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On the Bright Side, Michelle ...

... the U.S. Open is not counted by the LPGA Tour among the tournaments in which you must win the equivalent of enough money to finish inside the Top 90 on the money list in order to get your 2009 Tour card without going through Q-School. (That was a weird sentence.)

No harm, no foul.

If there was a tournament in Wie's comeback that was going to give her trouble, a U.S. Women's Open was it. And it did. Although she played fairly respectably - not great, not even good really, just mostly solid - in her two rounds save for the ninth hole on Thursday, where she made a nine. And the problem there wasn't her driving, which - with U.S. Open rough waiting - is what you'd think would give her problems in this tournament.

Wie hit 6 of 14 fairways on Day 1 and 7 of 14 in Round 2. Better numbers, actually, than what she's been doing up to this point. And she hit 10 of 18 and 11 of 18 greens, respectively.

The worst thing that happened to her this week wasn't even that nine, or missing the cut, it was having to come back Saturday morning and play one hole of her final round, knowing she had missed the cut anyway, and with that one leftover hole being ... No. 9. A fate so cruel even courtgolf expressed sympathy!

To get that Tour card, Wie will have to earn roughly $95,000 total, and she's used three of six sponsor exemptions so far: Earned $2,570 back in February in Hawaii; missed the cut at the Michelob Ultra; made $18,887 last week at the Wegmans.

So Wie needs approximately $75,000 or more out of her last three sponsor exemptions. Which she can get, for example, with one Top 10 and two Top 25s, or three Top 15s, or one Top 5 and two missed cuts. (Wie can always try to Monday qualify for additional tournaments, too ...)

Poll
Will Michelle Wie be able to win enough money in her remaining sponsor exemptions to earn her Tour card without going through Q-School?
  • Yes
  • No

  41 votes | Results

0 recs | Comment 1 comments

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I just don't see it happening

I agree with Stu that Wie’s US Open wasn’t all that terrible. Her one disasterous hole was her 9th hole of the first round. Instead of fighting back to recover, she panicked and put up three more bogies before making birdie on 18. She needed a clean card with four birdies in the second round just to make the cut. She played a good first 12 holes, then bogied three of her last six holes. I don’t think she quit – I think she got tight and started missing shots.

Her recent interviews, she has continued with her line about not only playing with the men, but playing in The Masters. It was cute when she was 13, but she’s pushing 19 and the only thing that has improved is her grasp of cliche answers for the media. All these years with Leadbetter and she hasn’t improved even a little bit. (we’ve had this discussion here and nobody seemed to think that Leadbetter was any kind of good coach for her) She doesn’t seem to see the holes in her game or the steps to improvement she needs to take. She thinks she can just magically leap to the top of the game.

Ok – three starts on regular LPGA courses – short on yardage, fifty yard wide fairways, almost non-existent rough, mostly mid-paced, flat greens with pins mostly in the middle. With the exception of The Wegman’s, she hasn’t managed any kind of decent finish, including a course in Hawaii that should’ve been a “home field advantage. Even with three more finishes between 10 and 20, she won’t be high enough on the money list. (and I’m not going to hold my breath on her highness stooping to a Monday qualifier – I’m not even convinced that she would go to Q-school)

My prediction ? I think she misses at least one cut in those three starts – then we’ll start hearing talk of returning to Stanford, or wrist soreness – not “I know what I need to work on and I will be spending the rest of the year in Florida with my coach getting my game together for Q-school.” She will accept another seven figure appearance fee to play in Asia – missing the cut.

Here’s another opportunity she’ll miss – the boyfriend got drafted by Phoenix. Instead of dumping Leadbetter and taking up with Pia Nilsson and becoming a Suns fan – she’ll stay with Leadbetter and continue to beat balls on the range instead of learning the professional game with another coach. Or, even better, Vegas is just a few hours north – and Butch Harmon would be waiting with open arms.

Naaaaaahhhhhhh. She’s just going to stay with Leadbetter and wait for another six tries next year. And Mom’s a good enough putting coach, right ? Right ?? Don’t worry – Nike will send another $20 mill next year, right ?

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Jun 28, 2008 11:16 AM EDT   0 recs

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