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Who wouldn't want to be Michelle Wie ... or her doting parents, friends, sponsors, agents, image consultants and inevitable trail of expensive lawyers?
She is a teenage multimillionaire, a budding global superstar. She's tall and good-looking. Seemingly the dutiful daughter, Michelle is remarkably poised for her age. Oh, yeah, she absolutely crushes a golf ball. With exquisite form, she hits the ball farther than most men I know.
Two days ago, Wie created excitement when she tried to become the first woman to meet the criteria for a men's major championship during a 36-hole U.S. Open qualifier. For nearly 30 holes, Wie played quite well before her cranky putter doomed her historic attempt, leaving her tied for a middling 59th in a field of 153.
To my way of thinking, Wie was not a loser. She challenged conventional norms and herself. I also could not help but think of all the winners Michelle Wie, The Brand, delivers every time she tees it up:
Golf and its sponsors receive a major boost.
Media outlets lure millions of eyeballs to stories of Wiemania.
Parents B.J. and Bo enjoy their daughter's reflected glory.
Classmates proclaim, "I know Michelle Wie."
Nike and Sony get a nice bang for their buck.
Everyone gets what they need. And, apparently, Wie is getting what she wants, or thinks she wants. She has repeated time and again that one of her desires is to compete against men on the PGA Tour. I don't have a problem with that in the slightest, as long as she can be content with the consequences. But here is the $5million endorsement-deal question:
Is this what she needs at this time?
If her ultimate goal is to become the world's finest female golfer, she must first learn how to win, how to compete, against the best of her gender. If it is to become a major crossover attraction by qualifying for men's events, I would say, "Go for it ... and be prepared to become a freak-show attraction."
Recently, the teen prodigy was featured in Elle magazine in a section called "My Brilliant Career."
At 16?
Wie very well might turn out to be the greatest player in the history of the LPGA after she becomes eligible to join it at 18. But she never -- I repeat, never -- will be consistently competitive in the upper echelons of the men's tour for the reasons we already know.
That is not a crime, nor is her naivete if she genuinely believes she can compete to win with the top male golfers. While Wie did not achieve her intended result, I never would classify her attempt two days ago as a failure because the odds were so long. I applaud her efforts to try to qualify for this country's major open golf championship, as does Jack Nicklaus. (If it's good enough for Jack, it's good enough for me, too.)
In fact, it probably is a hidden blessing that Wie did not qualify for the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. She is not ready -- and she might never be. Her game still needs work. Nothing would be more counterproductive to her building confidence than qualifying and then trying to conquer a golf course under incredibly difficult Open conditions for which she is under-prepared.
Last summer, Wie attempted to become the first female in 60 years to qualify for a PGA Tour event. She played well early but fell apart on the back nine and missed the cut. Monday, her father said again he was proud but "disappointed."
If you know anything about golf, and are realistic about its enormous physical and mental demands, you cannot use "disappointed" in the same sentence with Michelle Wie.
Let down? About what?
The chances of any 16-year-old female golfer finishing in the top 18 of a U.S. Open qualifier that included 152 men (about a third of whom are on Tour) were so remote as to barely have warranted discussion -- even for a golfer as precociously talented as Wie.
Do you recall what happened when Annika Sorenstam accepted a sponsor's invitation to play in the Bank of America Colonial Classic three years ago? She missed the cut by four shots. Afterward, she sounded completely bewildered, explaining after the eye-opener that she would "go back to my tour where I belong."
"It's been so much more than I expected," she said. "It was over my head. I wasn't as tough as I thought I was."
Spoken by the pre-eminent female golfer in the world, a mature woman who knows what it takes, makes her own decisions and understands what professional golf is about. Perhaps, one day, the young phenom will be fortunate enough to follow in her spike marks. For now, I would rather be Annika.
E-mail Jon Saraceno at jons@usatoday.com
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