Friday, July 30, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Michelle Wie has won her first LPGA Tour tournament, The Lorena Ochoa Invitational Presented by Banamex and Corona Light in Guadalajara, Mexico.
It feels like it’s been an awful long time coming, given the enormous expectations we all have of Michelle.
During the news conference, one of the first questions was “Do you feel that you will take the monkey off your back after this victory?”
Michelle Wie: “For sure, it’s definitely off my back. I think that hopefully life will be a lot better, but I still have a lot of work to do. I still have a lot to improve. It just feels so great right now.”
As for her rookie year, Wie says there were downs, but so many ups including, the Solheim Cup, “and just being able to play every single tournament out here, just getting to know all of these girls a lot better. And obviously this tournament is the icing on top of the cake.”
Who did she want to thank? Her parents and her family, which includes her fans, “They all feel like family”, and her sponsors, including of course Nike and Omega and IMG.
On sharing the moment with her parents, “I think it is so awesome, seeing them on the 18th green and hugging them. You know, we have been through a lot as a family, and it’s just so great that they are here to share my highs and to keep me up from the lows, as well.”
“I can’t wait to call David (Leadbetter). I’m going to call him and we both have been waiting for this, And you know, he’s been especially been there for me. Even when I wasn’t playing well, at all, he never lost faith in me and always – just always tried to find a positive thing and we always work on our swing a lot, and he became really – he just really helped me through a lot.”
VICTORY TWEETS
Michelle Wie’s Twitter postings Sunday after her first LPGA Tour victory, the two-stroke win in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico:
— wowwwww …… never thought this would feel THIS great!!!!
— thanks to allll my fans, family, nike and omega, david, friends, people at img for everything!!!
— wooooOoooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
— wow this is just sooo delicious.m
— such a great weekend. first stanford football dominated and now this! wooowwwwwwwww i love life
By the way, Michelle was wearing her Solheim Cup shoes the day of her victory and she was feeling lucky.
The Solheim Cup is where Wie first injured her ankle. You may have noticed the ankle brace in the photos?
ANKLE ENDS THE SEASON
While we were all hoping for a follow up victory by Michelle Wie at the LPGA season ending LPGA Tour Championship, she had to bow out gracefully after a very painful first round.
She said it wasn’t an easy decision to make but she wants to go home, and follow the advice of her doctors so she makes a speedy recovery.
After what she did to her wrists, I was applauding her decision all weekend, particularly after the rain started falling. The weekend was a wash out and frustrating for players waiting in the wings with Lorena Ochoa out in front. But imagine what it would have been like trying to get your footing in that wet soil with an injured ankle.
WIE HISTORY
It isn’t like Michelle Wie hasn’t won golf events before. It was just that she won when she wasn’t supposed to.
Age 11: Michelle Wie wins the Hawaii State Women’s Stroke Play Championship, the youngest ever to do that. Then she wins the most prestigious women’s amateur tournament in Hawaii, the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational. That was the first time I interviewed Michelle. Her mother, Bo, brought her into the office where I was broadcasting “The Golf Club” radio show from at the Mid Pacific Country Club. After that she went to play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship where she made it to the third round.
Then she turns 12 in 2002:
Becomes the youngest ever to qualify for an LPGA tournament through Monday qualifying at the Takefuji Classic, then held at the Kona Country Club on the Big Island.
Wie won the Women’s Division of the Hawaii State Open by 13 strokes.
And again, at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, she reaches the semifinals as the youngest ever.
All of this after starting to play at the age of four, and then at 6, under the excellent tutelage of Casey Nakama at the Olomana Golf Development Center where he nurtured that beautiful swing people were so in awe of.
In January 2003, she is 13 now, she tried to qualify for the PGA Sony Open. She finished 47th out of 97 men and she played with them from their tees.
In February, she played against the men in a professional tournament in Hawaii that brings top players from Japan, the West Coast and Hawaii. She finished 43rd. The only female in the field.
Got an idea why she felt she could compete against the men?
In March, she finished tied for fourth at the Hawaii State Amateur Stroke Play Championship. There were only three women in the field.
That month she also plays in her first LPGA major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Plays in the final group on the final day and takes 9th place. The youngest player to make an LPGA cut.
In June, she won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship. The youngest-ever winner of the event.
And then she stormed the national stage and things started to unravel and go down hill pretty quickly, particularly after she hurt her wrist, badly, and ignored the advice of her doctors. She continued to practice and compete and injury the broken wrist and ultimately injure the other.
