Who wouldn't want to see Michelle Wie tee it up at Augusta National? Jeff Gross/Getty Images
	POLL Should Michelle Wie stick to playing strictly women's events? Yes, it will enhance women's sports No, she'll do more good by beating men Who cares? It's her decision  View Results

Invite Michelle Wie anyway. Yeah, I've lost my mind. (Not the first time.) But if he had any sense of history, any clue as to the zeitgeist of the moment; if Hootie Johnson had even a tinge of a sense of humor or a dash of irony, he'd invite Wie to join his hallowed field at Augusta next year and tee it up in the Masters.

OK, I know she didn't "qualify." In the most exciting golf event of the week (and that includes Tiger's stroll at St. Andrews), the 15-year-old Hawaiian thrashed her way into match play at the U.S. Amateur Public Links in Lebanon, Ohio, where she beat three guys before losing 5 and 4 to Clay Ogden, a 20-year-old junior at BYU, in the quarterfinals. She was three victories away from winning the tournament, whose champion is traditionally invited to the Masters.

I say invite her anyway. She may not have "qualified" to play at Augusta. But she certainly qualified by simply emerging this summer as the most engaging, intriguing, wanna-root-for golfer since Tiger sprung on the sport as a dynamic, dominating poster child for the U.N. She qualified by hanging with the best women golfers in the world (she was tied for the lead at the U.S. Women's Open a couple of weeks ago before wilting in the final round.) And by pretty much holding her own against the best men in the world. (She barely missed the cut in two PGA Tour events.)

She qualified by making people who do not know a wedge from a waggle -- and many who'd rather poke themselves with a fork that admit that they care about golf at all -- tune in and log on to see how she was doing.

We've been saying for years that the golfer who'll someday topple Tiger was probably smacking bucket after bucket of balls in some junior program somewhere on the planet. Who knew it was a girl?

Let's be real. Do you even know who "qualified" for the all-expenses-paid (but no prize money, please) trip to Augusta next April by winning the Public Links? I didn't, either. Not until I Yahoo'd the result. (Hey, it was Ogden!) Once Wie went, the Links dropped from the front of the sports pages and Web sites so fast you might have easily thought it was over.

For most golf fans, and 99 percent of anyone else on Wie Watch last week, it was. No knock on Ogden. Good for him. May he be long and straight next April at Augusta. But once he vanquished Wie on Friday, the tournament slipped back into sports oblivion.

Now, if Ogden and Wie teed it up at Augusta next year, the Masters -- already the most-watched golf event every year -- just might become the most-watched non-Super Bowl sports event of the year.

Can't you just see Hootie and Martha Burk (who's been so silent during this Summer of Wie you'd think she was the Martha under house arrest) standing side-by-side in the gallery as Wie uncurls what may be the most beautiful swing in golf as she becomes the first woman ever to compete in the Masters? OK, so a couple of codgers would likely turn in their graves. Not my problem.

Wie at the Masters would not solve the Augusta National Golf Club's little discrimination problem. To my knowledge (and I'd love to be wrong on this) the club still has no female members, which is what unleashed Burk's fury and turned the 2003 Masters into an ugly exhibition of Immovable Object (Hootie) versus Irresistible Force (Martha) that really didn't change anything.

Burk dug in her heels (no sexist pun intended) trying to shame the private club into opening its membership to women. She challenged many of its CEO-members to explain why they were selling products to female consumers while belonging to a club that barred women members. She targeted companies that advertised at the Masters, hoping their affiliation with the event might also force a change.

It didn't. Hootie held his ground. He one-upped Martha with a bold stroke, saying the tournament would be played sans sponsors, which took the folks at Coke, IBM and Citigroup off the hook. He then took all the heat, deflecting it as much as possible from club members. Mike Weir won the green jacket, but the biggest winner at Augusta that year was a fellow named Status Quo.

We've all matured and mellowed since then, haven't we? Perhaps cooler heads have replaced hardened 70-something-year-old hearts. If not, maybe this child with the sweet swing will lead us in the direction. Maybe the prospect of reshaping his legacy will prompt Hootie Johnson to do what seems like the unthinkable and invite Michelle Wie to Augusta.