Posts tagged Annika Sorenstam at FanHouse

Earlier this week, Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer, two of the LPGA's best players, questioned Michelle Wie's decision to tee it up at the Reno-Tahoe Open, a PGA Tour event starting ... now. At this point, we've all heard the complaints: hey, how about winning on the women's tour first? Why is your dad ruining your life? How can you stand to take a spot in the field from someone truly deserving? So on and so forth.

Well, Wie can't answer all her critics -- she'd have to completely give up golf and drop out of school to do that -- but she did respond to the most recent round of disparagements.

"There are going to be criticisms entering this tournament, but at the same time I'm just doing what I feel like I want to do and it's going to be a lot of fun," Wie said.

Well, that does sound like something a teenager might say. Whatever, David Leadbetter, swing coach to the stars, is still concerned.

The public perception is that everybody hates Michelle Wie. Or, at the very least, her insistence on accepting PGA Tour sponsor's exemptions even though her play has yet to warrant them, which, apparently, is, off-putting for her male and female competitors.

The thing is, if Wie wasn't wildly popular (in a circus freak show sorta way, sure ... but still), tournaments would quit asking her to play. Waggle Room does a splendid job of explaining why, exactly, Wie gets PGA Tour invites and the rest of us don't.

* In the Monday First Tee clinic yesterday in Reno, the three tour professionals participating were ... two old guys, plus Wie (Jay Delsing and Steve Pate, to be exact). The tournament is putting Wie out front.

* On the PGATour.com tournament site on Monday, the main photo and headline were of Wie. Today, the main photo and headline have switched to Nick Flanagan, but three of the four sub-heads are about Wie.

* And according to a report in Sports Business Journal (subscription only), PGATour.com will devote more attention to Wie during tournament play (the first two rounds, at least) than the Web site has devoted to any individual player not named Tiger Woods:

(For the record, I'd much rather watch Wie hit high draws and low fades than either Jay Delsing or Steve Pate.)

I think Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer make legit points, but until they win custody rights away from B.J. Wie, I suspect we'll see more of this. At least until the public tires of Michelle, she's tossed on the Jennifer Capriati Memorial Scrap Heap, and we all get on with our lives.

Except, Wie, who will be left to wonder where it all went wrong (hello, daddy issues!).

In any situation, the person that gets the most attention isn't always the most talented. Ask Michelle Wie, she's becoming all too familiar with this process.

After deciding to play in the Reno-Tahoe Open, a PGA Tour event this week, Wie landed a lot of criticism from lesser-known PGA players that are saying what most of the men on tour are probably thinking.

Now, when news came out that Wie was supposed to try and qualify for the Women's British Open but bailed for another chance to miss a cut with the men, her playing competitors are coming forward in flocks.

"Well, we all have different agendas in life," Annika Sorenstam said. "I had a wonderful experience and, when I look back on my career, I will always think about that. I think it was really a turning point in my career and as a person.

"I really don't know why Michelle continues to do this. We have a major this week and, if you can't qualify for a major, I don't see any reason why you should play with the men."

Obviously, the stronger mind prevails. Sorenstam sees that competing against the men was important at one time, but she gave it a shot and came up just a touch short. Wie has yet to realize that if at first you don't succeed, trying seven times and still not succeeding is pretty stupid.

It's hardly surprising that the four highest-paid female athletes are tennis players; with endorsement dollars and tournament purses on the rise, it makes sense. But No. 5 on the list, the first of three golfers, was a little shocking: Michelle Wie.

Yep, the 19-year-old former phenom-turned-Q-School candidate makes more than anybody else on the LPGA Tour, and since she's yet to win a tournament, her earnings come solely mostly from endorsements.

According to Forbes.com, Wie has earned $12 million. Annika Sorenstam, 72-time LPGA Tour winner and 10-time major winner, is at $11 million, and Sorenstam's de facto successor, Lorena Ochoa, comes in at $10 million. Weird.

...Sorenstam, Wie and Ochoa have broken into eight-figure earnings territory, a testament to the LPGA's efforts to globalize. The women's tour not only has top golfers from numerous countries (Sorenstam is from Sweden, Ochoa from Mexico, while Wie is Korean-American, born in Hawaii), but has made a point to broaden its international appeal by holding more events for players in their home markets. ...

As for Wie, there's this:

Lost in all the bluster of Kenny Perry notching his third victory of the season and Tony Romo falling into things was Paula Creamer's performance on the LPGA this weekend.

Creamer shot an 11-under 60 in the first round to take an enormous lead, and after a second round 65, held things together as best she could with weekend rounds of 70-73 to take the Jamie Farr Owen Cornings Classic by two shots.

It was her third victory of the year, tying Annika Sorenstam in wins and moving just three trophies behind Lorena Ochoa for tops on tour.

"After you shoot 60, I swear it's the hardest thing to come back out and play," Creamer said after accepting the $195,000 winner's check. "I managed to get it done. I hit a lot of good shots today. I can't be disappointed. If somebody was to go out and play a lot better than, then so be it."

The 21-year-old said it was tough not getting caught up in such a ridiculously low number because no matter how great it was, she still a ton of golf left.

"You shoot 60 and it's everybody saying, congratulations, congratulations. You still got three days left. It's just the first day of a 4 day tournament."

So, the young, successful, cute golfer won this week on the LPGA tour using a pink ball. If the iPhone or Hybrid cars don't show you we're in a new generation, that previous sentence should suffice.

Also, any excuse to use this picture was worth writing up about the LPGA. Classic.

