US Team Getting To Know "The Real Wie"

Michelle Wie has already won at this week's Solheim Cup, according to her teammates. She's won a lot of their friendships, they say.

"As teammates, I think that we've all gotten to know her in a different way. She's made a lot of new friends this week. It'll be a really good experience for her. I think it already has been," quipped Morgan Pressel to reporters on Wednesday.

That could be a major boon and stepping stone in Wie's growth both as a person and as a golfer. Despite never having won a 72-hole event, the 19 year old is already the highest paid woman golfer, thanks to her abundant endorsement contracts. Rumors and innuendo swirled around her in the press, something that US Team Captain Beth Daniel addressed on Wednesday as well. "We always read that the players didn't like Michelle. They thought she was given everything and that when she plays golf, she's very controlled," Daniels said.

Then she continued on, saying that Wie "is one of the funniest individuals I've ever been around. She's got a very quick wit and she's really a sweet person. She's so appreciative of this opportunity."

While it is an opportunity, it is one that will come with great scrutiny. Wie's play, particularly if a match she is involved in is tight at the end and/or key to the US's victory hopes, will be examined, dissected and displayed on national television by NBC analysts Johnny Miller and Dottie Pepper.

Miller is known for his blunt style of calling it like he sees it, especially when he thinks he's seen a bad mistake. His evisceration of golfers great or unknown on NBC coverage is the stuff of legend, and Miller's commentary is possibly the most direct seen from a network announcer since broadcasting legend Howard Cosell retired. For example, in 2006, as Phil Mickelson was melting down and losing the US Open on the 72nd hole, Miller quipped that "you couldn't have [made] worse decisions than he's had on this hole."

Pepper, for her part, has her own record of direct commentary even when she doesn't mean to do so. In 2007, Pepper said that the US Team were "chokin' freakin' dogs" on air, later saying that she thought Golf Channel's coverage had gone to commercial. Naturally, that didn't sit well with the US Team, who were narrowly leading a tight event at the time. For that comment, even European captain Helen Alfredsson criticized her, calling it "totally inappropriate."

With that in mind, Wie has the chance to be a real hero, or perhaps a scapegoat this weekend, something that will surely be underlined by the commentators covering the event. The US Team is heavily favored to win, but as it often is in match play events, the winner will likely be determined on the last day, when each team sends out everyone to square off in singles events. There, Wie will need to muster her best golf from tee to green and show a grit coming down the stretch that has eluded her thus far in 2009. If she can do that, she will earn the praise of golf fans everywhere. If not, well, she'll get a difficult and painful lesson.

Still, she's inured herself with many of the top players on her tour, which can do nothing else besides making her life easier when it comes to the week in, week out nature of professional golf. That may well inspire her confidence, which has been fragile, and in turn, that may allow Wie to play more confidently and boldly -- which is a dangerous proposition for her opponents, given her prodigious talents.

Will We See Wie In The Solheim Cup? We Should.

Three weeks from now, the 11th Solheim Cup gears up in Sugar Grove Illinois, near Naperville, a Chicagoland suburb. The top of the US side is pretty much set, and the team will be well-favored going into the matches on friendly soil in the midwest.

Question is, will Michelle Wie be a part of her first Solheim Cup team?

US Captain Beth Daniel has been non-committal regarding her Captain's Choices for the team, telling the Honolulu Advertiser that "Michelle Wie's a possibility for sure. She's been playing well. She's been showing me something ... I've said all along she has to move up in the points a little bit to be considered, but if you look at her stats and how she's playing, she's playing as good as anybody. She's on my radar screen, but it's so up in the air."

Current rankings for the US side are:

 Rank   Player                    Points

1   Paula Creamer              769.5
2   Cristie Kerr               693.5
3   Angela Stanford            573.0
4   Nicole Castrale            314.0
5   Brittany Lang              301.5
6   Morgan Pressel             277.0
7   Kristy McPherson           276.0
8   Christina Kim              255.0
9   Brittany Lincicome         250.0
10   Natalie Gulbis             201.0
11   Laura Diaz                 177.0
12   Stacy Prammanasudh         170.0
13   Pat Hurst                  164.0
14   Juli Inkster               152.0
15   Jane Park                  141.0
16   Michelle Wie               133.5

One thing Daniel should consider is that Wie is a steady and reliable performer in her rookie year, even if she has yet to claim a victory. She is 11 for 11 in cuts made, And she has as many top-10 finishes (five) as the the five players immediately ahead of her (Laura Diaz, Stacy Prammanasudh, Pat Hurst, Juli Inkster and Jane Park) combined. Wie is also ranked 11 in scoring average, ahead of the players in front of her in the standings.

