FanHouse MichelleWie

Michelle Wie claimed her first LPGA tournament title Sunday, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. To celebrate she did not mention a desire to be the first woman to play the Masters at Augusta National, did not unveil a plan to join the PGA Tour and did not ask for an exemption to the U.S. Open.

It's a start.

After a final-round 3-under 69 for a two-shot victory over Paula Creamer in Guadalajara, Mexico, Wie, 20, received a beer shower on the 18th green -- hey, just another college kid in Mexico. She then talked about the relief that came with the victory.

"For sure, it's definitely off my back," she said. "I think that hopefully life will be a lot better."

By all considerations, that will be entirely up to Wie.

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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.

Michelle Wie's golf career has been defined as much by her boundless potential as by the fact that her parents have orchestrated her every move. B.J. and Bo Wie have been criticized for being too involved in their daughter's professional life, drawing the ire of LPGA Tour vet Dottie Pepper, as well as Michelle's swing coach, David Leadbetter.

In a surprising development, television ratings for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational were up 104 percent from a year ago. Apparently, viewers really love them some Padraig Harrington (through 69 holes, anyway). Or, since nobody tuned into the final two majors of 2008 (Harrington won them both), maybe this Tiger Woods fellow has something to do with it.

At this point, Tiger and ratings go hand in hand, and the networks who carry the big tournaments bank on the world's best player being in contention on Sunday for that very reason.

Anna Rawson has outlined her five-point plan for saving the LPGA, and, frankly, I think she's onto something. The tour is struggling to keep sponsors and it's without a marquee player to market to the masses. The former is due primarily to poor management decisions, the latter is just bad luck.

So can women's professional golf survive without a bona fide star? Will they need to rely on other, less traditional means of attracting fans? Rawson's strategy weighs elements of both while Golfweek's Alistair Tait wonders if the LPGA's future hinges on Michelle Wie.

I lost interest in the Wegmans LPGA event after Cheyenne Woods missed the cut and Michelle Wie posted a third-round 75 to take herself out of contention. Jiyai Shin went on to win by seven strokes, pushing her 2009 earnings over $1 million, and cementing her Rookie of the Year bid.

But Stacy Lewis and Morgan Pressel were three shots behind Shin, the tournament leader, heading into Sunday, only to card a 74 and 78, respectively.

After the round, Pressel fired up the Twitter machine: "Trying to dry out the water-logged golf bag. Will never understand why we didn't tee off earlier when they knew the weather."

As did Lewis: "Question of the day: Why didn't we tee off earlier?"

Hound Dog LPGA also has a few questions:

Cheyenne Woods, Tiger's niece and Wake Forest golfer, competed in her first LPGA event this week. She opened with a respectable 75 at the Wegmans LPGA, before carding a second-round 74 to miss the cut by four shots.

As Bacon wrote Thursday, Tiger didn't play the weekend in his first professional event as an amateur, either, shooting 72-75 at the then-Nissan Open in 1992. Things have since worked out for him.

Cheyenne hasn't dominated amateur golf like her uncle, but she's still been very successful. Via the New York Times, "she has won more than 30 amateur tournaments, and she was the second-lowest scorer for Wake Forest, which finished in a tie for 13th last month at the NCAA women's championships."

I heard Michael Jackson died at approximately 5:30 PM ET. Hours later, I still don't think it's fully hit me. This was the man I idolized growing up as a kid ... I watched Moonwalker about 80 times on VHS (Joe Pesci was the villain). I once furiously outbid someone $159 for a replica Beat It jacket with 13 zippers. I actually have an 8x10 glossy of Billie Jean Michael taped next to my bedroom door.

Everyone -- from celebrities to sports stars to ordinary people -- had their way of trying to feel connected to the King of Pop. In his mere presence, fans have fainted and needed medical attention. So when news broke that Jackson had passed away, the reverberations on social media sites like Twitter were immense. Outspoken wide receiver Chad Ochocinco even went on to tweet "this is just as sad as 9/11" and then tried to play damage control after his offensive comment.

After the jump, read the emotional reactions from current and former athletes.

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I was all set to climb up on my soap box and wax practical about the state of the LPGA Tour. The news that Natalie Gulbis and Michelle Wie failed to qualify for next month's U.S. Women's Open got me sufficiently worked up; it was the latest example of a tour desperately seeking respectability finding new and inventive ways to guarantee that it didn't happen.

Except that, unlike last year's English-only debacle, this has nothing to do with inane LPGA rules and more to do with Gulbis and Wie -- despite their popularity -- not earning their way into the field. (In fact, as was pointed out in the comments, the USGA sets the rules for the U.S. Open.)

Each Wednesday during the golf season, FanHouse will list the top five names in golf and why they're important. Did Barack play 18 with Tiger? Did a certain player do something controversial off the course? Or was just playing golf enough to get the pot stirring? Join us for a new weekly ranking feature we call Making the Cut.

5. Michelle Wie -- Thinking back a year ago, it's almost like Michelle Wie has become a different person. In 2008, at the very tournament she will tee up at on Thursday, Wie forgot to sign her scorecard after rounds of 67-65, landing a disqualification that could be listed as her lowest of lows (which is saying a lot). Now, with a tour card and a fresh outlook, Wie is back at the LPGA State Farm Classic with two top-3 finishes this season and seemingly getting close to her first career victory. Even if she doesn't win, Wie has to be hoping that someone will remind her to put her autograph on the only piece of paper that matters.