Michelle Wie shoots 82 today ...

I'm sure there were a million places Brady Quinn would rather have been than sitting at the NFL Draft watching his stock fall like Enron.

Doesn't mean he was forced to sit through it.

You make choices. You fight through the tough times.

Not "if" but "when", eh?

Can I borrow your crystal ball?

Please give me a detailed list of prodigies who sued their parents.

And we will compare those against the tens of thousands who didn't.

 

BTE, I'm sure you feel the opposite about the rest of us, but your adamant defense of everything the Wies do is a bit head-scratching. It seems obvious that Wie's people wanted too much, too quickly for her, and that now the potential for long-term damage to her career is greater every tournament she plays in. It doesn't matter if Wie is a competitor and "generally WANTS to compete even when she shouldn't." She's 17. Reasonable, rational people need to make those decisions FOR her, and have her best interests as a human being, not a cash cow, at heart. The Wies seem like good people and good parents, so I just don't know if they're overwhelmed or what. But it really feels like we're inching toward the point where she has a Capriati/Maranovich freak out.

If she's hurt, pull her out of all the tournaments until she's totally healthy. Give her six months to chill out at Stanford, then let her come back and kick ass on either Tour if she's capable. I love watching her hit golf balls. I really do. It's even more impressive in person than it is on TV. Unlike some people, I really want to see her do well. But something -- whether it's mental or physical -- clearly isn't right. And she's not going to be the one to put the breaks on, because she'll feel like she's letting everyone (sponsors, parents, fans) down. Someone has to make that decision for her.

 

And here's a quote from young Michelle in the first AP lead:

“It’s just a very fine line between shooting 69 and shooting when I shot today.”

 

That's a fair point.

But in truth, I'm not "defending everything the Wies do" as much as I am railing against the knuckleheads who proclaim "The Apocalypse is coming!!!" every time she shoots in the 80s.

She's not breaking laws. She's not doing drugs. What evidence you see of a Capriati/Marinovich freak out is completely lost on me. She's struggling on the golf course . . . nothing more.

That's what I mean by "The Apocalpyse is coming!!!"

I simply don't see how being slightly injured physically and in confidence at age 17 will make one iota of difference when she's 22 or 23 or 24. You see a career in danger of careening out of control and crashing. I see it hitting an ugly pothole with some minor damage.

This isn't an NFL rookie QB being thrown to the lions (or playing for the Lions) with no offensive line and the potential for serious injury every time he lines up.

What I'm seeing in these arguments is potentially flawed cause-and-effect.

Maria Sharapova's father is more maniacal than Wie's. And Sharapova is a marketing diva playing through a shoulder injury that she has been told needs eight weeks of rest. Sound familiar?

But Sharapova has a history of winning, so the outside influences are forgiven and forgotten.

Wie doesn't have that history of winning, so the outside influences are automatically labeled as the CAUSE of her problems. I say, "Not so fast . . . "

Whatever "proper" decisions Wie needs to make, she has TONS OF TIME to make them. And whatever mistakes she makes along the way, she has TONS OF TIME to overcome them.

And that's really all I'm trying to say.

 

No hindsight involved her. A bunch of us having been saying for quite awhile that she should pack it in until she's ready to handle the physical, mental and emotional demands of the sport.

A handful of people are on Tiger's tush right now because he's only finished second and second in his last two majors. The distaff Tiger needs to cut 8-10 strokes a day off her score on a fairly regular basis before the criticism goes away. The best way to do that is for Wie Co., Inc., to shut her down for a month or so to let her heal, physically and mentally.

 

Which means sometimes you guess right.

And as my sig line shows . . . oftentimes you guess wrong.

 

Michelle Sung Wie (Korean Wie Seong-mi Hangul: 위성미 Hanja: 魏聖美, born October 11, 1989 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American professional golfer.

[See Ty Tryon]

 

Here is my point: So much of sports is about confidence. When Jordan hit that jumper against Georgetown as a freshman, he knew he could do it because he'd done it countless times in high school. And when he got to the NBA, he had an unshakable faith in himself that he could nail game-winners because he'd done it before. Same with Tiger Woods. In the U.S. Amateur, he was three down with three to play, and came back and won in extra holes. And so against Bob May in the PGA Championship, when he had to make that eight-foot putt or go home, he made it. He could dig down deep inside himself and believe that he could do it because, in his mind, HE ALREADY HAD. Sampras? Agassi? The kicked the shit out of a lot of kids in juniors before they ever started competing on the ATP tour. You know what the best way to predict success for an NFL quarterback is? Number of college starts. Statistically, the more you make, the more likely you are to be successful.

My point with Wie is, she's experiencing her "bump in the road" before she's ever actually won anything besides the Hawaiian Women's Open and a USGA Women's Amateur Public Links championship. She has never -- at any level -- won a 72 hole tournament.

Think about how many teenagers who aren't millionares and celebrities suffer in their 20s because of self-confidence issues. Think about how many baseball players couldn't handle the big leagues because teams brought them up too quickly. Sharapova's history of winning is EXACTLY what she has going for her. Her father may be a lunatic, but he didn't throw her on the court against men when she was 15 and say, well if she gets squashed, it's all part of the learning process. He let her figure out how to win, slowly, then reach a point where she can decide whether or not to push through injuries. If she gets embarrassed at Wimbledon, she can still say, well, I've won two Grand Slams and a ton of regular tournaments at several levels. I know I can hit a hard second serve down match point when I have to because I've done it before.

Wie skipped all that. That's what worries me about this "bump in the road." She doesn't have previous success to call upon, mentally, that will help her get out of this rut. And my fear is, that self doubt and all the pressure on her shoulders every time she tees it up, is going to grow. Going through seven caddies since she turned professional, and being questioned about three major rules infractions since she turned pro, seem to be major warning signs. Maybe it will all work itself out, and she'll be fine. But so much of golf is mental, maybe more than any other sport, that I just don't know anymore.

As for your comparisson to Peyton Manning, football is a team sport. A golfer, like writers and boxers, must stand alone.

 

Maybe not in sanctioned matches, but . . .

He sent her to Bolleteiri's at an age younger than 15 where she slugged it out against males for hours a day.

A lot of juniors crack in that environment and with a father like that. Sharapova is the exception.

 

Surely you're joking here. This girl's entourage has her all jacked up. First, let's take a gorgeous rhythmic swing (very Els like) and f-ck it up by sending her to Ledbetter. Name a decent player (let alone a superstar) that Ledbetter has improved. By this I mean, someone that was already good that took instruction from him and reeled off high quality major victories and then stayed with him.

No one has pressed her, or her entourage to assess the level of stress put on her wrist by the swing changes...or the number of practice balls her father forced her to hit in the off-season. Please...jogging accident? Her old swing was based on a long arc and her height allowed her to accelerate from that position through the ball. In trying to create more ball control now, her swing has been shortened and the idea is to hold her wrist angle at impact longer. Her natural rhythim is now faster and thus, has less control at impact. Her swing from two years ago would allow her to kick everyone's ass on the Ladies Tour. What a waste...thus far.

 

are you kidding me? Did she say this?