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As a few of you may have read in between all the bickering in the Wie thread, I spent the day today at the 84 Lumber Classic, played at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort south of Pittsburgh. My friend and I arrived at 9 am (approximately) and watched as much as we could find until 7 pm...made for a long day as we walked entirely around the course at least 4 times. I'll try to sum it up with a few notes....

First off...Michelle, of course. I noted that rodney_c mentioned her "conservative, in the fairways approach" yesterday in regard to her round. This led to her giving up distance and playing longer approaches to the greens than her playing partners. Having followed her for several holes today, I realized that her lack of distance on the fairly wet course was due in (perhaps large?) part to a very low ballflight. In fact, throughout the set, I didn't observe a single player who consistently flighted it as low as Michelle, especially with the longer clubs. Take what you will from that, but it's going to be an issue any time she plays a wet course in the future. Also, her putting stroke is plain painful to watch in person. I'm not sure what causes her to think that awful stab can get the job done, but I think some work with a short game guru (Pelz?) would do her a world of good. The crowds following her were pretty manageable overall...they were pretty large the first couple holes but by the time she got to where we parked ourselves for about an hour (just barely off the right edge of 7 green), it would have been no issue to follow her until midway through the back nine when the afternoon arrivals swarmed to see her.

I hinted at this in another thread, but right before we left, we spent about a half hour watching guys on the practice range. Camilo Villegas was hitting balls off into the distance, and we were sitting in the bleachers facing the range. Behind us on the putting green were two players and their caddies putting who were having quite a lot of fun with Michelle's quest (to be honest, it was mostly the caddies commenting). Essentially it involved her inflated score ("so she shot 81 today? ") and their loss of money, not because she'd played poorly, but because she'd "made a birdie....who could have predicted that?!?! " I won't name the players, although I will say that most of the regular golf viewers we have here would recognize both players and I had them both pegged as pretty nice guys, but it certainly opened my eyes to the fact that when the cameras aren't on these guys, they're beginning to tire of the show.

I'll continue in another post with the rest of the day's action....

We spent the rest of the day following some selected players of choice and parking next to some interesting tee boxes and greens to get good views of the action. There was a block of four groups in the afternoon that contained Camilo Villegas and Chris Couch, JB Holmes, David Toms and Chris Dimarco, and John Daly, Chris Smith and Sean O'Hair so we'd play it three holes at a time, watch all four go through and then skip three ahead for a while. It worked out pretty well and it was fun to see who could outdrive who on what hole (fwiw, Holmes was universally longest on the holes we saw, followed by Daly, Smith, O'Hair, Villegas, and Couch...I'll omit Toms and Dimarco as that's not a fair match). We stood next to the ShotLink guys for a while on #15 and chatted with them...it was kinda cool to get the distance numbers nearly instantaneously once the drives landed. Later on we kinda wandered around looking for any player of interest and followed Duval into the house (where we could...more on that later). One thing of note for anyone who has never attended an event (this was my second time at Mystic Rock)...I thought the most amazing thing about watching these guys hit the ball is how high their lower lofted clubs go in comparison to our average amateur-ish shots, and how low their higher lofted clubs go likewise, all the while still generating tremendous backspin. It's a joy to watch and I'd definitely recommend it.

A few of the highlights (or lowlights) of my day:

Best shot: Rory Sabbatini hit a bunker shot from an awkward stance well below the surface of the green on #7 that was simply delightful. It rolled up to about 4 feet and he sunk it for a spectacular par. He was also a part of the best grudge match, being paired with Ben Crane.

Best break, part I: Michelle had a reasonable length approch shot on #11...I'd have guessed maybe 150-160 yards. I was in the stands behind the green enjoying my ($$$) burger, so I had a perfect view as she pushed it well right and into the water for sure. It landed in a large pile of rocks to the right of the green and above the water line, deflecting it straight back out into the middle of the fairway, 30 yards short of the green. She ended up hitting an indifferent chip and making bogey.

Best break, part II: Camilo Villegas hit his tee shot right on #15, and the ball slammed off the cart path into the right rough. It then hit a large boulder which kicked it to the left and a pretty clear shot at the green. Not only did it avoid what could have been a disaster, he also ended up with the longest drive recorded on the hole that day (334 yards).

Loudest cheer: David Duval made birdie on 16 and hit his approach into 15 feet or so on the raucous 17th hole. The chants of "Let's go David" began soon after he left the tee and we knew as we walked back down 16 fairway that the eruption behind us was for David having sunk the putt and moved to 2 under for the tournament. Alas, David faltered down the stretch and missed the cut, with the worst moment coming on #6 when he duck hooked his 3 wood off the tee into the water hazard.

Worst short game: JB Holmes. I watched him hit several short approaches and I don't think he hit a single one cleanly. Many of them were flat out chunks on easy shots in (he flew the ball over 320 on both #4 and #15, and the wind was down at both times). He didn't chip well, and he didn't make a putt while I was watching him.

Best crowd: Camilo Villegas...at least for this guy. The ratio of females to males present was no more than 1:6, but I think every one of them was following this young fellow at some point or another. I wasn't complaining.

