Tag: Michelle Wie

  • Weekend Trifecta for Nike Golf

    AP Photo/Miguel Tovar
    AP Photo/Miguel Tovar

    Nike Golf had a pretty good weekend, with staffers Michelle Wie, Stephen Ames and that guy named Tiger all winning with a full bag of Nike equipment on Sunday. Actually I think Tiger’s win actually came on Sat for us, but who’s keeping track? Nike has built a solid stable of top players on the PGA and LPGA tours, so it’s no surprise that they have had success. This sort of thing has happened before, but not with Wie and Woods. With apologies to Frenchman Gregory Bourdy, who  won in Hong Kong this weekend and plays for Titleist, the spotlight in the US and Australia was clearly on Wie, Woods and Ames.

    Tiger Woods has traveled all over the world in his quest for victories, but Australia hasn’t been one of his most frequent stops. In fact, last week’s Australian Masters appearance was the first time he had played in Australia in 11 years! Tiger took a reported $3 Million just to show up, but quickly justified it by winning. Many may scoff at paying someone that much money just to come to play, but the record crowds and the fact that they sold out the practice rounds proved that to be the right choice. in the end, the economic impact for the Melbourne area was estimated at over $20 million. Tiger has vowed to come back much sooner next time, and at the very least he’ll be back in Australia in two years for the President’s Cup.

    I attended the Children’s Miracle Network Classic at the Disney World Resort lasy week, and while observing many players on the driving range I thought Nike staff player Justin Leonard was hitting the ball great and picked him to win. It turns out fellow Nike player and Canadian citizen Stephen Ames took the victory in a playoff against Leonard and George McNeill. It was Ames’ 4th career victory, but probably the first with his son walking along all the way. The atmosphere of the week was relaxed, as it probably should be at Disney. Most players probably spent more time at the magic kingdom with family than at the driving range. It’s the end of the season at a fun venue, so why not enjoy it?

    To round out the Nike trifecta, Michelle Wie claimed her first victory as a professional in 65 LPGA starts at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, beating Paula Creamer by 2 shots. It was a good week for LPGA fans for two reasons: Michelle Wie has broken through finally, and if that first victory has the same effect it had on fellow Nike staffer David Duval when he finally broke through, the wins should start coming in bunches now. Secondly, Paula Creamer was back in contention after a year of illness and mediocre finishes. It was at this tournament last year that she fell ill and it took a full year to figure it out. Not to take anything away from the talented foreign players on the LPGA, but women's golf in America needs Paula and Michelle to be contending, not just making cuts. Congrats to Michelle on her first victory! Stay up to date with current posts and news by subscribing to our email updates below!

  • Photo Gallery – 08 LPGA Tour Q-School Finals

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    I have lived in the Daytona Beach area since 1997, and as a resident here it’s hard not to become at least a little bit interested in NASCAR. Having been to many different kinds of auto races in my life, I can say that NASCAR isn’t really my thing, but I have fun with it anyway. Besides, Speedweek in February is a large part of what makes this town tick.

    Daytona Beach is also where the home office of the LPGA Tour is located. Indigo Lakes Golf Club used to be the home course of the LPGA, and it also hosted some pro events and PGA Tour Q-School. The LPGA then moved to a brand new office located at the newly built LPGA International Golf Club. The facility has 36 holes designed by Rees Jones and Arthur Hills, and played host to the LPGA’s Sprint Titleholder’s Championship for several years. Even though the facility was built largely to host this tournament and all the stars of the LPGA Tour including Annika Sorenstam played every year, attendance was poor and the tournament eventually failed. However, fans of women’s golf can still come to LPGA International every year for the LPGA Q-School finals and a Futures Tour event.

    Last year, the LPGA fielded a record number of media requests and handed out hundreds of credentials in anticipation of Michelle Wie attending the tournament in pursuit of her tour card. The great part of the week for the fans was the fact that attendance was free, and access to the players was unlike any other pro golf event. The fans could get very close to the players, with no gallery ropes on most holes and most pairings had only a hand full of spectators following. Wie, paired on the final day with eventual Q-School medalist Stacy Lewis, drew the biggest crowds, but it was still only in the 80 to 100 range.

