Michelle Wie Blog

The talk of the golf world today seemed to be concentrated on Michelle Wie’s first round at the Reno Tahoe PGA tournament. Forget about the fact that most of the great players of the PGA are playing in the World Golf Championships at the Bridgestone invitational, and the LPGA is wrapped up in the women’s British Open across the pond. No, the PGA web site features Michelle on the front page in rotator header graphics with Retief Goosen and Juli Inkster.

Geez, you would think that she was tearing up the field over in Reno.

The fact is that after the first round, Michelle is tied for 76th place with a round of one over 73. In fact, it is hard to find the leaderboard of this tournament on the PGA web site to determine who is in first place. Here is a minute by minute description of every shot Michelle Wie took today. It is this kind of thing that really must piss off PGA members.

Granted, playing in a PGA tournament these days must be a high-pressure situation for Michelle, considering the fact that she has not won one tournament in three years playing against the ladies. You have got to give her credit for her unbelievable confidence in her abilities. If Michelle does make the cut on this one, just wait for the media attention. Although she is 0-8 in her attempts to even make the cut in the PGA tournaments she has played thus far.

Well, gotta go. The golf channel will have good coverage tonight on Michelle’s round. No one is immune to the Wie spell.

Annika Sorenstam is not holding back on the topic of Michelle Wie and why she would choose to play with the men of the PGA this week rather than compete with the LPGA at the Women’s British Open.

Thursday begins Annika’s final Women’s British Open before retirement. Sorenstam believes the 18-year-old Wie, who will be in action in Reno, Nevada, this week, is not doing herself (anyone else) any favors by playing against the men. Michelle has slipped in the women’s rankings to number 299.

Sorenstam has some credibility on the subject. After all, she was the World’s No 1 women golfer in May 2003 when she became the first woman in 53 years to play on the US men’s tour.

Although she narrowly missed the cut, the now 37-year-old Sorenstam described her two rounds in the Colonial Tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, as “a wonderful experience”. However, she never felt the need to do anything similar again.

Annika remarked, “I really don’t know why Michelle is continuing to do this. I mean, we have a major this week and if you can’t qualify for a major, I don’t see any reason why you should play with the men.”

Michelle was not granted an exemption for Sunningdale, although she did have a chance of qualifying at the State Farm Classic, an LPGA Tour event in Springfield, Illinois, 11 days ago. True to Wie form, she was one shot off the lead after three rounds, then was disqualified for not having signed her second-round scorecard until after she had left the recording area.

Wie opted against entering any further qualifying event for the British Open. Because she was not granted an exemption, she chose to go to Reno to compete against the men instead.

These exemptions are getting old. Unless Michelle starts to compete and win, the exemptions will soon dry up. She has got to learn to first, sign her scorecard correctly, then start winning on the LPGA without exemptions. She is not the cute 13 wunderkind any more. And the ladies of the LPGA are getting pretty darn weary of the whole thing.

Put your ear to the ground and you can probably hear the grumbling from the LPGA locker room regarding the latest Michelle Wie newsflash - she will be competing against the men on the PGA tour - AGAIN.

Wie made the decision just days after being disqualified from an LPGA tournament for not signing her scorecard before leaving the scoring tent.

Granted, Michelle was playing pretty good last weekend, just off the lead when the mishap occurred - but she hasn’t been tearing up the LPGA to warrant teeing it up with the men, that’s for sure.

Michelle has yet to make the cut on the men’s tour - after 8 tries. But as usual, Michelle has a positive outlook on the whole thing saying, “It’s not every day that woman is give the opportunity to play on the greatest Tour in the world. This is a tremendous opportunity for me to learn from these great players and take those lessons into the future to becoming the best player I can be on any tour. This is another step in the process of making me a better player.”

You’ve got to hand it to Michelle though. She keeps putting herself out there and grinding away for that first win - on any tour.

One has to wonder if she ends up in Qualifying School if the exemptions will continue to roll in next year.