Watching Michele Wie Upfront and Personal
by Doug Saunders

The throng on the first tee was large, anxious, and curious all at once. At two in the afternoon stepping up to the tee was former junior phenom and now the ultimate curiosity in golf, 18-year-old Michelle Wie. Wie was about to hit her first shot in a PGA Tour event in 18 months at the Legends Reno Tahoe Open. She was beginning her quest this July afternoon to make a cut in a men’s tournament for the eighth time. Her success rate: zero for eight. Her appearance at The Legends said more about the state of the PGA Tour than it did about Wie’s struggles to find success in any forum of competitive golf, and the crowd was eager to see what was about to ensue.

For those of you who don’t know, The Legends Reno Tahoe Open, held at Montreaux Golf Club at the base of Mount Rose, is a PGA TOUR stop that has been in existence for 10 years, but lives in the obscurity of being staged the same weekend of the World Golf Championships at Firestone, which draws a field of the 80 best players in the world. This leaves the Reno event with a weak field of players who are hoping to pad their bank accounts and build up some security that will keep them exempt on the PGA TOUR.

The tournament has managed to stay afloat through the years trying to find sponsorship and interest in order to stay on the PGA Tour calendar. This year the Legends Casino development at the Sparks Marina has taken on the sponsorship and wants to broadcast its new development to the nation. To accomplish this it needed to find a way to make people take notice.

They sure did by granting a sponsor’s exemption to Michelle Wie, the 6-foot tall Hawaiian who has been both the source of high expectations and stinging condemnation during her brief stint as a professional golfer.

Female Version of Tiger Woods Wie wowed the golfing world as a 12 year old by becoming the youngest player to ever qualify for an LPGA event. Here was a female golfer who was pounding 280-yard drives and looked as though she would be the female version of Tiger Woods.

In 2004 she played in the Sony Open (a PGA TOUR event) in Hawaii and missed the cut by just one stroke. In 2005 she signed a 10 year multi-million dollar contract with Nike that suddenly made her the 3rd highest paid female athlete in the world, according to Forbes Magazine.
But since then she has struggled with both her game, injuries, and poor judgment to the point that here unproductive play has led to intense scrutiny and criticism from both the golfing media and the fellow players.

However, all of this means little to the tournament sponsors. They wanted BUZZ and exposure; and with one simple offering of an exemption, they got it, as her appearance in another men’s event lead to quotes and comments from writers, players, and dignitaries around the golfing world.
Why all of the Buzz? The real reason is that the PGA TOUR needs some buzz as much as the Reno event needs it. After all, the only story that the TOUR has, Tiger Woods, is on the shelf for the foreseeable future and when you take away a player who is the most dominant athlete in the world, you are suddenly left with an indistinguishable collection of great players with no names or star power.
Since Wood’s most recent example of other worldly performance, winning the U.S. Open on a broken leg and a torn knee, the TOUR is hoping that someone would step (no pun intended) into his shoes and become a dominating player that the public would relate to. Name players like Michelson, Singh, Els, Cink, now would have a chance for their talents to shine.

No Names Fill The Leader Board, But the opposite has happened and the Tour is suffering because of it. No names fill the leader boards at every event. A 53-year-old Greg Norman becomes a story at the British Open. A 25-year-old rookie wins the Canadian Open. A flock of players get themselves into the lead but a 42-year Kenny Perry comes out as a winner and is the hottest player around. Serious golfers who might watch the tournaments on TV suddenly see small galleries, names they don’t know, uninspiring play, and as much excitement as watching the rough grow around a bunker lip.

TV ratings are way down since Woods has left the scene and the only ones that are seeing a bump are the operators of golf courses who are getting more players on weekends. These golfers figure that they might as well work on their own game than watch the Tour players work on their games on prime time television.
The big knock against Wie is since she turned pro, she has not been able to qualify to play on the LPGA Tour and her only opportunities have come from sponsor’s exemptions. She’s a pro, so she can’t play collegiate golf, even though she is also a part-time student at Stanford University, where Woods also attended and excelled as a collegiate golfer for 2 years. Her huge endorsements with Sony and Nike put a target on her back as unfulfilled expectations of her grew. Wrist, shoulder, and back injuries have not healed thoroughly.
When it was announced that she would play in Reno the critics cried out again. Some of the TOUR players felt that it made their event a circus and that she was merely taking away a chance for a tour player to make a living. Even Annika Sorenstam questioned Wie’s motives, as she passed a chance to play in the British Women’s Open the same week in order to play with the men.

Largest Gallery Ever at Reno Tourney.The gallery was the largest ever seen at the Reno event on a Thursday. Over a thousand spectators lined the first hole to see the curiosity in action. While golf galleries are known for their civility and supportive nature, there was an air of anticipation in the crowd. Were they going to see a competitive performance by Wie or had they come out to watch a train wreck? However, there were shouts of encouragement echoing through the gallery. “You go girl,” one lady bellowed.

Through the first day of the tournament, Wie showed composure and some game and shot 73 to put her in the position to actually become the first female golfer in 49 years to make the cut in a PGA Tour event. With a chance of making the cut at even par on Friday, it was there for the taking for Wie. The winds were down and she held it together until the 4th hole (her 13th of the day) where she finally took a 7 to put the dream in jeopardy. This was the beginning of the end.
Wie followed two more pars with a bogie on the par 3 7th and then NASCAR arrived at the PGA TOUR as Wie careened off of the track on the downhill 8th hole and crashed into the wall. Wie’s tee shot sailed right into an unplayable lie and all else failed. She made 9 on the hole. Wie put together a nice birdie on the final hole to finish her quest at +9, nine shots off of the cut line.

However, her unceremonious exit from the course without a word to anyone just opened her up to more criticism. The tournament had invited to her to their party but she was hardly a gracious guest. She could have explained how she felt about the experience and tried to put just one bad hole behind her, but she came off as a high roller guest at any casino who doesn’t understand the importance of tipping out the hired help.

While Wie showed signs of an improving game, her natural immaturity hasn’t helped her in the PR department. She needs to know that her large endorsements demand that she does more of the little things off the course and can’t merely play and leave like she owes nothing else to the event.

In conclusion, the Legends Reno Tahoe Open was the winner by having Michele Wie in the field. Clearly four days of Michele would have been a blockbuster, but two days was still a box office smash. Tour sponsors hope that the most lasting impression for the week will be that you should come and play at the New Legends at Spark Marina when it opens this fall with its myriad of stores, restaurants and unique artistic look. Thanks Michelle for the publicity.