Wie backs Korean 2014 Games bid

Michelle has been named honorary ambassador in the ROK’s bid to host the Winter Olympics in 8 years.

Teenage golf star Michelle Wie is to become an honorary ambassador for the 2014 Winter Olympics bid of South Korean ski resort Pyeongchang.

The 17-year-old, who has had finished third in two majors to date, grew up in Hawaii but has Korean parents.

“I’m proud of my Korean heritage and also a big fan of winter sports,” said the American.

“If the 2014 Winter Games are held in Pyeongchang I’m sure they will be a fantastic and memorable experience.”

Pyeongchang narrowly lost out to Vancouver in the race to host the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

It will learn its fate on 4 July 2007 when the International Olympic Committee will choose between Pyeongchang, Salzburg in Austria and Sochi in Russia.

I’d vote for Salzburg myself. I’ve been to both countries and I’ll take Wiener Schnitzel over Kimchi any day.(Note my wife is Asian) Besides, has anyone consulted Kim Jong-IL about his plans for Korea in 2014?

I didn’t think so.

Michelle Wie Gets Accepted to Stanford

From AP-

Michelle Wie celebrated her first victory of the year — she got accepted to Stanford. The 17-year-old senior at Punahou School in Honolulu said Tuesday she would enroll in the fall, dispelling any talk she would concentrate exclusively on her professional golf career once she finished high school.

“No one really believed me,” Wie said from Orlando, Fla., where she is working with swing coach David Leadbetter. “Now that I got into Stanford … it was one of my dreams, and I want to go through with it. I definitely want to go there and really try to graduate.”

Wie has been mixing school and tour golf since she played three LPGA Tour events at age 12. She turned professional in October 2005 and earned close to $20 million this year from endorsements, earnings and appearance money overseas.

And while she still hasn’t won on the LPGA Tour — she had three close calls in the majors — Wie said her nerves were never more jangled than waiting to see if she had been accepted. She got the news Friday.

Wie’s grandfather, an aunt and an uncle went to Stanford, and that was her first choice all along.

“I got an e-mail on Wednesday telling me the directions to find out online, with a password and pin code,” she said. “I think they do that on purpose. They enjoy making people suffer for two days. I was counting down the days — Friday at 1 p.m. was like doomsday. I was really stressed out. I had stomach aches, and Thursday I couldn’t eat anything.”

After a final exam Friday morning, she asked to be excused from English, bringing two friends to the computer lab to punch in the code and she if she had been accepted.

“They screamed, I screamed, we were reading the letter out loud, and everyone gave us these weird looks,” she said.

I’m happy for Michelle and wish her well in school.

It’s incredible, but I couldn’t find any errors in the above Doug Ferguson story. Has he finally learned to fact check?

The top golf newsmakers of 2006

Golf World magazine has come out with their top 25 list.

1- Tiger Woods. No argument there.

2- Phil Mickelson. I’ve always felt GW’s editors have a secret homosexual crush on Phil. No other reason could account for all the covers he gets even when he wasn’t the biggest golf story of the week. Karrie Webb wins a major, Phil is on the cover. Geoff Ogilvy wins the US Open but Phil is again the subject of GW’s cover.

Mickelson is an excellent choice, but I’d rank a few other golf stories ahead of him.

3- The 72nd hole at Winged Foot. No argument.

4- Fedex Cup I’m no fan of this gimmick but yes its newsworthy.

5- LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens

Excellent choice but not necessarily top 5 material. I strongly disagree with GW’s assertion that she performed better as the year progressed. Bivens’ blunders were spread out the length of 2006. This being the most recent example.

6- Euphoric Euros

and

7- Damned Yanks

The Ryder Cup gets no argument from me other than I would have made it one newsmaker not two.

8- Michelle Wie

The sad derailment and exploitation of this young lady is definitely newsworthy.

9- Underwhelming Teens.

