**Thursday, July 31, 2008 – ** Okay, perhaps that headline is a little strong. It’s not Michelle Wie in herself who’s doing the destroying, but the sponsors who continue to give her exemptions to enter men’s events, despite the fact that she clearly cannot compete on the women’s level, let alone the men’s.
But Wie’s attitude is a bit interesting, as she said in an interview after she agreed to appear in the men’s event.
“People are going to write hateful stuff about me and that’s fine with me,” she said. “Good rounds and low scores can solve everything.”
The question is, can she *get *good rounds and low scores?
She had seemed to be going that way in her last LPGA event…until she forgot to sign her scorecard at the end of the second round and ended up getting disqualified.
When Michelle signed her huge endorsement contract – she is still, today, the highest paid women’s athlete in the world when it comes to endorsements – I’m sure there were quite a few hard feelings on the women’s side. Maybe even a little jealousy. (And don’t try to tell me the same thing didn’t happen on the men’s side, when Tiger Woods stormed on the scene. The only difference is - Tiger was able to perform and win, which is something that Michelle has not been able to do.)
If Michelle were putting up any kind of decent numbers in her forays into the PGA, it would be a different story. If she’d managed to make the cut once, it would be a different story.
As it is, she’s nothing more than an attraction, like a cheerleader rather than a professional athlete.