The Loop

A Wie Line in the Sand

It’s been a bit of a circus, I guess you could say. Morgan Pressel

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On the heels of Ron Sirak’s reporting from Havre de Grace comes an excellent piece on Michelle Wie’s struggle by Jim McCabe in the Boston Globe. Sirak concluded that the Wie controversy and player backlash had caused the LPGA to get tougher…on pro-am protocol, on entourage rules (only players and caddies on the range, for example), on special treatment in general:

__The problem Wie has now that is perhaps greater than her wrist injury is that LPGA players are growing weary of her special treatment, and LPGA officials took a major step toward responding to those concerns among its constituency by drawing a line in the grass concerning several issues Tuesday at Bulle Rock.

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McCabe quotes players….

"It's been a bit of a circus, I guess you could say. That's for sure," said Pressel, who at the tender age of 19 appears wise beyond her years with such an observation, for indeed the buzz surrounding Wie has been contentious and unsettling.

....and then offers this perspective from Jane Blalock, no stranger to controversy in her day:

"Unfortunately, the public's image of her of late is being carried off on a stretcher [last summer's ill-fated effort against the men in the John Deere Classic when she became dehydrated] or withdrawing amid controversy," said Jane Blalock, the onetime LPGA Tour star who has run a successful sports marketing company for more than 20 years. "You wonder if the fans are still going to support her. It'll be interesting."

What’s also interesting is the question of Wie’s tolerance for this “circus.” Does she love golf enough to endure a regular diet of hot tongue and cold shoulder ? Or will we see meltdown and retreat? Bets are that she could shoot in the 80s again today. And then have to sit through a press conference on it. Fame was fun for a while. Now, and probably for the next few months, not so much.

—Bob Carney

(Photo: Getty Images/Scott Halleran)