The Best In Golf

The piling on going on right now from the pressroom to the grillroom against Michelle Wie and her mis-handlers has reached Led Zeppelin volume.

Why is it?

I have a theory…she’s 17 and has never won a tournament of note…Nike as well as others pay her millions a year to miss cuts, fane injury, and generally act like what she is…a child.

Why would anyone act like this and why haven’t the people around her stepped into the fray and and pulled her out of the media fire?

You got it…it’s all about the green and we aren’t talking about featherbed bent here.

What if one of those around her…her swing coach, her psychologist, her agent, or her publicist put a stop to this? If her crazy parents didn’t listen, then quit, send a message.

They hold their tongues for the same reason those around Tiger were so summarily dismissed who stepped out of the circle. Sure, Fluff Cowen has a great bag in Jim Furyk, and Butch has Mickelson but Senator they are no Tiger Woods…you don’t anger it.

Last weekend Mark Burris and I played golf together at Bulls Bay. The talk on the range, the grill, and the upstairs bar was all the same…not a dissenter in the group.

“She’s through, we won’t hear anything else from her, there are better young players on the LPGA right now…and better junior girls younger than her”

I hate to be the one to tell you this…but that’s bullshit and anyone who believes it has either never seen her compress a golf ball…or doesn’t know what it looks and sounds like when a golf ball is compressed.

Here’s what I know…there isn’t a female in the game who hits it like she does…there are 150 every week on the boy’s circuit, but repeat…none on the girls.

I don’t know if Michelle Wie will ever make another cut…none of us do. My friends will get a kick out of this and tell me I’m nuts…after all I did make a drunken wager she would win the Masters within 10 years…8 to go by the way.

But let’s not wish or will this incredibly talented teenager to defeat and shame…let’s hope she gives us what she’s capable of…golf as no other woman has played it before now. Let’s give her a chance.

PS Michelle a playoff victory this week at Pine Needles would be much appreciated. RH

Ahhh…an agreeable voice.

OK, so The Legend didn’t predict that Michelle Wie would win the Masters in the next 10 years as I did last year.

My excuse is I was in an unfamiliar place, a land foreign to me in every way.

The fact is I was in a very familiar place, the State of Mouthy Drunkenness…didn’t count on Francis Ford Scott being their with his Sony…damn.

I still believe, however, that anyone should be able to play anywhere their skill will take them.

That skill may or may not include downhill two-footers.

That doesn’t mean that dogs should play cat games…but that’s not what we are talking about. Wie isn’t a groundbreaker, that was Annika….this girl is a bulldozer making way for hundreds behind her…you did hear that the recently crowned U.S. Women’s Amateur Champion is 14 years old, just got braces, and says her hobby is “sleeping” didn’t you? Too much.

No, this isn’t dogs playing with cats…this is the same game…and that’s what’s scary.

Unfortunately the entire column is not yet on Golf For Women’s website…what follows is a few paragraphs.

Get yourself a copy and enjoy the words of the undisputed heavy weight champ of golf writing…and not just because I agree with him either.

If You Let Her Play
(excerpted from the September issue of Golf For Women Magazine)
by Dan Jenkins

Those who say the PGA Tour shouldn’t grant exemptions to Michelle Wie aren’t the ones counting the gate. If you’re throwing a golf party, you invite Tim Herron, I’ll invite Michelle Wie. You invite Brett Wetterich, I’ll invite Michelle Wie. You invite Carl Petterrssonn. I could have too many letters in the Swede’s name, maybe not, I’ll invite Michelle Wie.

See, if I am a sponsor on the PGA Tour, I’m inclined to want to sell tickets to my tournament.

I know. Stupid me. Its old-fashioned. Its obsolete. As a sponsor, the tour says, its okay if I sell tickets, but my main job is to help 200 guys I’ve never heard of make a lot of money.

The fact is, Phil and Tiger are the only golfers who sell tickets these days. The spectacle sells the rest. The tournament comes to town, and its a social event, a happening, a picnic, a kegger, a few days loafing around on the rich guys lawn.

Which leads me to Michelle Wie. If I’m a sponsor, I know she’s going to bring in about 25,000 fans a day to my tournament.

‘Nuff said.

Opening up golfdigest.com this morning there was a terrific article by Tim Rosaforte on at least part of the subject of The PGA Championship post below.

Tim’s writing (and commentary) is always sharp…but it was so nice to read what I was trying to say.

You won’t be disappointed. Go here and click on Tim’s column…read some first class writing:

http://golfdigest.com/