Here’s where GW starts to lose it. The story of the LPGA’s youth movement was one of the most overdone golf stories of the last few years. It was hyped so much that a let down had to be expected.

An instantly iconic photo from 2005 had 5-foot-5 Morgan Pressel alongside Michelle Wie, who towered seven inches above her. Their eyes were locked and their expressions indicated an exchange of chummy text messages was not likely. Pressel, 17 months older than Wie and possessing a 3-and-2 victory over the Hawaiian in the third round of the 2003 U.S. Girls’ Junior as well as the title from the 2005 U.S. Women’s Amateur, an event Wie skipped, openly resents that her taller adversary gets more attention. Throw in the stunning rookie year Paula Creamer had in 2005 — two LPGA victories and four total — and the anticipation for the three-teen rivalry made the 2006 season the tour’s most eagerly awaited in recent memory.

Reality, however, never matched the hype. While the talented teens (Creamer turned 20 in August) had what most their age would consider successful seasons, none won or even went head-to-head with a tournament on the line. Throw in Natalie Gulbis, 23, whose winless streak in LPGA events ran to 132 in 2006, and the tour clearly failed to deliver the young American star power needed to capture fans. The reality is that a sensational year by Lorena Ochoa and a stirring comeback season by Karrie Webb could not compensate for the fact the top two rookies on tour were Seon-Hwa Lee and Julieta Granada, 20-year-old international 
players who entered the season without the accolades afforded Pressel or Japanese star Ai Miyazato.

1- These same golf writing hacks who hyped Wie, Pressel and Miyazato are still blind to Seon Hwa Lee. Lee didn’t come out of nowhere, she finished first on the the Futures Tour money list in 2005. Its what I call a case of having golf blinders on.

2- Natalie Gulbis is an example of golf writers being driven by their male egos rather than the facts. Ms. Gulbis is a talented golfer, and certainly not the 2000′s version of Jill McGill, but she will never be one of the tour’s top 5 players. Top 10 maybe, but with Annika Sorenstam, Se Ri Pak, Karrie Webb, Paula Creamer, Michelle Wie when she gets her game back together, Christie Kerr to beat, I never see Gulbis as a top 5. That doesn’t even include other South Korean stalwarts like Jeong Jang, Hee Won Han, Mi Hyun Kim and Grace Park if she returns from her back and injury woes. Jang, Han and Grace will always outshine Ms. Gulbis when all of them, Ms. Gulbis included, are playing their best. As for Kim, aka Peanut vs Gulbis, I think her win at the Jamie Farr over Gulbis in a playoff says all that needs being said.

The Golf MSM mistakes physical attractiveness for golfing ability. That’s actually one of the least of its many problems.

c- GW said about Creamer-

“Creamer played solidly, never missing a cut, but may still be adjusting to tour life. She has more than a half dozen endorsement deals — all of which require time commitments — and played three non-LPGA events in Japan, where her Pink Panther persona is enormously popular. Cashing in on her impressive rookie season in 2005 may have created time and travel demands off the course that (coupled with a lingering wrist injury) impacted her performance. The drop-off, however, was not enough to be a concern.”

I think Paula will be better but she needs to take control of her schedule. Travelling halfway around the world to play golf can lead to burnout. Look what happened to Bill Rogers. This isn’t adjusting to tour life as GW says but managing one’s career instead of letting others do it for you.

10- The Bomb n Gouge Squad. Huh? Bubba Watson, J.B. Holmes and Camilo Villegas were all golf stories for a week or two each early in the year. Top 25 newsmaker maybe, but certainly not a top 10.

The rest of GW’s top 25 with a little added commentary.

11- Camilo Villegas. See my #10 comments. Why does this player rank two listings?
12- Defense mechanisms- Overrated
13- Lorena Ochoa- She should be in the top 5 newsmakers for 2006.
14- The new TV pact. Good pick.
15- Nick Faldo. I don’t understand this pick either. Faldo’s playing days are over and he only makes the news through his work as a broadcaster.

