elrod-tom
Moderator - Prefers "stereo weirdo" to "audiophile"
OK...now I don't want this to become a big male vs female thread by any stretch. That's not why I'm posting this.
That said, I'm getting increasingly annoyed by what's going on with Michelle Wie and her career as a professional golfer.
Here we have a young (16 yr old) woman, who is admittedly a very talented golfer, who is making repeated attempts at qualifying for a PGA event. This bothers me on several levels:
1) She's not just failing to qualify, she's getting clobbered. She was 12 strokes behind the leader when she withdrew earlier today from the John Deere Classic. What is the point of even attempting to qualify if you have no chance of even being competitive? What is the point of merely qualifying? Seems like a pyrric victory to me. Why not compete on the LPGA tour on an equal playing field where she actually has a chance to WIN?
2) It would be one thing if (like Annika Sorenstam before her) she had achieved consistent success on the LPGA tour, and was seeking to compete at the next level. She has not...she's not so much as won an LPGA event. In my opinion, she not only hasn't earned the right to compete on the PGA tour, I'm not altogether sure that she's earned the right to play on the LPGA tour. Apparently a number of her cohorts on the LPGA tour feel the same way, and are tiring of her refusal to qualify as a condition of appearing at an event.
3) Where are her parents in all this? I know that she's personable, and there's clearly money to be made in all this (surely the tournament sponsors who give her an exemption to play think so), but this can't possibly be a good and healthy thing. It's an enourmous amount of pressure to put on a 16 year old, which likely explains her exit from the tournament today from exhaustion. How many 16 year olds do you know who can't play a round of golf in moderately hot and humid conditions without requiring hospitalization?
I just think that she'd be a lot better off if she stuck to the LPGA tour and achieved some success. If she dominates the LPGA the way that Annika Sorenstam did, then the PGA tour beckons and I'll shut up about it. Until then, this strikes me as a publicity stunt designed to line everyone's pockets. I don't generally have a problem with that, but she's 16 years old and clearly reeling from the pressure that she's under.
She simply doesn't belong in a PGA tour event.
I know that this is a bit on the controversial side, and I really don't want to get this thing rolling down the male vs female route. That's not my objection here - it's that she's not even come close to earning the right to do this, and that it's not healthy to subject her to all this pressure.
Your thoughts??
That said, I'm getting increasingly annoyed by what's going on with Michelle Wie and her career as a professional golfer.
Here we have a young (16 yr old) woman, who is admittedly a very talented golfer, who is making repeated attempts at qualifying for a PGA event. This bothers me on several levels:
1) She's not just failing to qualify, she's getting clobbered. She was 12 strokes behind the leader when she withdrew earlier today from the John Deere Classic. What is the point of even attempting to qualify if you have no chance of even being competitive? What is the point of merely qualifying? Seems like a pyrric victory to me. Why not compete on the LPGA tour on an equal playing field where she actually has a chance to WIN?
2) It would be one thing if (like Annika Sorenstam before her) she had achieved consistent success on the LPGA tour, and was seeking to compete at the next level. She has not...she's not so much as won an LPGA event. In my opinion, she not only hasn't earned the right to compete on the PGA tour, I'm not altogether sure that she's earned the right to play on the LPGA tour. Apparently a number of her cohorts on the LPGA tour feel the same way, and are tiring of her refusal to qualify as a condition of appearing at an event.
3) Where are her parents in all this? I know that she's personable, and there's clearly money to be made in all this (surely the tournament sponsors who give her an exemption to play think so), but this can't possibly be a good and healthy thing. It's an enourmous amount of pressure to put on a 16 year old, which likely explains her exit from the tournament today from exhaustion. How many 16 year olds do you know who can't play a round of golf in moderately hot and humid conditions without requiring hospitalization?
I just think that she'd be a lot better off if she stuck to the LPGA tour and achieved some success. If she dominates the LPGA the way that Annika Sorenstam did, then the PGA tour beckons and I'll shut up about it. Until then, this strikes me as a publicity stunt designed to line everyone's pockets. I don't generally have a problem with that, but she's 16 years old and clearly reeling from the pressure that she's under.
She simply doesn't belong in a PGA tour event.
I know that this is a bit on the controversial side, and I really don't want to get this thing rolling down the male vs female route. That's not my objection here - it's that she's not even come close to earning the right to do this, and that it's not healthy to subject her to all this pressure.
Your thoughts??
