Open Potentially Wie’s Second Sony Paycheck
Michelle Wie is officially in the Sony Open, and since they are one of her sponsors they’ve decided on keeping the Open in Hawaii until 2010. There were rumors of Sony moving the tourney east, into Los Angeles. The PGA likes having it here in Hawaii, because there’s no place on the mainland during those frozen January days.
“We’re in the entertainment business, it’s more than just a golf tournament,” PGA Tour vice president Ric Clarson said. “So when a player like Michelle plays in the Sony Open, it creates national and international attention on, ‘Can she do it? Now that she has turned professional, there’s even more attention on her progress as a player.”
“I think it’s a perfect fit with her roots here in Hawaii and that fact that she has played here in the past,” Clarson said. “It’s almost like watching one of your children grow up.”
“Two years ago when we gave an exemption to Michelle Wie, from a Japanese corporate standpoint, she was just a hotshot local kid,” said Masao Morita, Sony’s senior vice president. “We weren’t really sure how good she was.”
Ah, those humble Japanese. Always with the humility. When the Nike vice president heard about it he dropped his pants, danced the jig, and told reporters, “Wie knew she was MONEY when she was 10. Boo-yah! See, I said Wie, like it was ‘we,’ Nike is clever like that. Why aren’t you writing that down, bottom feeder?”
AP: Michelle Wie to Play in PGA’s Sony Open
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