top advertisement


Thursday, October 11, 2007

Michelle Whoop-ie!

Yes, I know.

Many of my peers have already lamented on Team Wie and the gang's insistence on making MW play in this week's Samsung World Championship via a sponsor exemption handed to her several months ago (before the evidential downward spiral). All this in lieu of Annika Sorenstam bowing out as a courtesy to the higher-ranked Sarah Lee (I'll bet she's got some great recipes), who's getting the chance to play. Classy...

Yeah, yeah yeah. Nice work Annika, but this blog is all about the ridiculousness that is Wie. I sat in a press conference a couple weeks ago and heard Tiger comment on, (I'm paraphrasing) why Michelle Wie flat out stinks.

He said she doesn't know how to win. She has no clue what it's like to face competitors who at times, are just as good as you are---are then know how to beat them. I couldn't agree more with Sir Woods. Wie has no clue what it means to win and beat opponents who are playing at not his or her highest level, but THE highest level---unless you count the millions of dollars she's already made. I guess that's winning in some messed up way.

So Michelle, if you're listening here's my advice: quit. Stop pretending you're a professional. Cuz you're not. Go to school, enjoy it, then consider going pro. We're tired of this.

And to B.J. Wie: knock it off. You're not helping anything, and the micro-management of your daughters aspirations have darn near killed her shot at ever competing at the highest level of WOMEN's golf. You're greedy, and everyone can see right through you.

Michele Wie is blessed with incredible talent, and cursed with horrendous career advice. She'd be better off trying to qualify to play for Stanford and working her way through the college ranks to learn what it takes to win. Maybe that's what she needs to get her head in the game.

Otherwise, I'm too annoyed to even finish my blog and support my cause. Maybe you bloggers out there can do it for me. I'm going to go back to watching the Whatchamacallit Open on The Golf Channel. Sorry, I mean, Golf Channel (sans the).

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Who Knew?

By Charlie Schroeder

That sigh of relief you heard last Sunday came from Justin Leonard when he beat Jesper Parnevik on the second playoff hole of the Valero Texas Open. Leonard's victory, his first since 2005, catapulted him up 53 spots on the Money List from 94th to 41st. While recent lackluster play isn't what we've come to expect from the 1997 British Open Champion, it's hard to feel too bad for him. After all he sits in a very comfortable 8th place on the all-time Money Leaders list.

How much has Leonard won? After his recent victory his total comes to about $22 million. The victory also catapulted him (by $600,000) past Mark Calcavecchia to take the 8th place spot.

Wait a minute you say. Calc is in 9th place all-time? Yup, I had the same reaction.

I'm not even going to tell you who's in first place all-time. He has $76 million, while Vijay comes in second with $54 million and Phil, poor guy, has only $45 million settling for a distant third.

But what's really shocking, however, is how many major-less players are in the top fifteen. In fact Kenny Perry (10th place), Stewart Cink (11th), Scott Verplank (12th), Stuart Appleby (13th) and Fred Funk (14th) all have close to $21 million each and none of them have won a major.

It's a sign of the Tiger Times. Purses have grown considerably since he started dominating the tour and all players have been rewarded. Consider this year's money list. Major-less Harrison Frazer is currently holding down the #125 spot with a healthy $688,000. Good cash, yes, but unless Frazer and others below him can't crack the Top 125 in the next four tournaments they'll have to head back to Q-school.

Don't feel too bad for Frazer if he doesn't earn his exemption this year. He ranks 94th on the all-time money list with $7.9 million, 53 spots ahead of 19-time major winner Jack Nicklaus who comes in with $5.7 million.