She pulled back out of the limelight. She worked hard. And “out of no-where” (I love that phrase cause it’s so stupid), Wie won her right to play on the LPGA the hard way. She won her card through
Q-School and she has been winning money, finishing consistently in the top-10 throughout the season, and earning the respect of her peers ever since.
That was no where best seen than during the Solheim Cup where the U.S. Team sparkled to victory, Wie certainly the heart of the team as one of the controversial “captain’s picks”. It’s been ten years since, at the age of 10, she shot her first 64 and became the youngest player to qualify in a USGA amateur championship event at the USGA Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship.
HUGE EXPECTATIONS
The power of Michelle Wie contending and then winning an LPGA event was obvious by the ratings increase on the Golf Channel and the pro-am at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational the next week. Texas Michael Maggi won the winning bid to play with Wie, spending $22 thousand dollars for the privilege. New commissioner Michael Wahn put it best. “Now, that’s star power right there.”
The LPGA released the 2010 calendar with only 24 events scheduled albeit with some still in the works. That’s actually a huge number since there were only 9 lined up when acting commissioner Marsha “Marty” Evans took over from Carolyn Bivens.
Bivens was pretty much forced out by the LPGA players. Bivens seemed to be scaring away sponsors with her alleged “heavy-handed” management style instead of fostering long term relationships the LPGA Tour has become accustomed to. But to be fair to Bivens, the global economy and the pressure to increase the purses paid to the LPGA players were two factors weighing on ex-commissioner Bivens.
Despite this shrinking schedule, the LPGA players seem to be very upbeat about their schedule. Christie Kerr told USA Today, “A new regime is coming in, and there is a chance to market and build the tour the way it’s supposed to be done.”
Over the last year, the LPGA lost six sponsors with the number of events this year, 17, literally half of the 34 in 2008.
Of the 24 events on the schedule, only 13 will be played in the U.S. 11 events are in South Korea, Mexico and other countries. Acting commissioner Evans put it quite bluntly, “We go where our players can play, where our partners give us great opportunities, and it’s around the world.”
So with Wie winning this one event, does that turn it around for Hawaii? Right now there are no events in Hawaii, Florida and Arizona, all golf mecca’s. Sure would be nice if a sponsor could be found to resurrect any one of the events held at one time at Kapalua, Ko Olina or Turtle Bay.
One win by Michelle Wie isn’t going to change the stage. Only 5 U.S. players have won one event this year.
International Management Group is working on finding a title sponsor for one more event, the World Championship. Samsung has pulled out, but IMG is holding dates at Torrey Pines in September.
By the way, three of the 24 scheduled events, the season-ending LPGA Championship, Korea and China don’t have a venue or a sponsor yet.
“THE GOLF CLUB” ON “THE JEWEL”
“The Golf Club” radio show, the show I do every Saturday morning at 7 AM, has a new home on Oahu. You’ll be able to hear it on the FM dial at 99.5 The Jewel.
We’re really excited to be making the move to FM on Oahu after being on the air over 11 years.
And celebrating our 11th anniversary has been very special.
With the Las Vegas Hilton graciously providing 4 nights in a Directors Suite for our winner, and Hawaiian Airlines the round trip to Las Vegas for 2, we have already had one winner. She is from Kauai where she listens to “The Golf Club” on KTOH FM 99.9.
We’re giving away another trip for two to Las Vegas during December and through the Aloha Season, January to February. During each Saturday show, we’ll get two qualifiers and at the Pearl Open in February we’ll announce our second winner.
To qualify for the drawing, just listen and then be the 18th caller. We’ll take two qualifiers per show. Out of the 16 qualifiers, one lucky person will be going to Las Vegas.
On the Big Island, you can hear “The Golf Club” on KPUA AM 670 in Hilo and on Maui, it’s on KONI FM 104.7 every Saturday morning at 7 AM. Good luck and thank you for listening.
PGA TOUR/LPGA Q-SCHOOL
It’s that time of the year when young men and women who have been working for years on their physical and mental games are put to the test called Qualifying School. It happens on both the LPGA and PGA Tours.
Hawaii’s Dean Wilson has been a “card carrying fully exempt” player on the PGA Tour for years. This year has been exceptionally difficult for him and he finished 152nd on the PGA Tour money list. That means he has lost his card and doesn’t even have conditional status. This is how is boils down:
The top 70 get invited to all of the events, including all of the World Golf Championships.
The top 125 on the money list can pick and chose their events from the PGA Tour schedules.
Hawaii’s Parker McLachlin, who plays for Waikoloa Resort, is among the exempt players because he won last year, which gave him a two-year exemption from all of this stress, regardless of his money standing. He has been taking the time to change his swing.