As for his selection to be Ryder Cup Captain, that doesn’t pass the muster for a top 25 pick.

16- Byron Nelson. His passing away should have ranked much higher.

17- Dearly departed aka the passing away of Heather Clarke, Earl Woods and Norma DiMarco. An iffy choice for the top 25.

18- John Daly. So what? Daly had a horrendous year on tour, so did about 200-300 other professional golfers. Again a very overrated story.

19- Geoff Ogilvy. His win in the US Open should rank higher than this.

Of the rest of GW’s top 25, only #23 Drug testing, #22 Super Seniors, and maybe #25 China’s growing presence, should be listed among golf’s missing newsmakers.

What dope was GW smoking when they missed these stories?

* The return of Karrie Webb, in particular her win at the Kraft Nabisco
* The return of Se Ri Pak from oblivion with her win at the LPGA Championship. Also the back 9 of that tournament on Sunday may have been the most dramatic of any tournament all year. With Pak, Karrie Webb, Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa, Michelle Wie, Pat Hurst, Mi Hyun Kim, Ai Miyazato and a few others all having legitimate chances to win the event.
* The passing away of LPGA great Patty Berg
* Arnold Palmer retiring from competitive golf.
* The recordbook rounds of Loren Roberts at the Senior Open and Corey Pavin at the US Bank in Milwaukee.
* The off year had by Annika Sorenstam. Plus her trouble with both ignoring and or breaking of LPGA rules a and therules of golf.
* The off year had by Vijay Singh.

Omitting Webb, Pak, Sorenstam and Palmer just shows you how dumb this golf publication is. Then it shouldn’t have surprised me, GW passed up Webb and Pak for the magazine’s cover the week after their victories. Annika missing the cut one week was noteworthy enough to make the magazine’s cover. Enough said, right?

My choices

1- Tiger
2- The 72nd hole of the US Open
3- Lorena Ochoa
4- Phil Mickelson
5- Carolyn Bivens
6- Fedex Cup
7- Michelle Wie
8- The 2006 Ryder Cup
9- Byron Nelson RIP
10- The return of Karrie Webb
11- Arnold Palmer retires
12- Drug testing
13- The return of Se Ri Pak and the dramatic 2006 LPGA Championship
14- The struggles and rule breaking of Annika Sorenstam
15- Geoff Ogilvy win at the US Open and the the Aussies big year on the PGA Tour
16- The new television deal
17- Patty Berg RIP
18- Record rounds by Corey Pavin and Loren Roberts
19- Where is Vijay?
20- Super Seniors
21- The overrating of youth on the LPGA tour
22- Giving new meaning to the term ‘golf hazard’
23- Dearly departed
24- The growth of golf in China
25- Can anyone in golf do 5th grade math?

Michelle Wie misses cut at European Masters

From AP-

CRANS-SUR-SIERRE, Switzerland – Michelle Wie struggled to an 8-over 79 at the European Masters on Friday, missing the cut at a men’s event for the ninth time in 10 attempts. The 16-year-old from Hawaii, who shot a 78 in Thursday’s first round, finished at 15-over 157.

Wie ran up double-bogey 7s on successive par-5s.

“I didn’t even know which sport I was playing out there,” she said. “My bunker play was better and I putted better. But I wish I had a little more feel for the game before I came here. It was not my day.”

Wie survived the cut in a men’s at the SK Telecom Open in South Korea earlier this year, where she finished 12 shots off the lead. Laura Davies is the only other woman to play on the European tour, finishing next to last in the 2004 ANZ Championship in Sydney.

Wie will play against the men next week in the 84 Lumber Classic on the PGA Tour.

Speaking for possibly myself only, the novelty of women golfers competing against the male professionals. is wearing off

As I stated before, Michelle should give up playing with the men. At best, she’d be just another tour professional. I don’t think even Nike will pay her millions for that and sooner or later the public won’t care either.

Related posts- Move over Michelle Wie?

Move over Michelle Wie?

