The Michelle Wie Backlash Continues
The backlash against Michelle Wie began last summer when Michelle Wie pulled out of the John Deere Classic tournament early instead of finishing it. Many felt Wie pulled out of the tournament early so she would not finish with an even lower score than she already had that would damage her image. Many golfers were disapointed with her withdrawal from the tournament and considered it disrespectful to the game then.
Then she played in a LPGA tournament soon after and was even able to get under Korean golfer Park Se-ri’s skin during the tournament:
Wie was up on the chopping block at the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship early this month. A bewildered Pak Se-ri said at the time, I tried to talk to her a few times, but she wouldn’t even give me a response.
Ever since then Michelle Wie’s game has continued to collapse and the resentment of golfers of her has finally reached a boiling point this past week. Wie once again falling way behind on the golf course during a LPGA tournament, decided to pull one of her patented withdrawals from the tournament before her score even got more embarrassing. This did not sit well with the LPGA’s best golfer Annika Sorenstam:
“I just feel that there’s a little bit of lack of respect and class just to leave a tournament like that and then come out and practice here,” said Sorenstam, who soldiered on for four days despite returning from a back and neck injury.
“It’s a little funny that you pull out with an injury and then you start grinding. My doctor told me to rest.”
Sorenstam was quick to note that Wie received a sponsor’s exemption to the tournament. That means she was invited. The feeling on the LPGA Tour is that Wie has mistaken invitation for entitlement.
Well her life of entitlement on the golf course is quickly coming to an end as even the media who built her up are now quickly tearing her down as well:
Phil Mickelson withdrew because of a wrist injury and flew home to San Diego for an MRI. He saw two doctors, had one cortisone shot and decided to withdraw from his next tournament.
Michelle Wie withdrew because of a wrist injury and went to the range to hit balls. In fairness, at least she took a day off.
It only gets better, look how this writer wraps up his article:
But she is no longer the prodigy that amazed the golf world with such power for such youth.
She is 17, but no longer a kid.
There was a time the LPGA Tour needed Wie a lot more than Wie needed the LPGA Tour. That might not be the case anymore.
People are far more willing to forgive a bad round than bad manners.
The criticism must have had an effect because Wie once again contemplating pulling another withdrawal yesterday in another tournament decided to stay in and finished the tournament with an embarrassing 21 over par.
I have said this once and I will keep saying this again. Michelle Wie has been playing in these PGA tour events in order to build her brand name image and make money from it. However, she is doing this at the expense of all the much better LPGA golfers out there which is effecting the image of the LPGA and their players as them being below Wie and a lesser league even though many of the golfers in the LPGA are much better than her. If Michelle Wie consistently played LPGA events and lost which she probably would her name brand image would sink dramatically, but the quality of the image of the LPGA would improve because it would show how much better the other female golfers are compared to Wie. However, by consistently playing in PGA events and losing it gives her some kind of creditbility in order to make money and that is what it is all about.
Michelle Wie is still young and has unlimited potential and will have plenty of opportunity to challenge the PGA in the future, but she should at least become a serious contender before challenging the PGA.
I really can’t blame Wie for all of this because it is clear that her image and brand name marketing strategy is all being devised by her parents. How can anyone forget this statement by her father:
Michelle Wie’s father Wie Byung-wook, a professor of transportation at the University of Hawaii, agreed to a telephone interview with the Chosun Ilbo on Thursday.
I’m well aware there that some say, since Michelle Wie is an American why is she making such a fuss. But you know what, the only thing about her that’s American is her passport, she is definitely Korean.
Than to further show how far her parents are going to create an image around their daughter to make money, the Wie’s have hired a small army of image consultants to promote her. These image consultants have definitely worked because Wie is making more money than the top female golfers despite not winning anything and often embarrassing herself on the golf course.
Wie needs to go the Tiger Woods route while she still has a chance and go to college play collegiate golf to develop her game and then play regularly on the LPGA. If she is able to dominate the LPGA like Sorenstam has done at times than play in PGA events like Sorenstam has also done before. If not we may just be looking at golf’s version of Anna Kournikova.
If she does turn into a bust any bets the Korean media will still be calling her “Korea’s golf phenomenon“?
Make sure you read more over at Iceberg and Lost Nomad.
Michelle Wie is the #22 highest paid US athlete with $735,224 in winnings and $19.5 million in endorsements.
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GI,
College golf is out for Michelle. She has already turned pro, a player can regain amateur status but it takes years. Michelle would have also forego all the money she is making now. Won't happen.
Michelle's WD at the Ginn was fishy, but I will also point out that she played terribly last weekend. There can still be issues with her wrists.(She's injured both in the last five months). Though I have to admit, practicing two days after withdrawing makes things look suspicious. Korean lady golfers spend alot of time on the range too. Who knows for sure.
What isn't mentioned too, is Michelle supposedly upset her Pro-Am partners last week in Maryland. Commissioner Bivens had to speak to her about it. Getting under Se Ri's skin is no easy task. The Korean golf queen I can't recall having a bad word to say about anyone.
Her behavior has been inexcusable, I've also blogged many times at OTB Sports and The Florida Masochist saying she should stop playing the men, and the PGA Tour at the same time stop giving her sponsor's invites. She's talented all right, but Michelle has become a prima donna and isn't helped by the bad management and advise she's getting.
Don't worry, Michelle isn't Anna Kornukova. That goes to Natalie Gulbis.
Good post for a guy who doesn't cover much golf. 😉
Cheers,
Bill
I probably won't be blogging at golf.com any time soon with my knowledge of professional golf but I have been following the Michelle Wie story simply because of the interest over her in Korea and her parents attempts to cash in on this image.
Maybe she won't be the next Kornukova and instead turn out to be a Jennifer Capriati. As great as Capriati turned out to be she still was stained by the problems she had at a younger age by her parents putting all the pressure on her to become to great at tennis at to young of an age.
I really think Tiger Woods parents are really a great example of how to develop a once in a life time talent like he is. Would Tiger Woods still be the golfer he is today if his parents were throwing him out on to PGA events at age 14 just to make money? I could be wrong but I don't think so.
You Know I hate golf!!!!! As a youth I honked my horn as the golfer conducts his backswing…and thought of doing the same at Osan.
A couple of weeks ago the Mighty Red Sox came back from 5 down in the 9th to win and I spent the entire day waiting for Sports Center….but Noooooooooo!!! It was a Golf tournament that lasted several hours and the winners were already posted on the internet
Just like the horse racing thing…..two hours of pre-race crap and 35 seconds of actual race
Michelle Wie is just another young lady pushed beyond her present abilities by greedy parents.
It reminds me of the expression about "knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing."
I can fault her for pulling out all the time. She is a teen, so that mitigates it a little, but she is also a teen who wants to play with the adults — when in Rome, some might expect you to act a little like Romans…
But the media and golf associations and tournaments are also worthy of great disdain. They are the ones whoring her out for their own good.
These other well-known golfers should be bitching about them just as much as they do Wie.
Without the media hype and invitations to tournaments and bending of rules —-and so on—— there would be no Wie "phenomenon" and her father would only be dreaming of milking the fat-disgusting cow.
I guess if I were to be anybody in the story – I'd want to be the media moguls —–
they get to coo over money earned both building her up and ripping her down. Giving it to her front and back — and getting paid for it….
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i love the hair of Anna Kournikova, i love long flowing blonde hair“'
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I hardly know anything about golf but I’d sure like my “birdie” to make in hole in one, hers.