on the videotape, to me it was inconclusive,” Smith said.

He had Johnston and Wie show him where the ball was in the bushes, then where they dropped. They paced it off, then used string to measure the distance and determined it to be slightly closer.

“The Rules of Golf are based on facts,” Smith said. “They had to tell us where it was. The fact was, the ball was closer to the hole by 12 to 15 inches.”