golfrewind.com

i live in hawaii and apparently, there was a 9 hole battle between Michelle and Parker McLachlin. it was kind of a "battle at bridges" format where it was head to head stroke play in a made for tv event. Parker is a pretty successful golfer from Hawaii and has won a couple of mini tour events and played on the Nationwide Tour. he just advanced to the next U.S. Open qualifier.

anyway, Michelle beat him in the 9 hole battle. her final score was -2 and his was -1 i believe. Michelle got to two under par with a chip for eagle (on a par 4) and that was a little too much to overcome for Parker especially in a 9 hole match.

Parker also played from farther tees than Michelle.

i wonder why they would make Michelle play from further tees. sounds kind of unfair especially because length isn't supposed to be a drawback for her. i wonder how the guy felt after she beat him.

yeah, it was kind of weird that they'd play from different tees in a head to head match. even though michelle is long, i think parker is longer. but still, if michelle hopes to play pga tour events in the future, she should play on equal ground.

at the end of 9 holes, michelle putted out to clinch the win and parker had a short tap in putt that he had marked. i guess michelle didn't say he could have it (even though she had already won) and parker asked, "is this good?" i don't know what happened. maybe michelle didn't hear him or she told him to putt it out but parker asked, "are you kidding? you're gonna make me putt this?" then she gave it to him. anyway, he seemed kind of perturbed.

then during the interviews, parker seemed to focus on how it was a 9 hole match and when someone gets an eagle, it's too much to overcome. he said if it were 18 holes, he thinks he could have played back into it.

so this was stroke play and not match play?

michelle wie is amazing. i read somewhere that she shot like a 66 when she was 12. or it could have been a 64. i don't remember. when i was 12, i was trying to break a hundred, if that. ****, i don't think i even played golf at that age.

Yes, it was stroke play. I didn't check to see who would have won had it been match play. I think Michelle got an eagle, a birdie and a bogey to finish at -2 and Parker got 3 birdies and 2 bogeys to finish at -1. In a match play format, Michelle would have at worst, tied.

i think i remember reading an article during the sony open that her playing partner was from hawaii, too. after she beat him, he got ragged on pretty good.

You're right. Her playing partner for her two rounds was Kevin Hayashi who is a teaching pro on the Big Island. Here's the article:

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/ar.../sp/sp04a.html

michelle wie wow what a girl

she is my age and already playing in the uspga.

all i can say is that if i was parker i would have just bowed out from the start and kept a bit of my dignity because come on did he really think that he could beat her.

watch out she is going to be the best player in the world (men and women) :p

I know. When I think about my golf game when i was her age and there's no comparison. ****, my game doesn't compare to hers now. Best player in the world, men or women? Hmmmm. I definitely think she's on track to be the best woman golfer in the World and she'll probably be able to compete with the men, too but I'm not sure about #1 overall.

Before we give Michelle the crown of future best golfer in the World, maybe we should wait for her to win more events. I'm not even talking about winning LPGA events. That shouldn't be expected of her at this point but I do think she needs more amateur titles under her belt. I know she won the U.S. Amateur Womens Publinx last year but I think she got eliminated pretty early in the U.S. Women's Amateur. She needs to start winning some amateur titles now to show it's not only potential we're counting on.

yeah sorry i meant to say that but didn't for some reason

but still

wow what a player

While I agree that some of these golfers are just born w/a little bit more ability than the rest of us, I also think that most of them had an added advantage. The sports I played as a kid were football, basketball, and baseball. Then in the fall of my 8th grade year I broke my arm and my parents didn't want me playing football anymore... so I took up golf. I never got to start out w/lessons. I hit shag balls around in a field w/a couple of K-mart specials until I was decent enough to play on a course. I honestly think that if I had the early start and supervision some of these pros have had, I'd be on the tour as well.

They should have played from the same tees, especially since it was a head to head battle.