NBC's Johnny Miller likes to refer to an accessible hole location as a "green light special," or easy target. The same term could apply to the way many people have been treating Michelle Wie. The 18-year-old has been an easy target for them.
Wie has been complicit in making herself an easy target, by continuing to play in PGA Tour events. She shot 73-80 and missed the cut in the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open this week. Still, she doesn't deserve the mean-spirited criticism directed her way.
Most recently, PGA Tour player Jay Williamson tore into Wie for accepting a sponsor's exemption into the Reno tournament. He, too, missed the cut there.
"When I saw it, I actually thought it was a joke, quite honestly," Williamson said last week when he heard Wie would play her eighth PGA Tour event. "I know she is going to sell a lot more tickets than I will, but I would say it's surprising. I don't think it's a real popular decision out here."
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By "out here," Williamson, who was speaking at the Glen Abbey Golf Club during the RBC Canadian Open, meant his fellow PGA Tour players. If that's the case, and it surely is among the majority, then they're not thinking straight.
Every regular PGA Tour event can use its sponsor exemption as it sees fit. If PGA Tour players don't want tournaments to have such exemptions, they should insist they be banned. Williamson wouldn't likely vote to rescind sponsors' exemptions. He's surely received some. Meanwhile, Wie shrugged off his comments.
"I don't even know who that is," Wie said. "I wish I had no critics, but I'm realistic."
Williamson is hardly the only golfer to bare his teeth about Wie, especially during the past couple of years when she's struggled and played a questionable schedule. Annika Sorenstam said during this week's Women's British Open that she doesn't know why Wie continues to play men's tournaments.
Wie's been called a sideshow and a freak show, and worse. It's worth remembering that she's played plenty of good tournaments, and that she's still a teenager.
She was 13 when she won the 2003 U.S. Women's Public Links Championship. She shot 72-68 and missed the cut by a stroke in the 2004 Sony Open, a PGA Tour event. She's been runner-up in two LPGA majors and third in the 2006 U.S. Women's Open. She later injured herself, but still played last year. She's admitted she should have taken the year off.
Things have been improving this year. Wie shot 67-65-67 and was a stroke off the lead after three rounds of the LPGA State Farm Classic in Springfield, Ill., two weeks ago, but was disqualified when officials realized she hadn't properly signed her scorecard after the second round. Wie then elected to play in Reno, which led to the recent attacks.
"People will write negative things about me," Wie said. "The only thing I can control is myself. A good score will resolve everything."
Not everybody involved closely in the game has ripped Wie. PGA Tour player Scott McCarron, who contended in the Canadian Open before finishing tied for fifth place, said he planned to bring his daughters to the Reno tournament.
"I think it's great," he said. "She's a great player and she will make the cut in a PGA Tour event."
Maybe, or maybe not. Meanwhile, Sean Foley, who teaches at the Piper's Heath Golf Club in Milton, Ont., and coaches Stephen Ames and Sean O'Hair, put it all in perspective the other day.
"Mediocre people are jealous of the money she's making and the life she has," Foley said. "You could pick 20 guys in Reno who have missed 11 of the last 12 cuts. The players don't want to understand she's part of the reason they're playing for so much money. There's no reason people should be so cruel to her."
Those people will eat their words one day. Wie will win an LPGA Tour event. She's accepted a sponsor's exemption into the CN Canadian Women's Open, which will be played at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club beginning on Aug. 14. That will exhaust her LPGA sponsor exemptions for this year. She needs to win about $80,000 (U.S.) to finish in the top 80 on the money list and qualify for the 2009 LPGA Tour.
Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa, Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel will be at Ottawa Hunt. Wie's accomplished nothing compared with them. But she won't be denied, not in the long run.
Meanwhile, Williamson and his ilk should consider their views. They prove their ignorance every time they open their mouths about Wie.
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