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Exactly. Even Tiger doesn't usually finish in the top 5 as often as Wie has recently. Her recent string of top 5 finishes in women's majors is extremely rare. Add in the fact that she's so young she doesn't even qualify to be on the LPGA and she's a phenom like golf's never seen before. Those that don't understand why she's getting a lot of attention simply don't know very much about golf.

Alledgely she was super ****** off, after hole 17, and she hit her drive on 18, well over 300 yards.

1 Karrie Webb -12
2 Michelle Wie -11
T3 Laura Davies -10
T3 Se Ri Pak -10
T5 Jeong Jang -8
T5 Mi Hyun Kim -8
T5 Lorena Ochoa -8
8 Annika Sorenstam -7

Stories of the 3rd round:
- Ochoa shooting herself out of it. On her last 2 holes, she had double bogey and bogey. Only a spectacular 4th round would give her a chance.

- Webb pulling away from the field, but on holes 12 and 13, went double bogey, bogey to come back to the field.

- Webb front 9 scores: 31, 31, 32.
- Webb back 9 scores: 36, 37, 37.

- Laura Davies great finish, birdie, par, eagle.

- Laura played last hole, birdie, birdie, eagle, over the 3 rounds.

Over 3 rounds:
Webb, 5 bogeys, 2 doubles.
Wie, 4 bogeys, 0 doubles.
Davies, 7 bogeys, 0 doubles.
Pak, 3 bogeys, 1 double.

I think it's a little more than people not knowing very much about golf. Michelle Wie is really the first woman that we've seen since Babe Zaharias that is physically capable of competing with men. There are a lot of guys that are threatened by this. Which is why you have so many guys with the "Why Doesn't She Just Compete With The Girls" mentality.

Personally I dont care if she plays with the guys or stays in the LPGA. My whole pt in all of this was that as good as she is, SHE STILL HASNT WON ANYTHING (ok she does have the womens amatuer public links). I fully agree that she will probably win her fair share of tournaments and even majors, but until that time, shes just another also ran. (Although she has run near the front quite a bit)

And I know WHY she is getting all the attn, I just dont agree with it. She is great for the game in the aspect of getting people to watch, I dont know these numbers but I would be willing to bet that the ratings when she is in contention are much higher than when she isnt. The one constant that keeps coming up is her age, but wasnt it her decision to make as to whether or not she would turn pro? I just think she would have been better served to continue as an amatuer for at least 3 more years, (graduate HS at a minimum), she still would have been invited to many events on sponsors exemptions and had the opportunity to prove herself at that level rather than being expected at such a young age to prove herself at the highest level.

Why would she have been better served to stay an amatuer ? What would that have accomplished other than giving up the millions per year that she was being offered ? Easy for you to say she should have left millions laying on the table. She is still going to graduate from high school and plans to attend Stanford after that (or so she says currently). She's already the #2 ranked woman in the world, is nearly always in the top 5. She was lining the pockets of many others who were benefitting financially from her popularity, why shouldn't she get paid ?

I wasnt speaking from a financial standpoint, but from the premice that had she gone the traditional route (hs, amatuers, college, etc...) she would have been much better equipped to handle the pressures of the highest level of competition (missing 3 foot putts for pars coming down the stretch). Again, Im catching a lot of **** for my opinion and that is fine, I can handle that, but at the same time you have to admit theres alot to be said for working your way through the ranks. Personally I think she will more than likely break through with a win soon, if not this weekend, and when she does I also believe she will run off a string of them in a short period of time, but my whole point still is this, UNTIL SHE WINS..............

Who are we kidding, I would have taken the money too, but that doesnt mean I feel it is the right way to go about accomplishing your goals.

Expected to prove herself?
5 top 5's in 6 majors is a fair amount of proof.

OK last one on this and I am done with it SHE STILL HASNT WON!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU.
I hadn't realised. The realisation is just hitting home. Are you meaning to say that she STILL hasn't won. WOW, she's 16 years old, what has she been doing with herself?

Karrie, Annika and Se Ri Pak must have had about 100 lpga titles between them by the time they were 16 years old.
Get a move on girl. Don't you know that any lpga player worth their salt has at least 10 titles before their 17 birthday.
Get on with it and don't have us STILL waiting after the Evian Masters.

She wasn't afraid of having to prove herself and obviously she's proven herself over and over again, week after week. She's beating proven LPGA pros by 10 to 30 shots in almost every tournament. This tournament, for example, is a group of the elete players, and, after 3 rounds she's ahead of:

1. Every single player other than Webb
2. The worst player by 33 shots
3. The average player by 14 shots

In a typical LPGA tourney where they let in twice as many women and the level of competition is much lower, these numbers are even higher. She flat out slaughters the typical LPGA player, week in and week out. I'm talking slaughtered by 20 - 30 shots for each tourney. What more does she have to do to prove she's one of the best? A single win would do it? Then you don't know golf. Her stack of 2nd place finishes are much more proof that she's great than a single win. Birdie Kim won a major last year, but Wie has beat her every single tournament since then. She beats her by 20 0r 30 shots. Wie is a million times better golfer than Birdie Kim. But what, Kim is better because she has a win?

Funny stats on how Wie compares to the players in the field that have tough weeks. Wie doesn't have tough weeks apparantly (any missed cuts on the LPGA? No). Take the Evian Masters in June for an example of how she does against the field.

If the LPGA pros that did not make the cut that week were allowed to continue play for the final rounds and continued to play at their pace, Wie would have beat them by an average of 33 shots. She would have been 50 shots ahead of the players that finished the furthest off the cut. 50 shots! Wie finished 25 shots ahead of the women that made the cut but finished last and she finished 13 shots ahead of the average player that made the cut.

She does approximately this in every tourney she's played in over the last two years. Prove herself? Look at the stats. Even Annika doesn't have stats like these. Anyone that understands golf knows that a bunch of top finishes prove your ability better than one lucky win.

You are right, she hasn't won yet in the LPGA tourneys, but let me ask you this...

How many other 16 year olds have won LPGA tourney?

You also stated that she would be better served by doing things traditional route, why? Why do people have to sheeps? Just because it works for some people doesn't mean it will be good for everybody.

If people to do things in a traditional ways, do you think our technology would be as advanced as we are? There are lot of people who do things that aren't cosidered as "Norm", **** Bill Gates didn't do things traditional ways, as matter of fact, many of the successful people and pioneers have taken other routs than what is considered as traditional ways that the people should have followed.

The traditional route might be good for some but not all. Kobe and LeBron never took the traditional route and they turned out well. Morgan Pressel "learned to win" in Amateur golf and it has not help her on the professional level.