How long have I been saying this?  Michelle Wie should win a women’s tour event and at least become one of the best female golfers in the world before trying out PGA tour events.  Well now it appears some people are actually beginning to agree with me:

The ever-fickle media seem to be turning their back on the teenage golfer Michelle Wie. To take reports in the international press these days, Michelle Wie is nothing but hype. On top of a string of disappointing finishes, the decisive turn in press sentiment may have been her withdrawal from the John Deere Classic PGA event that opened on July 15. Why, oh why has the press turned against its erstwhile darling?

It was Golf World Columnist Jaime Diaz who threw the first stone. Ahead of the opening of the John Deere Classic, Diaz said in a column provocatively titled, “Wie shouldn’t compete on PGA tour,” “Unless she makes the cut, this week’s John Deere Classic should be the last time Michelle Wie accepts a sponsor’s exemption to play in a PGA Tour event until she becomes the best woman golfer in the world.” Other golfers on the same circuit were also quoted as making unkind comments.

It is not just the media but even some women golfers that are fed up with the Wie phenomenom:

Jeff Gove offered some advice: “She’s got to learn to play faster and be a little more respectful of the other players, things of that nature.” 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.” The LA Times says Wie found herself going head-to-head with the men because PGA officials, her parents and the press pushed her to do so.

How could she turn her back on and ignore a fellow Korean?  I thought she was “definitely Korean”, well at least according to her dad she is.

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 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 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.  How would the LPGA feel if golfers that couldn’t make it in the PGA joined the LPGA?  It would decrease the quality of play of the league and that is what Michelle Wie is doing compared to when a serious female golfer like Annika Sorenstam plays in PGA events.  Even a minor leaguer in baseball can strike out a big leaguer every once in a while but are they really ready for the big leagues?

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