When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Well, victim might be an inappropriate choice considering the golden parachute awaiting now former Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O'Neal, but several media outlets have noted that the real kicker in his own meltdown was news that he was playing golf as the sub-prime meltdown kicked in and his company faced staggering losses.
Dottie Pepper in the current SI Golf Plus:
What will it take for Team Wie to realize that things simply aren't working? There were whispers in tour circles earlier this season that her driver was actually heavier and stiffer than Tigers Woods's driver. Even if that's not true, it shows how poisonous the atmosphere around Wie has become. Some believe Michelle hasn't had a personal lesson with her teacher, David Leadbetter, in a very long time. Still, a simple video comparison from three years ago should make her deterioration apparent and be a wake-up call for Michelle's dad, B.J., who seems to have become her day-to-day coach. At the same time, B.J. and Michele's mom, Bo, have moved to Palo Alto, Calif., where Michelle is a freshman at Stanford.
This is utter rubbish and it has to stop. Michelle has already sacrificed her childhood, and now her college experience is in jeopardy as well. Let Michelle grow up and make her own decisions. Her play might or might not rebound. But what's happening right now goes way beyond birdies, bogeys and bank accounts. It's stifling the person as well as her game.
Great to see someone (as usual, Pepper) willing to state such an important point about Wie's future well being.
Lorne Rubenstein writes about Michelle Wie and features some strong comments from her coach, David Leadbetter.
“If she hadn't played those [men's] tournaments, then everybody would have considered 2006 her best season yet,” Wie's swing coach, David Leadbetter, who had made his opinions known to her and her family, said Monday from his home in Orlando. “It was absolute madness for her to play them. That started the whole debacle. Now with Greg Nared leaving, you feel like this is the Titanic.”And...
Wie has also been dealing with injuries. She'd developed tendinitis in her right wrist. Then, in February, she broke her left wrist. She came back too early.
“First, the wrist hadn't healed properly and she'd done very little rehab,” Leadbetter said. “You don't come back and play so fast. The injury has to heal and then you have to rehab it. Then you have to get stronger. When you don't use your wrist, the forearms and upper body atrophy. After you get stronger, you have to hit balls and get competitive. Then you play. Michelle bypassed the whole process.”
Wie is a wealthy young woman because of endorsements with Nike and Sony. For a time anyway, it seemed reasonable for her to play PGA Tour events. She had a dream, and she came close to making a PGA Tour cut when she was 14. But at some point, as Leadbetter said, her and her parents' approach became unrealistic.
“It's not even logical,” Leadbetter said. “I'm scared for her future.”
Greg Nared makes it number two to bid farwell.
Based on the Wie family statement, Nared sounds like he was a driver...
Statement on Greg Nared’s Departure from Team Wie
LOS ANGELES—The following is a statement by Jesse Derris, of Sunshine, Sachs & Associates, on behalf of Michelle Wie and her team at the William Morris Agency concerning Greg Nared’s resignation:
“While we are sorry that Greg will no longer be handling the road management of Michelle, we wish to thank him for his work and wish him the best going forward. The core group of agents handling Michelle’s business relationships remains intact, as it has from day one of her professional career.”
"I don't have a crystal ball," she said. "Has the media put too much on her in terms of expectations? The answer is yes. But if Michelle were never to play another day of professional golf, she's had a pretty rewarding career for someone who came on so young when she was 11 and 12 to 17.
"No, she didn't win four or five Opens, but that doesn't necessarily portend anything for the future."
The tone of this AP piece (I smell Ferguson) and Ron Sirak's GolfDigest.com column all but come out and say she shouldn't be playing the Samsung. Earlier this year she's rightfully ripped for her 88 rule avoidance round, and now she's just trying to tee it up so she can collect that last place check that might cover about half her dorm bill.
Normal handlers would have had her pull out of this one. But these aren't normal handlers running her career.
Mark Soltau reports that Michelle Wie has arrived at Stanford, playing nine holes on the remnants of George Thomas and Billy Bell's 1930 Stanford GC design. She was accompanied by her parents, who have rented a house nearby.
Oh yeah, that sounds fun.
You have to give Michelle Wie points for this one liner, talking about the Old Course, as quoted by Alistair Tait at Golfweek.com:
“It’s the most interesting golf course I’ve ever played,” Wie said. “You actually aim to hit another fairway. This year I’ve been doing that by accident – now I’ve been doing it on purpose.And of course, you know I'm swooning reading this. Big points:
“It’s just so amazing. It’s just breathtaking. It’s quickly become one of my favorite golf courses.”
Is that Luca Brasi talking about the Corleone's? No, just another caddie (not) talking about the Wie family.
Ron Sirak serves up that and several other interesting Michelle Wie observations from the Evian Masters:
Want an indication of the tension level surrounding the Michelle Wie Camp as she continues to struggle with her game? David Clarke, who is about the 14th person to caddie for Michelle - and I'm being serious with that number - was approached by a reporter after Saturday's round and asked what club she hit on the 115-yard par-3 17th hole and replied: "I've been told by the family not to talk to the press." Hardly seems like revealing club selection is divulging a state secret. Clarke should know how to handle these situations. He toted luggage for Justin Rose on the men's tour before swing guru David Leadbetter hooked him up with Wie. At least Clarke finished the Evian Masters. Two years ago, Brian Smallwood, a long-time caddie for Betsy King, quit after one round here, fed-up with second-guessing from Wie's parents. And last year, Wie fired Greg Johnston after she finished T-26 in the Women's British Open the week after the Evian. Why caddie for Wie? The possible upside is too great - and there is that six-figure guarantee.