From the Honolulu Advertiser

NORTH PLAINS, Ore. — When Kimberly Kim fell behind after the first 18 holes of the 106th U.S. Women’s Amateur, her caddie suggested she play “smashmouth” golf.

The 14-year-old player from Hilo took the advice and beat former bank clerk Katharina Schallenberg of Germany, 1 up, in 36 holes of match play yesterday to become the event’s youngest champion.

Schallenberg, 26, made a birdie putt from off the green on the par-5 36th hole. That placed the pressure on Kim to birdie for the victory at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club.

She sunk the putt from 5 feet out.

*****

Kim became the second Hawai’i player to win a United States Golf Association event this summer. Kaua’i's Casey Watabu won the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship last month.

She joins Hawai’i legend Jackie Pung, who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 1952. Grace Park, who spent some of her early years in Hawai’i, won in 1998 after she moved to Arizona.

*****

The championship match, on the 6,380-yard, par-71 Witch Hollow Course, featured very different players: Kim is a carefree teenager who didn’t know going in that the Amateur was a “big” tournament, while Schallenberg is consistent and steady.

*****

Kim, who has a mouthful of braces and says her hobby is sleeping, has been living recently in Mesa, Ariz., with her mother to be able to participate in more tournaments. But she still lists Hilo as her hometown.

Kim lost in the Women’s Amateur Public Links final to Tiffany Joh, 6 and 5, earlier this year. She was the youngest player to make the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open.

*****

Kim didn’t realize the weight of the run she was making at the Amateur until she saw a commercial for the event on television. A former Amateur champion then showed her Cox Cup.

“I didn’t know it was that big of a tournament until last night, when there was a commercial on the Golf Channel, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is a big deal,’ ” she said. “I don’t even watch golf, I was just looking for myself.”

Before Kim, the youngest Amateur champion was Laura Baugh, who won it in 1971 at 16 years, two months and 21 days.

Congratulations to Kimberly. She turns 15 this week and already has an impressive amateur golf record.

Kimberly joins Michelle Wie and Jane Park as young Korean-American golfers who are or have come up through the US amateur ranks. More are coming too. The Korean impact on ladies professional golf will be a homegrown phenomonon too soon.

Let me say this. I believe Michelle Wie will be a star on the LPGA tour. She hasn’t won yet, it is just a matter of time.

However I think Michelle’s pursuit of playing against the men is misguided. At best she would be a run of the mill PGA pro. I don’t think she’ll ever get that high. With the exception of the one event in South Korea, Michelle hasn’t proven anything against the men. To me it looks like a misguided hollow pursuit. Perhaps driven by commericial reasons(Nike) or poor decision making(BJ Wie, Michelle’s father). It can’t be for publicity purposes, Michelle certainly doesn’t lack that.

Michelle needs to prove herself against fellow women professionals. One 16-year-old Korean amateur, Amy Yang, did so by winning the Australian Masters last February. Michelle should focus on the LPGA tour and forget about men’s golf. The ladies tour is where Michelle’s future lies. I also think the future of the LPGA could very well be linked to Wie also. The large fan following and publicity Michelle would bring to the LPGA can only help that troubled tour.

Michelle Wie Fires Caddie via Agent

Michelle Wie had her longtime caddie, Greg Johnson, fired.

Greg Johnston, who has caddied for Michelle Wie since she turned professional last October, was fired the day after the 16-year-old phenom finished T-26 in the Weetabix Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, GolfDigest.com has learned.

According to sources, Johnston, who won four major championships with Juli Inkster in their 12 years together, found out he had been dismissed in a phone call from Wie’s agent while at the gate at Manchester airport Monday on his way home. Reached by phone Tuesday, Johnston confirmed the details of the situation. “I was shocked and surprised, I thought we had a successful year,” Johnston told GolfDigest.com. “And I was extremely disappointed that no one named Wie gave me the news.”

