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ah yes, the old adage, it's not what you know, it's who you know. btw, how does one get a consulting job such as that?

EASY!!! Procreate.....and be sure the child is as talented, attractive and cooperative as a Tiger Woods or Michelle Wie.

I've read that Nike has been scouting her for the past few years. She does seem to favor a lot of Nike equipment. This week, she was sporting Nike irons, a Nike ball and a Nike bag that isn't in retail yet. Not to mention, her apparel always seems to be split between Nike and Adidas with a preference towards Nike. I know she was using an Ignite driver and a Scotty Cameron putter for a period last year but at the Sony, she had an r7 and a Yes! C-Groove putter.

Whether Michelle's father has an "arrangement" with Nike or not, I don't know. I do wonder sometimes how the family can afford all of the travel expenses. Traveling to all of those LPGA, amateur events and golf lessons at the David Leadbetter academy can't be cheap. I do think it would be against NCAA regulations for Michelle to play college golf (in the future) if her father is receiving money but I really don't expect her to go to college.

This is good for ticket sales, but certainly questionable for her golf development. Will she be another Ty Tryon?

I wonder if she is being esploited by the fans, the media, and her parents to attend these events at the expense of her golfing development.

As most said, I don't think she should be playing in any more PGA Tour events anytime soon. Maybe the Sony each year since it's so close by and convenient, but she should stick to LPGA Tour events if she's looking to compete. Or maybe win all the amateur events she's been getting knocked out in the first round in lately.

Where do people get this stuff from? Could you please give me visible evidence? Here are her results from the 3 USGA amateur events in 2004.

2004 U.S. Women's Amateur - Advanced to the second round
2004 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links - Runner Up
2004 U.S. Amateur Public Links Sectional Qualifier - Failed to Qualify

Disregarding the Curtis Cup, Michelle played in 3 events in 2004. How do these results quantify that "she's been getting knocked out in the first round?" Okay, so she didn't even qualify in the U.S. Amateur Public Links but that was a men's event. In the two women's amateur events she played, she came in 2nd and got eliminated in the 2nd round.

Sorry to insult your hero there Victory, but while my facts were off there, the point is that she didn't WIN any of the bigger amateur events out there. Maybe she should be focusing on trying to learn to win against those at her own level rather than being out earning "moral victories" finishing in the top 15 on the LPGA Tour. The former approach seemed to work well for those like Tiger, Jack, and Arnie.

Vic,

I enjoyed your great reporting as well, mahalo. I'm envious too. I was in Waikiki last spring and only had time to play once (Olomana).

So why don't you think Michelle will go to college? That would surprise me.
Also, if Tiger's father was able to be on Nike's payroll during his Stanford years, I don't suppose BJ will have any trouble with that kind of arrangement.... oh the earning power of this girl!!

Who said Michelle was my hero? I'm just trying to make sure gross misinterpretations of fact don't get made out to be facts like you tried to let slip by in that previous post. If you had a point, you could have made it without having done so.

There's no disputing that winning on every level works. There are many who have proved it. Tiger is a great example of that. Is that the only path to success? Absolutely not. Is Michelle going to be successful? Time can only tell. To me, her finishing in the top 15 on the LPGA Tour at the age of 14 and younger is extremely impressive. But I guess that's just me.

It's funny because I hear people say "poor girl being pushed so hard" as if she's doing all of this against her will. These people often think she should be playing amateur events instead of LPGA events when clearly, she wants to play all of the LPGA events as opposed to amateur events. From what I've heard from her own mouth, I think she would have less fun winning amateur events than placing well in LPGA events.

No problem. Glad you enjoyed it. Michelle actually got her start at Olomana. I believe her former teacher Casey Nakama runs a golf school there. I remember seeing her practice there a couple of years ago and she was already taller than me. (I'm slightly under 5'11").

My opinion that Michelle won't go to college is based purely on speculation. I just think that all of the $ signs are hard to turn down but I just read an article a little while ago that might give me a different impression.

