My son Nick and I recently took a series of golfing road trips that would have impressed even the most hard core of mini-tour professionals.
Last Sunday, we were on the road at 7:30 a.m., heading 45 miles east of Reno to tee it up at The Golf Club of Fernley. We played an 18 hole practice round, walked off the course at 4:00 p.m., and were back in Kelseyville at 10:00 p.m. We drove 568 miles that day.
The following morning we were again on the road early, leaving the county along with Jack Lucich to play in an NCGA members tourney at the venerable San Jose Country Club. Established in 1899, the San Jose tourney took six hours to complete and we were back home that night at 10:30 p.m. Our trip equaled out to 328 miles.
Tuesday was a late day in comparison to the two others as we got on the road at 1:00 pm, once again heading to Fernley. Six hours later we checked into the hotel. The following day, Nick would be playing in his first national qualifier.
We had both entered the 36 hole Nevada regional qualifier for the United States Public Links Amateur. The Publinks is a USGA event for non-country clubbers that has been played since 1922 with past champions including Dan Sikes, Bob Lunn, Jodie Mudd, Billy Mayfair, Trevor Immelman, and Hunter Haas.
We had back to back tee times at 7:10 a.m. and 7:20 a.m. and then again at 12:10 and 12:20 p.m. There were 22 golfers in the field and only one would qualify for the nationals in Chicago in July. Nick, at age 16, was the youngest golfer in the field and I was the oldest.
Nick was paired with Jimmy Morris, a Walla Walla College golfer who shot 66-75-141 and came in third. I played with Kevin Boles, an incoming freshman at Barry University in Miami, which won the NCAA Division II title last month. Boles shot 72-67-139 and finished second. Nick and I finished 15th and 17th and with our feet sore and puffy from walking 36 holes in the desert heat, headed back to Lake County.
The most celebrated teenaged golfer in America is without a doubt 17-year-old Michelle Wie. Michelle burst onto the golf scene as a 12-year-old, winning the Hawaii Women”s Open by 13 shots over LPGA veteran Cindy Rarick. Later that year she qualified for the LPGA”s Takefuji Classic where she missed the cut.
At age 13 she made the cut at an LPGA major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. She won the U.S. Women”s Public Links. In 2004, Michelle became the fourth female to play in a PGA Tour event, the Sony Open. With a national cable television audience watching her every shot, Wie recorded scores of 72 and 68 to miss the cut by a mere one shot. At that moment, a modern day star was born, albeit a 14-year-old star.
Over the next two years, Wie had great success for a teenager in the hardened world of professional golf. She played on the 2004 Curtis Cup team and finished fourth in the Nabisco. In 2005 she came in second at the LPGA Championship and third in the Women”s British Open. She continued to play against the men at the Sony as well as the John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour.
In October of 2005, a mere week before her 16th birthday, Michelle Wie turned pro on the advice of her parents. At that time she signed sponsorship deals with Nike and Sony to the tune of $10 million. Wie couldn”t play full time on the LPGA Tour until her 18th birthday, and while there have been some competitive successes in the 20 months since she turned professional, its beginning to look like all of this has been too much too soon.
Wie was disqualified from the Samsung World Championship for taking an illegal drop. She withdrew from the 2006 John Deere after 27 holes, standing at +8 over par and 10 shots over the cut line. Wie came in second at the LPGA”s Evian Masters in France, but one month later she finished last out of 156 at the men”s European Masters.
Its only gotten worse for Michelle in 2007. She missed the cut at the Sony by 14 shots and then missed the next four months of competition because of injuries to both wrists. In May she returned to the LPGA by entering the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika. During first round play, Michelle withdrew after 16 holes, citing injury to her wrist. She stood at +14 over par and was in danger of losing her LPGA playing privileges had she turned in a score of 88 or higher.
Two days later, Michelle made the ultimate faux pas, showing up at the site of the LPGA Championship to practice for that upcoming major. Eyebrows were raised, and Annika Sorenstam ripped her in the press, stating “I just feel there”s a little bit of a lack of respect and class just to kind of leave a tournament like that and then come out and practice here.” LPGA co-founder, 83-year- old Louise Suggs, added “If I was going to give her advice, I would tell her to take a sabbatical. Get her folks out of the way.”
Meanwhile, two separate groups of Wie”s pro-am partners have complained to the LPGA commissioner about her behavior during Wednesday pro-ams at the Ginn and the LPGA, Her father, the overly intense B.J. Wie, has been observed wagging his finger in the face of LPGA commissioner Carolyn Blevins at the Ginn. Michelle has announced that she is withdrawing from next month”s John Deere. Finally, in the performance department, Wie hasn”t broken par since late July of 2006 when she shot a final round 68 at the Evian.
Meanwhile, she missed her high school graduation, and while she has been admitted to Stanford in the fall, she cannot play on the college golf team because she has turned professional. I don”t think the girl is having a lot of fun with golf, I don”t think she is getting to be a kid.