Inkster is probably a lock to be a Captain's pick. She is nearing the end of her career as a strong competitor and her stated goal for this year is to play in one more Solheim Cup. Inkster is undoubtedly a deserving player, given her record and accomplishments, so it's easy to see that Beth Daniel will be making a call to her soon -- if she hasn't quietly done so already -- to tell her some good news.

That leaves Laura Diaz, Stacy Prammanasudh, Pat Hurst, and Jane Park. All are deserving players, especially Hurst, but none can match Michelle Wie's on-course play, as is shown above. Wie is the better player, and all of the important indicators say so.

There is one other consideration that none bring to the table as well: Q-ratings. The LPGA has been running on stealth mode for some time now, save for when Michelle Wie is playing well and in contention. Love or hate the young Hawaiian, she brings viewers to a tour quite frankly in dire straits, and Daniels picking her to be a part of the women's version of the Ryder Cup would bring desperately needed viewers. That would surely be cause for good cheer at LPGA headquarters and also in the executive suites at Golf Channel down I-4 in Orlando.

Bottom line: Wie deserves the berth, she's earned it. Not only that, the LPGA needs her there as well. While it would be tough on the four competitors left out, one thing that they should understand is that putting Michelle Wie on the US team is actually better for them in the long run, because when Michelle is on television, she's actually helping guarantee that the LPGA has a viable future. Not only that, but she's outplayed them, and her being there would not be a nod to her fame, but one towards her golf.

Michelle Wie Needs To Show Us Something This Week

As it stands now, Michelle Wie's career more closely resembles Ty Tryon's than Tiger Woods.

Tryon, you might recall, was the youngest golfer to ever make it through PGA Q-School at the age of 17. He then joined the Tour, was given million-a-year endorsement deals with Callaway Golf and Target, but he never lived up to his hype as the Next Big Thing. These days, Tryon can be found playing the mini-tours, and he has yet to find his mojo and live up to the expectations he had eight years ago.

Michelle Wie, on the other hand, has never won a 72-hole tournament at any level, anywhere. Her biggest win to date came in 2002 in the Women's Division of the Hawai'i State Open, a three round affair where she won over Cindy Rarick. With all due respect to Ms. Rarick, that's not a win over Lorena Ochoa or Christie Kerr.

Somehow, however, Wie is the Next Great Hope of the LPGA. As Dan Bickley wrote in the Arizona Sun on March 27th, the LPGA's idea of its future seems to hinge on the future of their young but extremely under-accomplished star:

[A]s the 2009 golf season gets rolling, this much remains true: Wie is the tour's best hope for relevancy. And she may be more important to the future of the LPGA than Woods is for the men's game.

"For sure, it is a new beginning," Wie said. "I'm really excited for this summer to come, this spring and summer. I'm just very excited."

Wie is still a spectacle. That hasn't changed, either. Despite her early tee time on Friday, her gallery bulged to around 500 people in the second round of the J Golf Phonoenix LPGA National. She was the only one drawing a serious crowd, and the only one with a Phoenix police officer escorting her group down the fairway.

The simple question is: why? After all, the LPGA has Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis, Christie Kerr, an entire contingent of incredibly talented international players such as Jeong Jang, and others. But it's Wie or bust, or so it seems.

Wie was a young phenom, no doubt, but she never has backed up her considerable golf skills with wins where they count the most: the LPGA, the USGA, or even the Futures Tour. And as any fan of Tiger Woods will tell you, the only thing that really counts in tournament golf are wins. And the only thing that make any professional golfer great are wins in major tournaments.

Ask Rory Macelroy, who has won on the European Tour at the tender age of 18. He too is considered a phenomenon, and is Europe's best hope for its next great golfer. Thing is, Rory has hoisted a trophy, and a has a win on the big stage to his name. While his C.V. is far from distinguished at this stage, since Macelroy has yet to prove he can contend and even win a major, he has proven that at least some of the hyperbole that surrounded him as a youngster was on the mark. Wie, on the other hand, has yet to live up to hers -- and questions still remain if she ever will.

As the LPGA's first major of the year prepares to tee off tomorrow, it will be well worth watching Michelle Wie and observing how she plays. If she is to truly fulfill the LPGA's hope of having its own superstar a la Tiger, she will need to not only make the cut but also show that she can compete in the upper echelons of the women's game. If she doesn't, she'll continue to resemble Ty Tryon, pressure will continue to mount upon her, and the LPGA may soon be searching for someone else to raise its profile.

Hopefully for Wie, good things will happen soon, because the window of opportunity won't last forever.

image: Keith Allison, on Flickr