Damn, that’s harsh. I’m not sure why he was fired–after all, Tiger Woods fired “Fluff” after years of faithful service–but you’d think he’d earned a phone call from Wie.

August 9th Update(Florida Masochosit)- Michelle’s spokesman has come out with a statement.

“Greg Johnston’s hard work and dedication made him a great partner for Michelle, as he would be for any other golfer,” Wie’s spokesperson Jesse Derris of the Ken Sunshine agency said in a statement released on Tuesday. “His departure comes as part of Michelle’s maturation as a golfer, part of which is learning from many different bright golf minds. We wish Greg the best, and are sure he will have a long and successful career.”

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but Michelle sounds like a politician with statements like this. Why not just come out and say she fired Johnston? Caddies are independent contractors, hired and fired at will.

Then I just found this. EM Swift at SI.com has his own take on Johnston’s firing. Apparently Juli Inkster wasn’t happy when Johnston was hired away from her by Michelle.

“It would have been nice to get a phone call from the [Wie] family, saying this is what we’re thinking of doing,” Inkster told me after she took the first-round lead at the Women’s British Open last week with a 66. “I’d had Greg for 11 years. It’s not like I was some rookie.

“But that’s not the way they [the Wies] do things. Instead they gave him a take-it-or-leave-it in the middle of my season, right before the Solheim Cup. I don’t blame him. He’s got kids to think about. But that didn’t sit well.”

Caddies can work for whomever they want. Players can fire them at any time also. Player-caddy relationships are always changing. That said it would have been polite for Michelle to have said something to Juli.

Here is a version of what led up to Michelle being penalized for two strokes during last Friday’s 2nd round at the British Open.

That hasn’t changed. I was outside the scorer’s trailer at Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s last week when Wie got word that she’d been penalized two strokes for grounding her club in a sand trap during the second round. She had accidentally brushed away a clump of moss that was resting behind her ball during her backswing, a transgression that TV cameras clearly showed.

Johnston had told her she couldn’t move the impediment, but Wie’s parents, father B.J. and mother Bo, were visibly angry as they pulled their 16-year-old daughter aside to get her version of what had happened.

It was a tense scene. Wie’s two bodyguards, dressed in Nike golf shirts, were rude and aggressive while keeping photographers and TV cameramen from filming the meeting — never mind that it was taking place in a mixed zone where interviews routinely were conducted. Michelle was near tears. She hadn’t known the rule. She thought if she just continued her swing, there was no violation.

Johnston should have known then and there that his days were numbered.

Maybe or maybe not. Based on all this, I stick to what I said before. It is quite possible what happened at the WBO caused Johnston’s firing however it is a player’s responsibility to know the rules. Blaming the caddy comes off as an excuse to me.

I don’t remember either Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer ever getting this kind of scrutiny when they hired or fired a caddy.

Like I said above, Caddies come and go on both the PGA and LPGA tours. Most relationships are short-term not long-term. Go and check this guy out. His blog is 3 years old and I make a bet he’s gone through 10 players a year on average.

Larry may or may not be symptomatic of caddy-player relationships. In 28 years of caddying he has had three wining bags. Only one of which came in the last twenty years, and Larry got fired almost immediately afterwards. If you read deeper into Larry’s blog however, you’ll see many of his fellow workers changing players on a frequent basis.

Relationships like Tiger Woods with Steve Williams(1999 to present), Peter Jacobsen with Mike ‘Fluff’ Cowan(78 to 96 before Fluff worked for Tiger) or Jim Furyk and Fluff(99 to present) are the exception not the rule.

The Ladies world golf rankings have also been adjusted. Michelle Wie has dropped from 3rd to 7th.(According to ESPN. I haven’t been able to find a corroborating source) That’s more realistic for a player who has yet to win. However I still think these rankings are flawed and not indicative of the true strength of some players on tour.

Two tied for the lead at The LPGA Championshp

From AP-

HAVRE DE GRACE, Md.· Pat Hurst let everyone back into the LPGA Championship with a four-putt double bogey. Michelle Wie might be tied for the lead if not for missing a par putt from 18 inches.

