The Week In Wie: That’s The Way The Casio Crumbles
Let the Wie bashing begin. In an interesting parallel with Apple Computer Inc. golf writers around the internets know that writing about why Michelle “can’t cut it” or why the Macintosh “will fail” equals reader gold.
AP’s Jim Armstrong quickly points out the following:
No woman has made a PGA Tour cut since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945. No one even tried again until Annika Sorenstam teed off at the 2003 Colonial, and only Suzy Whaley and Wie have played PGA Tour events since then.
Wie was making her sixth start in a men’s professional tournament. She failed to make the cut in three PGA Tour starts, a Nationwide Tour event and a Canadian Tour event. This is her first tournament in Japan.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world Michelle faces more serious smack. Hootie Johnson, Jean Van de Velde…
[Michelle Wie] could be banned from competing on the European Tour if a committee vote goes against her early next year.
The Tournament Players Committee will meet in January when they are expected to discuss the issue of allowing Wie and other leading female golfers to tee-up in full European Tour events.
Jean Van de Velde revealed the matter will be on the table for initial discussion at a December 20 meeting of the European Tour Board of Directors.
“Everyone is supportive of the idea we ban women from competing on the European Tour and why should one body, such as the R&A,open its doors to women yet the Ladies’ Golf Union won’t allow men to tee up in the Ladies’ British Open.”
It goes without saying that even the strongest Wie booster need reassuring…
…I must confess that her meltdown in the final two holes of the 2005 Casio World Open has, in its disturbing similarity to those disastrous two holes in the final stages of the second day of the Deere, left me feeling shaken.
I’m continuing to make allowances for her youth, the vagaries of fate, the enormous pressure she’s under to perform, etc., yet doing this is, for the first time, failing to keep me from questioning whether there might be a fundamental chink in her competitive armor, so to speak.
I’m submitting this in the hope that other readers of this blog will present compelling arguments to reassure me that my concern is unwarranted, that Michelle is, basically, doing a superb job of adjusting to all the pressures she has to contend with and that it’s only a matter of time before she matures into the dominating player… — Ted Tsoneff
Wow, I never thought the term “chink in her armor” could ever be more appropriately inappropriate. Hey now, I’m Asian American, so let’s not go there people.
Update: I’m not accusing anyone of racism or such, I simply enjoy irony and the english language. So while I apologize to Ted (see comments below) for not clearly identifying my snark, I still wish I’d thought of this turn of phrase before he inadvertantly used it.
AP: Wie Fails to Make Cut at Casio World Open
Daily Record: Wie Worry Ahead For Michelle
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November 25th, 2005 at 1:27 pm
I feel very upset that my “chink in her competitive armor” comment about Michelle might have been construed as evidence of racism on my part. I didn’t, either consciously or unconsciously, use “chink” as a racial epithet. “So to speak” was certainly not meant to underscore any demeaning use of the word “chink” on my part; rather, it was my way of acknowledging possibly strained imagery on my part. I can, sadly, imagine more than one reader of this blog believing that I was caught with my pants down and don’t want to admit it. The bottom line is, I know with all my heart and soul- and anyone who knows me knows with her/his heart and soul-that I don’t have a racist bone in my body…. Anyway, I continue to be in awe of Michelle Wie’s gifts and to be moved by her many virtues as a human being. I wish her all the happiness, success, and fulfillment in the world. Onward and upward, Michelle.- Ted Tsoneff
November 25th, 2005 at 1:45 pm
No no Ted, I didn’t mean it that way at all.
It’s just that in our Politically Correct society it’s quite ironic, no?
My end comment was more tounge in cheek than anything and no offense was taken and no racism was meant, though it was humorously (or humorlessly as it may have turned out) implied.
Still, people don’t come here for sportswriting 101.
November 25th, 2005 at 2:47 pm
Thanks for the clarification. I thought your reaction was probably tongue-in-cheek, but I was willing to risk erring on the side of being overly defensive. By the way, I am a college instructor in International English as a Second Language, and I, too, love the richness and “malleability” of the English language.- From beautiful Port Angeles, Washington, to beautiful Hawaii (Honolulu?), I wish you- and all your readers- a wonderful weekend.- Ted P.S. For what it’s worth, I feel in my bones that Michelle will make the cut at Sony. Whether she ends up doing so or not, she’s indisputably a phenomenal player, whose achievements are so often unfairly and even maliciously derided…. Sometimes, I have to remind myself how long it took for Tiger to make the cut in a PGA event. The Michelle of today could, I’m firmly convinced, more than hold her own with the Tiger of the early ’90’s!