Wie's world

Others on LPGA Tour should realize teen sensation is game's No. 1 star

By Seth Davis

Michelle Wie has her sights set on playing in men's tournaments. David Walberg/SI

When my editor first assigned me to cover last week's U.S. Women's Open golf tournament, the first thing he said was, "Michelle Wie is going to be there." When a friend called me on my cell phone as I was driving to The Orchards Golf Course on Friday, and I told him my assignment, the first thing he asked was, "How's Michelle Wie doing?" That was the question that had gotten me out of bed the day before at 6 a.m., an ungodly hour for a golf writer to awaken on the first day of a tournament. I had never seen Wie play before, and I wanted to make sure I was at her 7:34 a.m. tee time.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one struck with Wie Fever last week. She had the biggest gallery every day of the tournament. "This elderly man came up to me -- he said he was 75 -- and asked me, 'Where's Michelle Wie?'" USGA executive director David Fay told me. "She's one of those rare athletes who you want to see perform, because you fear if you're not there you might miss something special."

Let there be no mistaking what's happening here, folks. Michelle Wie is the biggest star in women's golf. Not going to be. Is. Right now. And the sooner the rest of the lady professionals face that reality, the better off they -- and women's golf -- will be.

Yet, the older, veteran players are far from ready to put out a welcome mat for Wie. That was made abundantly clear last week when so many of them continued to complain about the USGA's decision to grant Wie a special exemption into the Open, just the second time an amateur was extended such an invite. Wie played her way into last year's Open through sectional qualifying and finished in a tie for 38th, but the USGA's exemption meant she did not have to qualify this year, though she said she was ready to try if she had to.

Wie's playing record over the last year clearly justified the USGA's decision. She has played in only three LPGA tournaments in 2004, but she did well enough to land 28th on the money list (if she weren't an amateur), which would have earned her a spot in the Open. But it wasn't just her on-course performance that merited the USGA's move. It was also Wie's potential effect on the gate. The Open ended up setting a record for attendance, and while that probably would have happened had Wie not been in the field, her presence certainly brought in people who would otherwise have stayed away.

Women's golf is in desperate need of this kind of buzz, yet too many veteran pros only want to be buzzkill. During Sunday's final round, when another promising amateur, 17-year-old Paula Creamer, moved into a tie with Wie on the leaderboard, one of the older players (who was contending for the title at the time) cracked to her caddie, "Paula just wants to kick Michelle's ass." You think she would have had the same reaction if Creamer had just moved into a tie with, say, Aree Song?

You might want to argue that Annika Sorenstam, not Wie, is still the biggest star in golf, but I beg to differ. In a recent SI.com poll, we asked readers whom they would follow if they were attending the U.S. Women's Open, Wie or Sorenstam. Annika edged the youngster 51-49, but that's hardly a convincing margin, and the voters were hardcore golf fans. The more casual observer who is flipping through the channels at home is much more likely to sit up and pay attention if Wie is on the screen.

"Annika might be the best player, but Michelle is the biggest story," Fay said. "She's drawing in the accidental fan, much like Tiger did when he first came out. The thing that bothers me is, it seems like every anti-Michelle comment I heard always mentioned her age. We're not involved in age-discrimination here. I wondered if there would be the same type of negative reaction if we gave an exemption to a 26-year-old woman from Nebraska."

It may be unfortunate, but for all her excellence, the only time Sorenstam reached the same kind of crossover appeal is when she teed it up against the men on the PGA Tour last year. Her appearance in the Colonial Invitational came, of course, courtesy of a sponsor's exemption. Even though her presence was a huge boon to the tournament, Sorenstam endured the same kind of small-mindedness from the male pros that Wie faced from the women last week. You might think that experience would make Sorenstam sympathetic to Wie, but Annika refused to step into the fray.

"I don't have sympathy for her," Sorenstam told me. "She's here, she's playing good golf and she's enjoying it."

When I asked her if she was happy the USGA gave Wie the exemption, Sorenstam replied, "I don't think it's up to me to have an opinion on it. She's a wonderful player and she sells tickets and all that, but I came here to try and win a championship. I have enough to think about trying to hit the fairway on the first hole and trying to make the putt."

Talk about tunnel vision.

The problem here is that pro golfers -- male and female -- like to think of themselves as competitive purists, but the fact is, they're carnival acts. It's their job to swing from the trapeze and bring paying customers into the tent. That's not to say that the PGA and LPGA Tours should make a farce out of the competition, if only because fans don't pay to see farces. They pay to see phenoms. The LPGA players can't comprehend that fans might be just as interested in seeing Wie launch huge drives as they are in seeing her shoot low scores. But, for now at least, that's the reality.

Wie is becoming such an icon that she actually made headlines two weeks ago for losing in the finals of the U.S. Women's Publinks. (One golf writer suggested in print that the loss indicated that Wie just may be something less than "invincible." Dude, she's 14!) The fact that Wie is so fixated on competing against the men before she's beaten all the women is also not helping her win over hearts and minds on the pro circuit. "She keeps saying she wants to play on the PGA Tour and in the Masters," 26-year-old Christie Kerr says. "That's all well and good, but you can't forget where you came from."

Actually, Kerr, who finished four strokes behind Wie at the Open, should be grateful that Wie has made playing in the Masters her primary goal, because that may be the only thing keeping her from turning into a full-time professional right now. If Wie turned pro, she could conceivably play an almost-full schedule on the LPGA Tour -- you think LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw wouldn't grant Wie a waiver from his Tour's 18-year age minimum? -- but she wouldn't be able to play in the men's Publinks, the winner of which gains entry into the Masters. (Wie tried to qualify for the men's Publinks this summer and missed by a single stroke.)

Other than that, there's not a whole lot keeping her from turning pro sometime. Wie has said she wants to go to college, but Fay has had several discussions with her parents about the possibility that Wie would turn pro before that and still become a regular student. The only thing she'd be giving up there is the opportunity to play for her school. "College golf isn't going to do anything for her," Fay says.

The good news for Wie is that by finishing in the top 20 at the Open (she tied for 13th), she automatically qualifies to play in next year's tournament. She has since said she will try to qualify to play in the men's U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Maybe she'll fail at that, and maybe she'll play poorly at the women's Open next year. Either way, we'll all be watching. And someday, eventually, the other lady pros will come to understand that this is Michelle Wie's world now. They're only playing in it.