Not even Annika Sorenstam was immune from a crazy, windsept Saturday at Bulle Rock with a two-shot penalty that sent her spiraling down the leaderboard and likely out of contention for a fourth straight title in this major. When the sun finally set on a long day filled with mistakes and blown putts, the LPGA Championship was up for grabs.

Hurst missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole and had to settle for an even-par 72. That left her tied for the lead with Japanese sensation Ai Miyazato, who lost a 54-hole lead a week ago trying to win for the first time on the LPGA Tour, and now gets another chance.

They were at 7-under 209, one shot ahead of a group that includes Wie.

The 16-year-old from Hawaii three-putted for bogey three times, none as shocking as the par-3 17th. Standing over what looked to be a tap-in for par, she caught the left edge of the cup and stood in the fading sunlight with a stunned look on her face. Wie rebounded with a 10-foot birdie on the final hole for a 1-under 71, still believing she can be golf’s youngest major champion.

Sorenstam birdied her first hole and marched confidently down the second fairway, ready to make a charge and silence anyone who has questioned her game over a seven-tournament drought. But she lifted a chunk of sod from a divot hole next to her ball, Karrie Webb had no choice but to call the penalty, and Sorenstam got a two-stroke penalty.

“It was a mistake I made,” Sorenstam said after stumbling to a 75, leaving her six shots behind with 21 players between her and the leaders. “It’s never too late, but things have to change.”

The way this major is shaping up, the leaderboard could change with every shot.

Shi Hyun Ahn and Mi-Hyun Kim, playing alongside Wie, each shot 71 and joined her one shot out of the lead. Mexican star Lorena Ochoa, the hottest player on the LPGA Tour with two victories and five second-place finishes, took a three-putt bogey on the 18th hole for a 71 but was still only two shots behind, along with Jee Young Lee and the resurgent Se Ri Pak.

Webb, the only player with a chance to win the Grand Slam this year, was rattled by having to call the penalty shot on Sorenstam and was sliding out of contention until she rallied to shoot 72, joining the group at 4-under 212.

Twenty players were within five shots of the lead.

Morgan Pressel of Boca Raton, the 18-year-old rookie and runner-up at last year’s U.S. Women’s Open, was two shots off the lead after a birdie on the second hole, but that was as good as it got. Tossing clubs in frustration, she collapsed to a 7-over 79 and finished the third round 10 shots out of the lead.

1- A crowded leaderboard with 13 golfers separated by 3 shots. The golf course is playing very difficult I consider 3 shots optimum range for making a comeback under these conditions.

It could be a dramatic final round. Some of the reasons for it I’ll state below. It could be anti-climatic as well. The 1995 Masters and 1986 Men’s US Open saw much more clogged up leaderboards. The later with a 9 way tie for the lead with 10 holes to go! Back nines on Major Championship Sundays have a way of sorting the contenders and pretenders out.

2- Michelle Wie is only one shot out of the lead. A win would be the biggest headline possible for this tournament. I watched yesterday’s play and Michelle was driving it very poorly. She can’t continue to do this and win.

3- The one I may be pulling for more than any is Se Ri Pak. Se Ri hasn’t won in 2 years and saw a dramatic drop off in her play since qualifying for the Hall of Fame in 2004. She sounded and looked confident in a TV interview yesterday. Much like the Se Ri of the past. A win here would be a big comeback and similiar to Karrie Webb’s triumph in 2006′s first major the Nabisco.

4- Talking about Karrie she’s three out going into today. She could win the first two legs of the grand slam.

5- What the @#%^! was Annika thinking yesterday? This article explains what went on better than AP did. She should have known the rules.

Some may note Annika got in a rules dispute with Paula Creamer at last year’s ADT. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. There is a well known cheat on the PGA tour. He is a former major championship winner even. I’ll just say NO ONE is above suspicion.