Biggest complaint: There was no spectator access to #8 or 9. This made little sense to me as they had all the areas on the sides of the fairways roped off already and all they would have had to do was open the single rope to let people enjoy these two holes. Perhaps there was a potential hazard near one of the greens or tees due to the rain lately, but there was also no mention of it in the rules/tee sheet/course map. Made me go and was pretty disappointing at the same time.

A special mention...most acknowledging of fans: John Daly and Michelle Wie. Perhaps there's a reason they get the biggest crowds after all.

Nice post! It's definitely different when you're within spitting distance of these guys. I'm sure the regulars on Tour have had more than enough of Michelle.

stlcard, I'm not sure why you are mentioning Camillo Villegas in that post. Are you trying to say he was involved in the discussion?
If you were, then you definetely misheard, because I've met Camillo quite a bit and he is very much pro Michelle. They played together at the Sony and he liked her there. Then at the John Deere he went after her and asked her to play a practice round with him. Players don't generally tend to think to themselves, that they are sick of Monty and then go ask Monty to play a practice round with them, do they?

As regards the others, there are plenty of guys on the pga tour who don't like Michelle. In the other part of the island in which I live there is plenty of religious divide. There are plenty of people who don't want a catholic about the place.
In much the same way there are plenty of people on the pga tour who don't want a female about the place.
This is not some new phenomenan due to what she shot at the Lumber. These people would have been keeping track of her score and rejoicing in every bogey she had, just like many members of GR boards.
Also, for many of them, is is simply a case of her being female, if she shot 2 rounds of 62, they still wouldn't think she should be there.

The score at the Lumber, simply gives these people the excuse to be more vocal in their opposition. I can assure you that the groundswell of opinion on the European Tour is pro Michelle, but I don't have as much knowledge of the guys on the us pga tour, although I do know plenty of players there who are in favour of her participation.

i wouldnt be surprised if they were ticked at michelle wie, those guys probably earned their way on tour, michelle recieves sponsors exemptions everytime she plays, and yea nice post, ^^ to rodney, he was watching camillo villegas hit balls, while the two players were talking

Villegas was only hitting balls on the range. The bleachers face the practice tee there and the putting green sits behind the bleachers. We were merely watching him hit. The other guys were not in view until we walked up to the top of the stands and looked over the railing.

I didn't mention what I did to proclaim that all PGA Tour players are tiring of Michelle's presence, but it's a certainty that more than a few (it sounded to me like there were considerably more than the four I overheard talking involved) were snickering even before this latest performance.

Rodney, I think Card was pretty clear about not identifying the players in question. They just happened to be watching Villegas hit at the time. You're really reaching here. Great posts Card. Interesting to hear about Big John's and Michelle's acknowlegement of the galleries. It takes so little and yet means so much to the fans, who after all are the reason they're out there. I recall folks here criticizing the way Michelle waved to her fans awhile back. Now that's the kind of nonsense you should go after Rodney.

Well reguardless of what the players/caddies think, they are right. I am very PRO-MICHELLE simply because she can only play 7 events on the LPGA or w/e... what else is she supposed to do? Anyone who WOULDNT take a free spot on tour is an idiot. On a side note, she needs to improve vastly but she is 16 years old and will dominate the LPGA for years.

It's 8 I believe, and she could go to school. That's not too important or anything.

Anyway, I am not anti-Wie (as much as a certain someone [no, not you rodney] has tried to pin it on me), nor really pro-Wie. I'm concerned that she may be burning herself out in largely futile attempts to make a PGA Tour cut. Sure she says she wants it and can handle it, but it should really be up to her parents to step in sometime and tell her enough's enough for a while. After all, as much as 16 year olds like to believe it, they don't truly know what's best for them.

However, I did follow her for several holes and despite her play, she had a good attitude and always acknowledged the fans who were very supportive throughout the day.

Yes that makes sense.

I know exactly what you mean, and you have hit the nail on your head, when you stated "snickering even before this latest performance".
That's the key really. The people who are against her are not recent converts.
When she missed the Sony by and the John Deer by 2, they were just as much against her.

I could name several guys who are very much against anything she does, and that is not only on the pga tour, but even in us open qualifying where she is trying to qualify just like anyone else.
Let's not give those guys a mention though and rather mention some of her supporters: Sean O'Hair, Charles Howell, Bradley Dredge, Zack Johnson, Ernie Els, Jason Day, Camillo Villegas, Colin Montgomerie (an earlier critic and a convert to the cause), Greg Norman(an earlier critic and a convert to the cause), Fred Funk, Nick Dougherty, Ganzalo Castano, Gary Player, Justin Rose.

Speaking of young Sean, I was most impressed with his game yesterday. We followed him for several holes in his group with Daly and Smith (two pretty long hitters) and he more than held his own, outdriving JD a couple times. He played a good round of golf and I expect he'll be right there on Sunday.

Agreed in the case of the Omega and Lumber events.

I know people who went to it as well, and they were saying that after her 2nd round she waited for ages and signed every autograph, and paid particular attention to the kids there.