Reader Josh notes that Wie's post fourth round press conference isn't exactly encouraging either.
Six over through nine holes.
Let's hope she takes the rest of the summer off. Somehow I'm afraid that won't happen.
It pains me to read this and think of the damage she's doing mentally by playing right now. Assuming of course that her 82 was influenced by the wrist issues...
On Thursday she never drove the ball beyond the 250 yard mark, hit only four fairways in 14 attempts and 4 greens in 18 in regulation and was clearly light years away from the teenage prodigy who finished third in the US Open not so long ago.
The question being asked now, though, is whether her problems are physical or mental and whether she is suffering some form of burnout after getting too much too soon, including millions of Dollars in endorsements.
Steve Elling files the most entertaining report on Michelle Wie from Pine Needles:
Tuesday on the practice range at the U.S. Women's Open, Michelle Wie bashed away on the range under the watchful eye, and occasionally flippant tongue, of longtime swing coach David Leadbetter. As they left to play nine holes of practice, a local photographer approached and asked Leadbetter for his name. You know, for identification purposes in a newspaper photo caption.This just can't be good...
As the Wie entourage piled into their electric carts and headed toward the 10th tee at Pine Needles Lodge, the lanky Leadbetter turned his head and deadpanned, "Butch Harmon."
What's more, he then repeated the answer as it was dutifully jotted down. Which is where the multiple-choice portion of today's fare comes in, since his smirking response probably means that:
A. Things are so bad in the Wie camp that the noted swing guru no longer wants to be associated with the struggling, 17-year-old prodigy;
B. Butch Harmon got a lot taller, skinnier, grew more hair and developed a foreign accent overnight;
C. The perceived pressure in the Wie camp of late has been so overstated, it's become laughable.
Somewhat surprisingly, given the avalanche of bad publicity Wie has endured over the past year, the answer appears to be C. By most folks' way of reckoning, the strain and suffering should have grown to insufferably high levels, considering her series of athletic and public-relations disasters of the past few months.
But teenagers are nothing if not malleable, right? The million-dollar baby continues to trundle along like a movie-star engenue, blissfully tuning out the bad karma, criticism and sniper fire as though nothing meaningful has happened.
In the eye of Hurricane Michelle, the wind never really blows.
"The worst feeling in life is when no one has any expectations of you," Wie said breezily Tuesday, "when no one expects you to do great things."
Wie said her wrist -- which she says was fractured in a jogging fall over the winter -- is still far from 100 percent, but that she needs to play to regain the lost strength and flexibility, which is the proverbial Catch-22 if ever there was one. Wie has lost distance and remains tentative about over-taxing the injury, claiming she will only hit her driver a few times this week. But after four months on the shelf earlier this year, sitting out this week was not an option.
"It's the U.S. Freaking Open and I'm not going to miss it for anything," she said, drawing laughs.
Ron Sirak hopes that Michelle Wie's decision to pull out of the John Deere Classic is the sign of better career management to come. He also
A defense of giving Wie a free pass into the Deere becomes especially difficult for the PGA Tour when it is hyping the first year of the FedEx Cup, and its points race, and then denies a spot in a tour event to a potential qualifier for the playoffs in favor of a 17-year-old girl who is out of her league against the best players in the world. It may be too conspiratorial to think the tour and Deere were working behind the scenes to get Wie to pull out -- no doubt offering an invitation somewhere down the road -- but there is no question both the tour and the tractor-makers are breathing a sigh of relief.
Too conspiratorial? Well now that I think about it, you are talking about the same people who killed the Western Open. So it's doubtful they were that creative in this case.
Thanks to reader Mike for finding Dottie Pepper's SI Golf Plus column on Michelle Wie. I think it's safe to say that Dottie will not be hired as Wie's guidance counselor.
Given a chance to apologize or at least justify the contradictions, Wie reacted defiantly. Instead of becoming the great player and professional that she has shown the potential to become, Michelle has shown disrespect (especially over the last two weeks) for the game and its traditions.
For the first time she came across as a selfcentered, unapologetic brat.
The LPGA could have handled the withdrawal better. Admitting that the tour needs Michelle and the attention she brings is no crime, but not being truthful about the initial conversations surrounding the WD was improper.
The LPGA is not the source of the problem, though. That, sadly, is the greed and short-sightedness of the two people closest to Michelle, the people charged with molding her into a complete, independent and responsible person: B.J. and her mother, Bo.
The Wies used to be open to the media and the golf world in general. Now they operate under a veil of secrecy and deception, even though they are surrounded by good people giving good advice, which they simply ignore.
The fact that it took four months to admit she had a broken left wrist (which happened when Michelle fell while jogging) should tell everyone that there is something horribly wrong with this picture. With multimillion-dollar contracts to consider, there's pressure on the Wies, both for Michelle to get back on the course and to preserve her playing privileges.
But what about the big picture? Kids trip and fall. So what? Sponsors understand that. Contracts can be adjusted. What can't be recovered so easily is a childhood that's not only been tarnished but also stolen.
David Steele of the Baltimore Sun talking to Gary Gilchrist, Michelle Wie's former instructor:
"She needs to re-evaluate the team around here ... [and] she needs to be more clear on what her goals are and the steps she needs to get to them," Gilchrist said. "And make sure everybody around her understands them. Right now with the way she's swinging, it's very difficult for her to play well. She has no control over the ball right now."
What credibility does he have? Oh, right, he teaches Suzann Pettersen who just won the LPGA Championship and nearly won the season's first major.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
