FanHouse Michelle Wie

It's golf's offseason, which doesn't really mean much for fans and players alike except there aren't any majors, and the competition dwindles. It also gives media and players a chance to reflect on the bigger picture. Players evaluate their years and see what could be improved, promising to work on that before next year rolls out. Media has the opportunity to hand out awards, evaluate certain tours and find flaws in those tours.

That is where this concept came up, about the LPGA and their struggle to gain identity. You could argue that women's golf is the second most important female sport, behind tennis, but it still seems that women's golf has struggled this decade to resonate with sports fans, even some golf fans. Annika Sorenstam had moments where she became a story bigger than golf, but most of that dealt with a missed cut and a skirt, the latter being more of a Fred Funk prank than anything.

Imagine for a minute Tiger Woods going over five months without winning a PGA Tour event. The world, as golf journalist know it, would stop. We'd be calling for his head, his swing and his spikes. It would be Armageddon, birdie edition.

Well, that was the current situation in the LPGA. Lorena Ochoa, the best female golfer in the world, won her last event in April, at the Corona Championship, and was looking like she might not win again in 2009 until Sunday at the Navistar Classic.

Tied for the lead after two rounds, Ochoa turned her game to red, shooting eight under on the weekend to claim her third victory of the year. Her final 18-under tally was four clear of the second place finishers, Michelle Wie and Brittany Lang, and well ahead of the early story, 14-year-old Alexis Thompson.

Alexis Thompson's Web site proudly proclaims her as "golf's next big star," and if she keeps up the play she's brought to the first two rounds of the LPGA Navistar Classic, it might just be true.

After a first round 65 that had her a shot back of the leader, the 14-year-old Thompson joined an elite group at 10-under after her second straight sub-70 round, firing a 3-under 69 in her fifth career LPGA tournament. Before Thursday, Thompson had never broke 71, but the amateur continues to play well.

That is the good news. The bad news for Thompson fans is the group she is a part of. Lorena Ochoa and Laura Davies both are in the group of five at 10-under, along with Yani Tseng and Giulia Sergas.

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Update: Janice Moodie, a LPGA veteran, birdied six of her last seven holes on Thursday to take the lead over Thompson by one shot.

Most 14-year-olds are focused on one thing and one thing only ... getting ready for the leap into the nasty world of freshman year of high school. Alexis Thompson is currently worried how she's going to follow up a first round 65 in the LPGA Navistar Classic.

A week after a 13-year-old made a hole-in-one in her first ever trip to the LPGA, Thompson made eight birdies on the Robert Trent Jones design in Prattville, Al., leading a shot over Michelle Wie (remember when she was the young one?) and two shots clear of a big group at 5-under.

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Last weekend, the PGA Tour concluded with some much-needed FedEx Cup drama. For two years, the PGA Tour's playoff system had failed, basically crowning the winner before the final event had even concluded. Now, for the first time since the PGA Tour went FedEx, we had putts on a Sunday that were for more than just the tournament at hand -- they were for a prize most guys on tour couldn't totally grasp.

So what is the next logical move? The LPGA getting its own FedEx Cup, or so Dottie Pepper thinks. On Tuesday, Pepper wrote on Golf.com that she thinks the LPGA could benefit from a FedEx Cup-style postseason, pointing out the extra exposure for sponsors and such. The problem with Pepper's plan is simple -- the LPGA can't get sponsors right now ... for anything. Why focus on adding something new to the schedule when all the regulars that have been around for years and years are dropping out like bar patrons at 1:58 in the morning.

Here is Pepper's plan.

Casie Cathrea is 13, meaning she's so young, Taylor Swift won't even sing about the travails of her adolescence, but it does mean that if you've got the golf game, you can play in a professional golf event, and maybe make the swing of your life.

Cathrea, a 13-year-old freshman did one of the hardest feats in sports unknown to most fans -- she Monday qualified for a professional golf tournament, the LPGA Challenge, and in her first LPGA round, made a hole-in-one.

Casie aced the par-3 12th hole on her way to posting a 2-over 74, not bad for a kid in her first year as a teenager.

Michelle Wie's Blog might be overtaking her popular Twitter page for fans interested in the life of the 19-year-old professional golfer.

Named "Black Flamingo," the blog is said to be, "a mindless blog about life ... and the stuff that doesn't quite fit in," and that isn't too far off. Michelle Wie started posting on the blog on September 10, with this simple introduction about her idea behind the site.

"so i never used be into art or anything about art. i hated art class back in 7 and 8th grade and just dreaded going to that damn art class. but all of a sudden (i'm a junior in college), the artsy fartsy wheels have just begun to spin. I have all of a sudden been obsessed with drawing, painting, spray painting, and anything to do with diy. so here is my first post i guess about my stuff. I dont feel like any of this fit into any category. maybe they do and im just hopelessly clueless about this stuff but i hope u guys what i do. and if no one likes it...then...oh wells...i guess im truly just a black flamingo."

The Solheim Cup changed her, for all we can see. She was 3-0-1 as the United States rolled, and despite a less-than stellar first round at the Canadian Women's Open, Michelle Wie might look back at the '09 Solheim as the event that changed her.

Something else she wants changed? The public criticism of her parents. B.J. and Bo have been in the conversation of the 19-year-old Wie since she first burst on the golf scene in 2003, and have been the subject of criticism nearly the entire time. Now, Michelle is asking that people leave them alone.

"You know, it's hard to hear stuff being said about your parents," Wie said. "I just don't like when people write stuff when they don't know what they're talking about. But you know, people write what they want to write. And you know, everyone has their opinion and everyone's entitled to it. But I don't think that gives the right to bash anyone's parents."

Monday afternoon in downtown New York and while Sergio Garcia may not have time on his hands, he does have his hands on an expensive timepiece.

Less than 24 hours after the final round of the PGA Tour's Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., provided another reminder that golf seems to be carrying a real mad-on for him, the star-crossed Spaniard is keeping a scheduled sponsor promotional appearance for Omega. In addition to hosting a clinic for youngsters from two New York junior golf associations, Garcia is on hand to donate his "Mission Hills Double Eagle Chronograph Constellation" wristwatch to a public display that includes Michael Phelps' Planet Ocean Chronograph and Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin's Speedmaster Moonwatch.

So when better to ask: Where has the time gone?

It was a big weekend for women's golf. The United States defeated Europe in the Solheim Cup, but more than that, Michelle Wie finally played up to her potential. She was 3-0-1, the best among her teammates, and was loose, smiling and having fun while doing it.

Maybe a break from her overprotective parents had something to do with it. Or perhaps it was her Saturday fourball partner, Christina Kim, who helped keep things light. Whatever, the LPGA will be forever grateful if Wie emerges as the face of the tour.

That story has yet to write itself. In the meantime, the news out of Europe in the aftermath of the Solheim Cup has to do with Kim's on-course antics. Depending on your perspective, her actions were somewhere between slightly distracting to Happy Gilmore-tastic. I watched parts of the telecast over the weekend and I tend to think it was more the latter.