The top 150 on the money list have conditional status. They get to play if there is space available. It’s a difficult status because you don’t know when or where you’ll be playing next.
Dean Wilson went back to Q School with many seasoned and excellent players in his predicament plus all of the young guns who want their chance.
Among the Hawaii players who’ll go to the final round are Hawaii’s Jarett Hamamoto and Keoke Cotner.
Dean Wilson, Nick Mason, Jim Seki and Sam Cyr didn’t make it in the top 20 to go for their Tour cards this year.
On top of Wilson having a tough time getting his game on track, the weather this year has been brutal. More rain delays over the entire year than most people can remember.
It was so bad on the Tour this year that one event was completely canceled. That event was one of the “Race for the Card” events during which the players were trying to earn enough money to get into the top 125.
Ironically, during that cancelled event, every time you’d go to the PGA Tour web page to check on the scores or find out if they were just playing, Dean Wilson’s smiling picture was positioned at the top of the page as the event leader. Made me want to cry.
On the LPGA side, final stage Q School is played in early December as well. Hawaii’s Lehua Wise, who has been on the Duramed Futures Tour, is playing get on the LPGA Tour.
TIGER’S GOT THE WORLD IN HIS HANDS
While Michelle Wie was winning her first victory in Mexico, Tiger Woods, was amazed at his reception in Melbourne, Australia. Seven thousand people showed up just for his practice round while helicopters were buzzing overhead.
For a man who has become pretty accustomed to large crowds, He had just comes from a huge event in China, but Woods was amazed at the reception in Melbourne saying something like, “this is overwhelming”. When he addressed the crowd during the trophy ceremony, he promised not to stay away for so long. In addition to the 7 thousand attending his practice sessions, 25 thousand people attended the 2009 Australian Masters every day.
If you ask me, the appearance money spent on Woods was worth every penny. The money generated, not in ticket sales but in increased consumer spending on all kinds of fronts, was considerable. Even Woods commented on how much his mother was spending. “I didn’t know you could buy that many Kangaroo’s and Koala’s”, referring to all the toy stuffed animals she was hauling home, no doubt for the grandchildren.
If Hawaii had been more willing to spend a little more money, I think the PGA of America, the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour would have been able to keep more of the events in Hawaii.
USA HAWAII-JAPAN JUNIOR CUP
Hawaii’s junior golfers competed over the past year, flying from one island to the next, earning points for their efforts, with one goal – to play on the Hawaii team in the 3rd Annual USA Hawaii-Japan Junior Cup. Junior golfers in Japan have been doing the same.
The 13 boys and 9 girls from Hawaii and 13 boys and 9 girls from Japan competed in early November at the Waikoloa King’s Course on the Big Island. A special thanks to Hilton Grand Vacations, Japan Airlines and Waikoloa Resort and many others for helping make this charity fundraiser and international competition come together.
The theme this year was “Juniors Joining Nations Through Golf”.
For three days, just like the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup, the teams competed in Four-Ball Match Play, Foursomes Match Play, more commonly referred to as “alternate shot”, and Singles matches.
Hawaii was the defending champion.
Japan won the first year, Hawaii the second and Japan went home with the cup again. It was very close.
Heading into the singles matches, it looked like Hawaii might win again. But on the final day, the Japan Team came from 2 points behind and earned 13½ points to claim victory. The final score was Japan 23 ½ points to Hawaii’s 20 ½.
The goal, according to the Mary Bea Porter-King who helped put the event into action, is to hold the USA Hawaii-Japan Junior C
“The Hawaii Team put forward a great effort,” said Porter-King, president of the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association and the Team Captain. They played spirited golf and never stopped battling. I’m very proud of them. I also congratulate the Japan squad for their outstanding play and congratulate all of the young golfers for exhibiting wonderful sportsmanship throughout the week.”
Designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish, the Waikoloa Kings’ Course is a Scottish-links style layout featuring numerous pot bunkers, undulating fairways, multiple tee placements and lava outcroppings.
RORY AND RYO
Interesting how far we have come already in the globalization of golf. In an online survey last month, the question was posed:
Who do you think is going to do the best in professional golf, Ryo Ishikawa or Rory McIlroy?
The poll was just about evenly split between the two.
Rory McIlroy has been busy. Close to winning the Race to Dubai on the European Tour, the young man says he is ready to join the PGA Tour season next season. But after coming so close to winning the European Tour’s version of the Fed Ex Cup, McIlroy says he still had his sights set on topping the European money list despite opting to take out a full PGA Tour card next season.
