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The big boys hit Liverpool this week with a Beatles-like bang, Tiger and Phil and the rest of the band playing their drivers to a heavy metal beat. Their British Open stage is for men only, offering up no room for a teenage girl who keeps belting out the loudest notes in golf.
Michelle Wie's last sound came in the form of a thud, and you could hear the haters belching out you-da-mans to each other as the ambulance carrying an overheated Wie pulled away from the John Deere Classic. The Girl Interrupted could only hack it for 27 holes before she crashed in a way no PGA Tour pro did.
It was her bum luck that Illinois law requires a trip to the hospital when the sun reduces a 6-1 prodigy to an unattended ice cream cone on a 90-degree day. Everyone got their photo op of Wie on her gurney, knocked out before she could even miss the cut. Those with minds smaller than your average range ball wanted to see a symbol in the snapshot, and this is what they saw:
A girl who had no business playing with men.
Truth is, the British Open would be a far more interesting place if Wie owned a spot in the field. Her goal isn't to succeed Annika Sorenstam as the dominant figure in women's golf. Her goal is to play in The Masters and the U.S. Open and as many of the men's majors as she can qualify for, and then her goal is to win them.
What's more American than that?
Wie is a 6-1 daughter of Title IX, the face of a generation of young female athletes raised to believe it deserves a place in the male-dominated culture of sport. She wants to push the boundaries of human achievement. And the credentialed critics ripping her for the attempt have apparently forgotten that's why we got in the sports journalism business to begin with.
To chronicle the lives of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Wie is 16, and she has already finished in the top five of six Grand Slam events. Six. Just consider how ridiculously talented you have to be to accomplish so much, so young, in a game so taxing. And yet Wie is sometimes covered like some has-been loser. People want to know when she'll finally win something.
Gee, I don't know. Maybe before her first zit.
You want to ask Natalie Gulbis, 23-year-old pinup, when she's planning on holding the trophy, any trophy, go right ahead. Gulbis had her chance to break free from Kournikovadom at the Jamie Farr but lost a playoff to Mi Hyun Kim. Gulbis has half as many top-five finishes in the majors as Wie, but, of most consequence, leads Wie in number of reality shows (one).
So Wie needs far more time out of the winner's circle before she's given the A-Rod treatment. The fact that B.J. Wie had his daughter hurdle much of the junior circuit -- rather than crush it like Tiger Woods did -- shouldn't inspire any mass hysteria.
Richard Williams was ridiculed for keeping young Venus and Serena away from the traditional camps and development programs, and his daughters became the best players in the world. Michelle Wie will get there whether her competitors like it or not.
They don't like it, of course. Brittany Lincicome, match-play champ, groused that Wie didn't talk much, didn't concede enough short putts and didn't return compliments. Se Ri Pak whined about a lack of two-way conversation with Wie.
This isn't a church social, ladies. Wie wants to beat you the same way Tiger and Jack Nicklaus beat their opponents -- quietly and soundly.
As for Jeff Gove, the John Deere playing partner who roasted Wie for being "inconsiderate" enough to suffer from heat exhaustion and slow down his megastar career, here's a question: How many tickets did you sell for that tournament?
Wie isn't just the biggest attraction in golf; she was also tough enough and long enough off the tee to outplay 81 men in a recent U.S. Open qualifier, including a few who have been on a Masters leaderboard (Len Mattiace, James Driscoll and Ricky Barnes). Wie finished one shot behind Mark O'Meara, former Masters and British Open winner. She finished three shots ahead of her playing partner, David Gossett, the former U.S. Amateur champ who once won ... drumroll, please ... the John Deere Classic.
Wie's power swing, according to Fred Couples, already represents "the scariest thing you've ever seen." When she improves her putting, Wie will become a Woods-like winning machine and a player good enough to contend in a men's event.
Until then, let Wie earn her driver's license before casting her career as a wreck.
Ian O'Connor also writes for The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News
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