Another chance

Michelle Wie has another chance to win her first career LPGA tournament. Hopefully, the media hype machine hasn't deceived you, dear readers, into thinking she has already won one. Wie, to this point, is actually less athletically accomplished than the model née tennis player Anna Kournikova. Wie, however, is only nineteen, and is playing a sport with a much, much longer athletic window than tennis.

Can she pull it off tomorrow in the Sybase Classic at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, New Jersey? Wie and fellow American, Paula Creamer, trail the leaders entering the final round by three strokes. Wie has consistently choked at the biggest moments of her young career. Creamer, who is affectionately known to her fans as the Pink Panther, on the other hand, has already won eight LPGA tournaments at the tender age of 23. Perhaps it is because she came through the junior ranks, playing against women her own age, learning to win tournaments. This was quite unlike Michelle Wie who was pushed by her parents and her sponsors to become a sideshow freak, attempting to compete against men twice her age.

It has cost her dearly. Tomorrow Wie has another chance to redeem her reputation as a loser. The LPGA tour desperately needs her celebrity. The LPGA has lost five tournaments this year because of hard economic times.

Read more here in the New York Times.