NCAA regulations are really difficult to interpret. I'm not an expert on them but I know parents are not supposed to receive benefits from a kids success. Like the situation with Lebron James. In his Senior year of high school, he drove that Hummer H2. I'm not sure what the details are but to my recollection, he received a loan because of his name and potential. In the end, it was a moot point because he skipped college.

I guess companies find ways to work around things like offering parents jobs as consultants. I think the case here is, would these parents be offered these jobs if not for their kids? If they wouldn't, I would think this would be an NCAA violation. Whether the NCAA would want to proceed is a different story.

I agree that finishing top 15 in LPGA events at her stage is impressive, but then again, for a person of her playing ability, she should be mopping up at these amateur events, right? Fact is, while she didn't lose in the first round in any of them, she didn't win either...how often can one be satisfied with moral victories before they pine for a real victory? Would an 0-15 NFL team that lost every game by 5 points or less be brimming with confidence before their final game just because they played well each and every game, yet still lost? Of course not, and Ms. Wie is heading down the same road if she doesn't think that playing the amateur events hold any significance in her career.

IMO she should be focusing more on the winnable amateur events rather than focusing solely on the realistically unwinnable LPGA Tour events. She won't be able to build that winning attitude, that "killer instinct" through simply finishing in the top 10 in LPGA Tour events, and she won't be winning any of those events either anytime soon, so it wouldn't hurt her at all to stay on her own level and learn those arts. She should stick to her own level, even if it means giving up some of that publicity for a few moments, and do something that will help her out in the long run, even if it is less fun.

Well, if a group of 14 year old high school kids formed an NFL team and lost 15 games by 5 points or less, I would actually find that quite impressive. Did she win 0 events last year? Yes, that's a fact. How many female amateur events did she play in? 2? So really, she's 0 for 2. Not 0 for 15. She went to the finals in one and the second round in the other. It's not that bad. It's not that great, either.

The fact is, nobody her age has ever won the U.S. Women's Amateur. Yet for some reason, you seem to expect her to. IMO, she will have to win them at some point but for now, I'll accept that she was 14 or younger when she tried. You believe that there is one route to success. I don't. I believe the one route you believe in is certainly a path to success but I believe there are many ways one can succeed.

With that said, I do admit, she will have to start winning at one point or another. I'm just saying, give the girl a little break. She was and I hate to reiterate this so many times, 14 or younger. You seem to imply that she's been losing her whole life. If you look at her last 3 female amateur events, she's actually 1 for 3 in wins.

I say that if people want her to play on the PGA Tour, then fine. Let her. But at the same time, just disband the LPGA Tour. I am sure the women would love never winning another golf tournament again.

As for her. She shot +9 at her HOME course. She has played it 100s of times in the past. And don't give me the **** about the Kona winds. This just proves that she cannot play the wind, nor the long rough.

I would have LOVED to have seen Michelle play at Torrey Pines this last week. The course would have ate her alive. In fact, I say give her an exemption to the men's US Open. I am sure she would love posting +40 over two days. LOL

Bottomline is, until she WINS some LPGA events, she is not worthy of the PGA Tour. At least Annika proved herself first. The funny thing about it is that Annika is no doubt the best LPGA golfer at the moment. Even she couldn't cut it! She even choose the Colonial because that was one of the few courses where the length wasn't too much for her. She admitted that.

Michelle will never make it on the PGA Tour and I am not even convinced that she is the future of the LPGA. She couldn't even defend her title at the Women's Public Links or whatever the **** it's called. And that event was never even heard of until she won it. If she cannot even beat amateur women around her own age, how does she expect to win on the PGA Tour?

I'm assuming that the reason your "language" needed to be edited is because of the influence of Tiger Woods? After all, he has obviously had a huge effect on you (per your post in another thread) and it must be all those "expletive deleted" comments he made about Michelle that caused you to need editing here, right?

BTW - there are no sponsor exemptions to the US Open.