    I was a bit surprized about being permitted to carry my camera around and snap pictures, but I tried to keep a low profile nevertheless. I was able to get some great shots on published them on my Facebook page. I recently stumbled upon these shots again while performing a backup and felt they would be worth sharing again, so enjoy! be sure to use the full screen function by hitting the button on the bottom right of the slideshow!

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  • What’s Wrong With The LPGA Tour? (Part 2)

    Photo Credit: Matt Dunham/AP
    Photo Credit: Matt Dunham/AP

    Back in May I did a piece on what I thought was wrong with the LPGA Tour. I touched on a few issues that, to me, made it tougher for the LPGA Tour to compete with the others for TV viewers. I have observed another issue lately that may be of much greater concern to the Tour, and the steps they have taken to solve that issue. With any luck, we’ll see the LPGA Tour come out of this tough time and continue to grow.

    Last Sunday ESPN chose to rebroadcast the 2008 World Series of Poker rather than air the final round of the Wegmans LPGA. Maybe ESPN thought they would get better ratings by showing tape of a year old show that everyone has already seen, rather than showing live LPGA golf. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t watch a sporting event on television when I know what the outcome is going to be. It’s like watching those pathetically scripted reality shows. Sports are the first and only reality shows out there. Millions and millions of fans watch sports because of the simple fact that you don’t know who is going to win, and you never know when the game or match will come down to the last second, the last hole, or the last point. My biggest problem with it is for all the grief I get from football, baseball and hockey fans questioning golf as a sport, ESPN replaces golf with Poker – hardly what I would consider a sport.

    It’s become clear to me that ESPN has a clear agenda to promote the events that it has a vested financial interest in, as Martin Kaufmann also pointed out in Golfweek. This would tend to explain the Poker rerun, just a few days before the 2009 World Series of Poker started. This also explains the ridiculous hype over the X-Games every year. It’s all about the ratings. ESPN also seems to try to influence the viewing public with its virtual monopoly of viewership, powerful opinions and tenancy to beat a story to death. Just watch the lineup on weekdays starting at 4:30 with Around the Horn, followed by PTI and finally Sportcenter. You’ll see the same highlighted story talked about on all three shows, and the general opinion on the subject seems to be the same across the board. ESPN seems to have embraced the FOX News model of “info-tainment”, where they choose a story that has some editorial angle to it and over cover it in an attempt to draw ratings, or come up with a cheesy special feature to plug a sponsor’s products and fill air time. Why else would we need a Brett Favre update every single night or a stupid “Who’s Now” bracket?

    In any case, it seems that the LPGA Tour is finally taking matters into their own hands lately in an attempt to breathe life into its dying franchise. Carolyn Bivens, the LPGA Tour Commissioner, has her work cut out for her in reviving the struggling tour. Several tournaments are without title sponsors in 2010 and are in trouble of folding, and only 10 events on the LPGA calendar for 2010 are in the United States. Hawaii, once host to three LPGA Tournaments, now has lost its final remaining event, with the death of the Kapalua tournament joining the SBS Open and the Fields Open. What can save this tour? Well, the LPGA recently inked a deal with the Golf Channel to become the LPGA Tour’s exclusive cable broadcaster in the US. That’s a good start, but the problem with that is the Golf Channel also broadcasts PGA Tour, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour events. Will this lead to competition for air time? Will the LPGA Tour be pushed out of prime time in favor of the PGA Tour on tape delay? I fear LPGA fans will have to set their DVR to record tournaments airing at midnight, long after the final results have been posted on the internet or been talked about on Sportscenter. Oh that’s right, Sportscenter doesn’t even cover the LPGA Tour unless Michelle Wie does something. The problem with that is she really hasn’t done anything yet, except cash in on the hype and false promises that ESPN contributed to creating. I have nothing against Michelle Wie. To expect her to fill the shoes of Annika in her rookie year on tour is unrealistic anyway.

    The LPGA has many great personalities and has a lot to offer the fans. If you have a chance to attend an LPGA tournament you can see this.  For more entertainment value you can follow many players on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Just tune into Christina Kim’s twitter feed and you’ll see what I mean. Although there was a bit of a circus following the Commissioner’s mis-communicated suggestion to the players to tweet during play, for the most part it’s an easy way to keep up with your favorite players and get a look at the world behind the ropes. For sheer entertainment value, there no better way to get into the lives of the players than to follow Christina, Morgan Pressel and others on Twitter. On the PGA Tour, Ian Poulter and John Daly are favorites.