TWO TROPHIES WITH ONE STROKE
Ten years after being the number one golfer on the European Tour, Lee Westwood finds himself back on top. Not only winning the season ending Dubai World Championship but the Race to Dubai.
And he made it look easy. But today he’ll tell you, it was his caddie who kept him level headed and on track. Not only was his play classy, the way he gives credit to those around him is as well.
Did I say it was the season ending? Oh right. There was Nick Watney and John Merrick of USA the Omega Mission Hills World Cup on the Olazabal course at the end of November, 2009 in Shenzhen, China. And Tiger Woods has one more tournament before he takes off for a couple months.
SEASON OPENS IN HAWAII
The SBS Championship starts the 2010 PGA Tour season in beautiful Kapalua on Maui. Once again hosted by the Kapalua Plantation course, SBS is the new tournament host. The Seoul Broadcasting System.
All the winners from the 2009 season are invited for this exclusive event, which is probably the best place in the world to get close to the top golfers playing on the PGA Tour.
Ticket income is used to raise money for Maui charities. At the gate, a weeklong pass is $80. Daily ticket prices are $20 dollars at the gate except the weekend when the price goes up to $30. Check online sales for discounts at www.kapalua.com.
Sony Open in Hawaii, the first full field event on the PGA Tour schedule, begins with the Sony Dream Cup Pro Am on Monday. That's free to the public and so is the practice and Pro-Junior Skills Challenge on Tuesday, the 11th. After that, you'll need tickets. The ticket income is how money is raised to benefit Hawaii's many charities through the Friends of Hawaii.
There are VIP Hospitality Packages available for those who'd like to sit in the Ocean Club Skybox. The $175 per day Thursday to Sunday ticket price includes the Sony Open daily admission, buffet food service and soft drinks in the skybox.
You can also get a Season Badge, which gets you in the entire week for $50 or pay the daily pass at $20 per day.
Go online to www.SonyOpeninHawaii.com or to you local First Hawaiian Bank to get your tickets.
“The Golf Club” radio show will be broadcasting live from all of the professional events in Hawaii, including the Mitsubishi on the Big Island and the Pearl Open on Oahu.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Can’t leave without showing you the LPGA Player of the Year, Lorena Ochoa, who beat LPGA Rookie of the Year Jiyai Shin out of that first title by one point!
AMATEURS TAKE THE GOVERNORS CUP
And this just in before my deadline, in Hawaii the Amateurs captured their third straight victory over the Professionals at the Governor John A. Burns Golf Challenge Cup at Mid-Pacific Country Club.
The Amateur team retains the Governor's Cup after the close of play beating the Professional team by two points - 13 to 11. Going into the final round singles matches, it was all-square. It proved to be another great match and a tremendous battle between Hawaii's best professional and amateur golfers with the championship coming down to the final matches of the day.
The Professional team was stacked with top professionals such as Past Section Player of the Year Ron Castillo Jr. and John Lynch, and Senior Player of the Year Lance Taketa. All of the top Amateurs played including point leader Ryan Perez who won the Army Invitational, Lorens Chan who won the OCC Invitational and State Stroke Play Championship, and T.J. Kua who won the Manoa Cup and Barbers Point Invitational.
CHRISTMAS GIFTS FOR THE GOLFER
In addition to a great new golf shirt, like from a stellar golf course like the Poipu Golf Course, the golfer always needs golf balls. Don’t know which ones? Sneak a look in his or her bag to find the ball your golfer likes. It also sends that important message: you like the fact that your loved one gets out and gets exercise and stays active!
The other easy answer to what to buy is gift certificate. If you get one for Poipu Golf Course, your golfer can use it for a round of golf or a lesson with a professional or something from the pro shop.
The bottom line: Each golfer has unique likes and dislikes. A gift certificate takes the guesswork out of the equation and you’ll get exactly what your golfer wants.
And for you golfers who haven’t a clue what to get for your friend who doesn’t play?
How about a gift certificate to go see Gigi for makeup and eyebrow shaping at Permanent Elegance near University and King. Her number is 722-7981.
Or a gift certificate for a great hair cut with Sharon Namahoe, color with Deb or a manicure with Bev at Avance. The number is 942-4005. Everyone deserves a little pampering.
Lots of easy parking at both locations.
Happy Holidays to you and your family. Remember, when you stress out over the details, the only really important one is being with the people you love.
Until Saturday, thank you for your “Mana” and may you hit the sweet spot every time.
Aloha,
Danielle
Host and Producer of “The Golf Club” radio show.
Saturday 7 AM, now on KHUI “The Jewel” 99.5 FM on Oahu, KONI FM 104.7, KTOH FM 99.9 and KPUA AM 650.
