Michelle Wie Blog

A lackluster year for Michelle Wie did not deter her from bringing home a whopping $20 million since she turned pro in October of 2005. Michelle’s appearance and endorsement fees topped the $20 million mark. An amazing feat for a 17 year old who hasn’t won a tournament, but small change compared to Tiger Wood’s $100 million for the year.

Michelle participated in 12 LPGA events, bringing in a paltry $3.5 million. But it’s the endorsements and appearance fees that made up the other $16.5 million. Oftentimes Michelle just has to “show up” to earn $1 million or more. She earned $1.5 million for appearing at the Casio World Open in Japan and another $700,000 to pop over to her home country of Korea for a short stint. While in Korea she signed a 2-year construction endorsement deal that earned her another $3 million.

Hard to imagine what she might earn if she could stack up first-place finishes like Tiger Woods does. But $20,000,00 in one year for a 17 year old is not too shabby. The best bet Michelle can make is to invest that $20 million so that if she fails to ever win a tournament, at least she will be set for life financially.

More shakeup in the Michelle Wie camp. Ross Berlin, Michelle Wie’s agent since she turned professional in 2005, has left to return to the PGA Tour. Greg Nared takes over the gig. Greg, as you may remember, was Nike’s main man in recruiting Michelle. Tough to say if the investment has paid off yet.

No one doubted Annika Sorenstam was the No. 1 player in womens golf. Now its official. The Womens World Golf Ranking finally made its debut Tuesday morning with Sorenstam far atop the list based on her 21 victories worldwide and three major championships over the last two years.

Such is her dominance that Sorenstams lead was nearly double that of Paula Creamer at No. 2.

The only surprise was Michelle Wie.

The 16-year-old from Hawaii, who turned pro in October, checked in at No. 3 and could move ahead of Creamer depending on what happens in the Fields Open in Hawaii this week on the LPGA Tour.

The womens ranking, sponsored by Rolex, will be published every Tuesday and used as criteria for getting into tournaments such as the LPGA Championship, the Womens British Open and the HSBC Womens World Match Play.

“The Rolex Rankings make nationality, tour membership and amateur or professional status virtually invisible, providing a definitive answer to the question, Who are the best women golfers in the world?” LPGA Tour commissioner Carolyn Bivens said.

The system is similar to the mens ranking. It measures performance over two years, with emphasis placed on the most recent 13-week period. Points are assigned based on the strength of field, then divided by the number of tournaments played.

But there are two major differences.

Professionals and amateurs can appear in the womens world ranking because anyone can earn points by competing in official events on the LPGA, European, Japan, Korean and Australian womens tours, along with the developmental Futures Tour in the United States.

And while the men have a minimum divisor of 40 tournaments over two years, the womens divisor is only 15.

That explains why Wie, who plays sparingly while attending high school in Honolulu, started out ranked so high.

She has played 15 events on the LPGA since 2004 with six top-10 finishes — three in majors. She was fourth in the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 04, and last year was second at the LPGA Championship and tied for third in the Womens British Open. Creamer, meanwhile, won four times worldwide as an LPGA Tour rookie last year. But she has played 35 times in the last two years as a pro and an amateur, so her point average comes out to 9.65. Wie was at 9.24. Read more here…

Source: Golfersgateway blog

For more details visit Golfersgateway.com

Article written by:DOUG FERGUSON