    Let’s hope we can get more LPGA golf on the air and the Golf Channel doesn’t butcher the coverage by sticking it on late night or over exposing us to Kelly Tilghman. (Sorry Kelly, but you’re no Jim Nantz.) With any luck, the players that the tour spends much of it’s marketing dollars promoting – Wie, Gulbis, Creamer, Ochoa, etc will start playing better and make more of an impact on Sundays. There has been much critisism about the throngs of Korean girls that seem to have no identity cluttering up the leader boards, but I don’t blame them. They are a product of the worlds best junior golf program for girls, and each one of them have rightfully earned their place on the Tour, it’s just that these girls being in contention have the same depressing effect on television ratings that Tiger does when he doesn’t play…

  • What’s wrong with the LPGA Tour?

    lpgaThe English-only policy the LPGA Tour tried to install recently drew a lot of criticism, and they promptly retracted it. Sadly, I think it’s probably needed, but in some watered down form, used not to scare or alienate foreign players, but to encourage them to learn the language. The throngs of Korean girls – who were largely thought to be the so called “targets” of this ill-fated policy – are taking the LPGA by storm, thanks to Se Ri Pak paving the way for them in the 90s. In general, Koreans are quiet and tend to keep to themselves. Their families are very tight-knit and their presence around the players is evident on the practice greens and driving range of tour events. One of the criticisms they have endured is that they show no emotion on the course. That’s just the way they are, and while even keel emotions makes for mentally strong golfers, it’s not very fan friendly. Tennis hall of famers Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg were criticized in the same manner for not being more flamboyant or outgoing, in part due to the popularity of their great rivals Andre Agassi and John McEnroe. In the era of bubbly stars like Paula Creamer, Christina Kim and others, the stoic and cerebral Korean girls get the same treatment.

    I think what the LPGA needs in order to recover from its post Annika hangover is some fan friendly innovations. On course interviews during the round, such as on the Champions and Nationwide tours would be nice, and some personal bios that show the ladies beyond the golf course might let the fans into the lives of the players a bit more. Maybe they can show us that they aren’t golf robots after all and have a personality! More prime time LPGA golf coverage would also be a welcome addition, but it seems the golf channel is getting caught up in the reality show ratings grab. Case in point – The girls got no TV time for weeks after the thrilling Nabisco finish. We are lured in by a great final round and a thrilling finish like that, and then they go off the air for over a month. Not good planning on the part of the LPGA.

    The LPGA Tour is also struggling to find an identity since Annika has retired. Lorena has taken the place of Annika as the best player in the world, but Americans are not enamored with her like they were with Annika. Paula Creamer is dealing with health issues and hasn’t been on her game, Natalie Gulbis hasn’t yet reached her potential, and Michelle Wie hasn’t stepped in to be the next superstar yet. Will she ever? Who knows, but I think we all forget that she’s not even old enough to drink. Give her time! Some of the other young players I know that have lots of star qualities seem to be busy partying and enjoying life, rather than focusing on being the best golfer they can be. I won’t mention their names because it’s their right to live how they want. They could be working hard and competing for championships (they have the talent), but instead they choose to skate by making a cut here and there and cashing a nice check. In my opinion, If we can get some of these superstars in waiting to come forward and take the bull by the horns the LPGA would see a great resurgence.

    I would also like to see more PGA/LPGA tournaments, like the old JC Penny classic at Innisbrook. That was a great way to show off the best golf in the US in a more casual atmosphere. Going back to tennis for examples, the best drawing tournaments of the year other than the majors are the two big co-ed events at Indian Wells and Miami. We get to see the best of both tours in one place at one time. I think the LPGA and PGA Tours need to come together a few times a year and hold a WGC event with a limited field of say 32 men and 32 women. I think fans would love to see the men and woman competing on the same course at the same time. And while we’re at it, why not start a co-ed Ryder Cup style event? Wouldn’t it be great to see the best guys and gals in the US team up against the best guys and gals from the rest of the world? Maybe Annika would come out of retirement for that too. I for one would love to see the possible match ups for that one! I’ll be eagerly awaiting the Woods/Wie vs. Garcia/Ochoa match-up, or Mickelson/Creamer vs. Ogilvy/Webb. How about the all south pairing of Weekly/McPherson vs the all Korean powerhouses of Choi/Shin? The possibilities are endless!