It has to be depressing to fire a six-under 65 in the first round of the LPGA Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic and be five shots back of the leader.

Paula Creamer, starting on the tenth hole at Highland Meadows Country Club, went out in four-under, which is extremely salty by itself, made the turn, and just went "Megan Fox in July at Scottsdale while eating an Atomic Fireball" hot.

A seven-under 27 on her second nine matched the LPGA record for raw score on nine holes and had her within a shot of that untouchable number in golf, 59.

Not to be outdone by Mark O'Meara's ability to predict things in golf, Creamer said this in a pre-tournament interview.

"This is a great golf course. It sets up really well for my game. You have to hit really good irons out here. You have to hit it in the right part of the greens, and you have to be a good putter. People make a lot of birdies out here. You are just trying to eliminate the bogeys."

Well, 11 birdies and no bogeys is a little what you were looking for, right Paula?

Only Annika Sorenstam, shooting a 59 in the second round of the 2001 Standard Register PING, has bested Creamer's 60.

Lorena Ochoa, the best women's golfer on the planet, wouldn't mind following in the footsteps of the LPGA's previous No. 1 player, Annika Sorenstam.

When a reporter asked Ochoa if she would play against a man, the Mexican said "I am not going to say no." "Perhaps we'll change direction," she added. "I am flexible. We are willing to look at something fun, and it could be fun to play a man."

In 2003, Sorenstam was given a sponsor's exemption to tee it up at the Colonial. She fired an opening round 1-over 71, but would miss the cut after a second round 4-over. Still, Sorenstam played well, particularly since she admitted to being "nervous all day" Thursday.

Her appearance wasn't without controversy, however. Vijay Singh was so excited about a woman competing on the PGA Tour that he got all "pre 19th amendment" about the whole thing:

"It's just different for ladies to play on the men's tour," Singh said. "It's like getting the Williams sisters to play (tennis) against a man, and they're far better athletes than she (Sorenstam) is."

Oh, and at the time, Singh said he would withdraw if he was paired with Sorenstam. Classy. To his credit, he later apologized, so there's that.

As for Ochoa, I'm all for her competing against whomever. Unlike, say, Michelle Wie, who has yet to be competitive on the LPGA, Ochoa has dominated the women's tour. I have very little trouble believing she'd be competitive against men, and that included Vijay. Especially if she catches him when he's yipping his way around the green.

Unless two female golfers end up fighting each other in a sand trap and clothes get ripped with the camera focused directly on the scuffle, there is no chance this tournament will get as much media attention as the Tiger Woods-Rocco Mediate show.

Nonetheless, it's the Women's U.S. Open and it starts tomorrow, with Lorena Ochoa seeking her first win at this event and Michelle Wie is, well, trying to live in the now?

"I feel like I'm re-emerging as a new player, a new person," Wie said. "I feel like I'm never, ever going to think about last year again. I'm not ever going to think about before I broke my wrist. That was then and this is now. I feel like from now on, I'm only going to think about now."

Obviously Wie is a huge story at any golf event (and the fact that she qualified has critics off her back), but the She-Tiger Ochoa is looking for her third major championship victory in an event she finished runner-up at last year to Christie Kerr.

Vijay Singh's quest to alienate professional golfers around the globe continues. After winning the Masters, he kindly told, well, everybody to "kiss his ass," publicly hoped Annika Sorenstam missed the cut at the 2003 Colonial, accused Phil Mickelson of tearing up Augusta's greens with his ginormous clown feet, and had his caddie sport a "Tiger Who?" lid during their 2000 President's Cup match.

That last one is sorta funny, except for the part where Woods subsequently laid the beat down on Singh during the match.

In any event, the list just got longer. Apparently, British golfers aren't winning U.S. Open's because they don't work hard enough.

"Lots of them start out with the right intentions and the opportunities are there for them to become great," said Singh during practice at Torrey Pines. " Once they're on tour, though, they find themselves having a fine time and wondering, 'Why should I bother to work hard?' Their way of life is so comfortable that it doesn't matter if they have a bad tournament. The disappointment is not as big any more. There's another event the following week and they just move on."

Wow. Imagine if Kelly Tilghman had said this about, oh, I don't know, Fijian golfers.

Last week Annika Sorenstam announced her retirement from the LPGA Tour, citing a well-worn pretext for departing politicians: to spend more time with the family.

Sorenstam won't officially get on with her life for another seven months -- when the tour season concludes -- which led one "formidable PGA Tour member," according to the Boston Globe, to express some skepticism about the timing of the announcement.

There are those cynics who will speculate that it is an attempt to maintain the spotlight and generate a sort of farewell tour to help with the almighty "branding," and let's hope that isn't so in this case. (After all, how many farewell tours for athletes are marketed for public consumption, only to see the player come back the next year and play on for a few more, to boot. Hello, Michael Jordan, and you, too, Nancy Lopez.)

That's it? That's what some old codger's so worked up about? Sorenstam possibly trying to set herself up down the road? Jeebus. This "formidable PGA Tour member" is probably the same jerk who floods the network with calls to report that a player may or may not have violated some obscure rule during the weekend telecast. You know, because golf is a gentleman's game and it's the right thing to do. And this guy is a meddling busybody.

Good news, though: as the Globe's Jim McCabe writes, in the days following Sorenstam's announcement, Lorena Ochoa, currently the planet's best (completely healthy) golfer, won her sixth tournament in nine starts this season, and the 14th time in 34 events since 2007. And everybody forgot about Sorenstam. For seven months, anyway.

See, it all works out.