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Redman finally gets her due
KUTZTOWN, Pa. -- Michele Redman might be the best player on the LPGA tour nobody has heard of. And that's not her fault. For the past eight years, Redman has become one of the most consistent players on the tour. This season she has six top-10 tournament finishes and is currently ranked in the Top 10 on the LPGA money list. But like many players, she lives in the shadows of Juli Inkster, Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb.
But that's not her fault, either. This year at the Nabisco Championship, Redman finished fourth behind Webb and Meg Mallon. But if you were watching that tournament on television you wouldn't have known. While Redman was consistently in the top five all day, the cameras decided to concentrate on Webb and others instead. Redman's 15 minutes of fame lasted more like three seconds. As Redman finished third in the first major championship of the year, ABC Sports decided that a quick glimpse of her on the 17th hole was all fans needed to see. After her friends and family informed her of the TV snub, Redman wasn't too happy. She called LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw to talk about the lack of attention. "I did feel that I was overlooked at the Nabisco this year by TV," says Redman. "I think that it is fine, but you cannot tell me that when I was in the third-to-last pairing and then finished fourth that I should not have gotten more than one putt on TV." On Sunday, at the First Union Betsy King Classic, Redman had plenty of TV time as she captured her second career victory. By winning, Redman played her way onto the U.S. Solheim Cup team. She started the week No. 14 in the standings and the win on Sunday gave her 30 points, helping her leapfrog into the eighth position in the Solheim Cup Standings. Before this week, Redman's chances of making the team on points alone were miniscule. The top 10 players in the LPGA (?) standings automatically make the team, so Redman had to win the Betsy King event or hope to be selected as a captain's pick. She felt the odds were better for her to win. Since Solheim Cup team captain Pat Bradley has only two at-large selections, Redman figured her only alternative was to win "I have no idea [if I was a candidate for one of the captain's picks] because I have not talked to Pat at all about the Solheim Cup and making the team," says Redman. "I pretty much stayed away from her and let my game speak for itself." She says she has had seen homeless people with more clothing than what team officials had offered her to wear. "There were only a couple of pairs of shorts, and one pair of pants," said Redman. "There were no sweaters or a blazer or anything. I thought something was wrong with that picture." But Redman's mind was put to ease when she later found a note in her locker from Bradley. It was short and sweet but it made her feel like she still had a chance. "All it said was, 'I'm thinking about you. Good luck this week -- Pat,' " said Redman. "I know Pat has a tough job, so I didn't want to bother her. But since she hasn't talked to me all year I started to have my doubts." Normally, Redman is a media-room rat. Every week, she can be seen in the facility looking up her stats and trying to figure out how much money she has made. But she said she had no idea what it might take to make the team. "I had no clue about what I needed to make the team," said Redman after her win as she clutched a piece of paper that had the Solheim standings on it. "I didn't even know how many points you get for a win." With only one tournament (the Safeway Classic in Portland, Ore.) remaining, Redman is 10 points ahead of Nancy Scranton , enough to basically assure herself a trip to Scotland for the head-to-head matchup with the EuropeansOct. 6-8. "It's a huge relief," said Redman, who edged Mallon and Jean Bartholomew by two strokes to earn her first victory since the 1997 JAL Big Apple Classic. "It's been a hard struggle all year, and I have learned from it, but it's sweet now that it's over." Some of Redman's potential teammates were impressed with her gutsy performance at the Betsy King Classic. Sherri Steinhauer, No. 5 in the standings, was in the same position -- on the outside looking in -- two years ago and knows the pressure of having to win to get on the team. "She showed how much she wanted to make this team by winning," said Steinhauer. "Michelle is a fighter, and that's what we need on our team." Maybe now Bradley should think about dressing Redman in Army fatigues instead of a blazer. That would solve the clothing problem, and at the same give her the attention she deserves.
Tom Hanson, a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated's Golf Plus section, is a longtime caddie on the LPGA Tour. Click here to send him a question or comment.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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