Why did calling a penalty on Annika rattle Karrie? She was doing what was right. More flakey AP reporting by Doug Ferguson. I’ve questioned some of his writing at my main blog.

6- Morgan Pressel needs to keep her emotions under control better. She is known for displaying them. Bad rounds happen. Time to move on.

7- Meena Lee who is 3 back needs a win to qualify for the US Open. Despite 2 wins since last July, Meena failed to file an entry for this year’s Open.

8- South Koreans could get register 7th tour win of the year so far. Besides Pak and Meena, Mi Hyun ‘Peanut’ Kim, Shi Hyun ‘Cinderella’ Ahn and Jee Young ‘Cinderella II’ Lee are in the top 13 players on the leaderboard. Michelle Wie is Korean-American, I’m not counting her.

A nation of 40 million people without a organized youth or college golf programs keeps rolling out LPGA winners.

9- Out of the leaders only Webb, Pak and Hurst(1998 Nabisco Champ) are former major champs. Other than Juli Inkster, Pat may be the best playing Mother on tour. She has two young children. Only about 30-40 LPGA players are Moms also.

10- Lorena Ochoa currently this year’s leading money winner is in good shape to make a run for her first major victory. She lost in a playoff to Webb earlier this year.

11- Ai Miyazato is playing in the last group for the 3rd time this year. Her two previous experiences were not good ones. She has a big following in Japan, over 100 journalists have come to cover her play in the US. The pressure on Ai this year must be immense. A win would certainly relieve it some.

12- I’ll say something nice about The Golf Channel. With a Nationwide event rained out, the channel will extend their coverage today. Coming on the air at 2:30 p.m. Guess what I’ll be watching today?

Update- With 10 holes to play Webb and Peanut are tied for the lead. Eight golfers are one back including Annika and Se Ri. This could be one incredible finish.

2nd Update- It’s a playoff. Webb vs Pak. The comeback gals.

No US Open for Michelle Wie

Michelle Wie’s attempt at qualifying for the men’s U.S. Open fell short:

Three consecutive bogeys sent her to a three-over 75 and into the middle of the qualifying pack at Summit, New Jersey today (AEST).

Wie opened with a 68 on the easier South course, and still had a chance to get one of 18 spots available to the 153-player field at Canoe Brook when she strode confidently to the back nine.

Needing at least one birdie to have a chance, her inability to master the greens finally caught up with her.

She finished at one-over 143 and ultimately didn’t come close.

The girl’s only 16. She’ll make it one of these years.

“Michelle’s US Open Bid Fails”

[Cross-posted to The American Mind.]

Michelle Wie half way to Qualifying for Men’s US Open

AP

KAHUKU, Hawaii – Michelle Wie has been competing against men since she was 12, and still feels slightly uneasy about it.

But Wie looked totally comfortable Monday when she moved a step closer in her long-shot bid to become the first female player to qualify for the U.S. Open, shooting an even-par 72 to win a local qualifier.

“Playing with the men, I’m not sure what’s going to happen. It puts me in an almost uncomfortable place,” she said. “That’s what makes me a better player.”

The USGA believes she is the first woman to get through local qualifying for the U.S. Open. Wie and two other players advanced to sectional play next month, with Wie saying she will play in the June 5 36-hole sectional at Canoe Brook in Summit, N.J.

“The possibility of playing at Winged Foot? It’s the U.S. Open, the name speaks for itself,” Wie said. “It’s one of a kind.”

After the sectional, Wie will play in the LPGA Championship in Havre de Grace, Md.

Playing on her home island of Oahu in front of about two dozen people, Wie was steady for most of her round on the breezy, oceanside Palmer Course at Turtle Bay Resort, but missed a couple of short putts. She had four birdies and four bogeys.

Michelle’s qualifying for the Open is far from a given. Sectional qualifying is much more difficult. She’ll be competing against PGA tour members. If I were to make a prediction, it’s that Michelle won’t qualify for the Open at Winged Foot.