I wasn’t sure we’d see this, but 18-year-old golfer, Michelle Wie has swallowed her pride and entered the LPGA’s Qualifying School to earn her 2009 LPGA Tour Card. She will compete in the qualifier this month at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California–the same course where she finished fourth at the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 2004 at the age of 13 and rose to national attention.

The top 20 finishers at Mission Hills will advance to a December qualifier in Daytona Beach, where the top 20 will earn an LPGA Tour card. If Wie is unsuccessful at Mission Hills, there is also a qualifier in Florida next month.

Wie, now a student at Stanford University, hasn’t won a tournament since she won the US Women’s Amateur Tournament in 2003. She has been in the spotlight, however, with her repeated attempts to make the cut in a PGA Tour event.

For more about Michelle Wie, see:

• Wie to Play in the Legends Reno Tahoe Open
• Wie Fails to Make PGA Cut
• Is Wie Headed to Q-School?

Post from: Green Posse

The Canadian Women’s Open was a pretty good tournament for Michelle Wie, who’s had a roller-coaster of a year. It wasn’t, of course, as good as it was for Katherine Hull, who picked up her first LPGA win at the Open. However, Wie finished a respectable 12th place and earned herself $36,475 for the week’s work.

However, this past week was not nearly enough to qualify Wie for a 2009 LPGA Tour Card, something she’s been quoted as saying she wants. She fell close to $50,000 short in annual winnings from the $110,000 needed to automatically earn a card.

Of course, there’s always Q-School. But, will the 18-year-old Stanford University student be willing to make time in her schedule for the qualifying events?

For more about Michelle Wie, see:
Michelle Wie Fails to Make PGA Cut
Is Wie Headed for Q School

Post from: Green Posse

Michelle Wie, playing on a sponsor’s exemption at the PGA Reno-Tahoe Legends Open, failed to make the cut in this her 8th attempt in a PGA tournament. Wie finished the first round in contention with a +1 73, but ended the second round at +9, aided by a double bogey and a quintuple bogey. Wie told the Associated Press that she didn’t know if she’d make another attempt at a PGA event.

No woman has made the cut in a PGA tournament since “Babe” Zacharias played the 1945 Tuscon Open.

Post from: Green Posse

Michelle Wie may be having trouble over at the LPGA Tour. She was disqualified in last week’s State Farm Classic and without a top-three finish in August’s CN Canadian Women’s Open, she is likely heading back to qualifying school. However, none of that is stopping the 18-year-old from testing her skills against the gentlemen of the PGA Tour–again.

Wie has secured a sponsor’s exemption to for the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open in Reno, beginning July 31. That’s the same week as the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, where most of the top players will be competing. This is the 8th time that Wie has competed against in a PGA event. She has yet to make the cut.

^{(photo © Newcom)}

Post from: Green Posse

Michelle Wie either plays sensational golf or very mediocre golf; she’s never in the middle of the pack. Last week, it was the later as she missed the cut in the LPGA Open Championship, aided by a quintuple bogey.

Wie needs to really step up her game if she’s going to keep her tour card for 2009. According to ESPN, she needs to finish in the top 10 of the eight remaining events in which she intends to compete. As for “Q” school: 18-year-old Wie says that it would conflict with her studies at Stanford. Time will tell.

^{(© Newscom)}

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Image details: John Deere Classic Final Round served by picapp.com

The PGA Tour heads to the Quad Cities for the appropriately named John Deere Classic this week. The four-day tournament, formerly named the Quad Cities Open, has been played at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois since 2000. (For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Quad Cities, that’s Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa and Moline and Rock Island, Illinois; Silvis is located just outside of Moline.)

The defending champion at the John Deere Classic is Jonathan Byrd, pictured above. The tournament is also noteworthy as being the first PGA win for Payne Stewart (in 1982) and nearly the first for Tiger Woods (he lost by one stroke in the final round to Ed Fiori in 1996).

Teenage women’s golfing sensation, Michelle Wie received an exemption to the tournament in 2005 and came within two strokes of making the cut. She played the tournament again in 2006 on a sponsor’s exemption, but dropped out during the second round (and eight strokes over the anticipated cut line), citing heat exhaustion.

This year’s field includes more than 150 golfers, including Byrd, Zach Johnson, Camilio Villegas, Mark Calcavecchia, and Steve Marino.

Post from: Green Posse

Michelle Wie with her dad and caddy, B. J. Wie

Colin Montgomerie with his dad, James

Ernie Els with his dad, Neels.


Of course, many pro golfers are dads, too. Here are a couple of father/son photos:

Vijay Singh with his son, Qass

Greg Norman with his son, Gregory


Jack Nicklaus with his son and caddy, Steve

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Kultida Woods (mother of Tiger Woods)

Marcella Ochoa (mother of Lorena Ochoa)

Mary Mickelson (mother of Phil Mickelson)

Bo Wie (mother of Michelle Wie)

Happy Mother’s Day to all “Green Posse” readers.

^{(all photos © newscom)}

Post from: Green Posse

As most of the world’s golf fans are watching the men compete in the WGC Accenture Match Play (after Thursday, Tiger’s in; Phil’s out), the women of the LPGA are in Hawaii competing in the Fields Open. It’s the season debut for Michelle Wie, who looked fit to play, finishing five strokes behind the leader, Jeong Jang after the first round.

Jang (pictured above) has been on the tour since 2000 and has two career wins. Last year she lost to Natalie Gublis in a playoff at the Evian Masters Tournament.

Post from: Green Posse

Se Ri Pak surprised everyone by coming from behind to win in a playoff in the LPGA McDonalds Championship on Sunday. Pak defeated Karrie Webb on the first playoff hole by sticking her 2nd shot about three inches from the pin. Webb could have extended the playoff by making her birdie attempt, but it was not to be for the surging Webb. This was definitely like old times with Pak and Webb going head-to-head in the playoff; the only thing missing to make it complete was Annia Sorenstam.

Michelle Wie shot an even par 72, but left numerous opportunities on the course because she’s lacking consistency with her putter. If I was David Leadbetter (her swing coach), I’d hire the best putting coach I could find (or hire Ben Crenshaw away from the Champions Tour) and have her concentrate almost entirely on her putter between now and the Women’s U.S. Open. From tee-to-green, Wie is as good as anyone on the LPGA, but she took 35 putts on Sunday and that will get you nowhere fast playing professional golf.

Mike Ritz from the Golf Channel had a very revealing interview with Annika Sorenstam after she completed her round on Sunday and it was refreshing to hear Sorenstam talk openly about a number of topics. She’s obviously not happy with the state of her game, but she continues to work very hard to try and find the magic again. She made a great comment about seeing parts of the golf course she’s not used to seeing! Ritz asked her to talk about the penalty stroke she incurred on Saturday when she removed a divot that was next to her ball, in order to make it look better. She was very candid and said she has no idea what prompted her to remove and replace the divot, but she knows it was wrong and had no problem with the penalty stroke.

PGA

Vijay Singh is back! Singh won the Barclays classic on Sunday by two strokes over Adam Scott. It’s good to see Singh win again as he’s a refreshing interview in the press room after he’s won a tournament. With his win, Singh moved to 3rd place in the world rankings replacing Retief Goosen. Speaking of which…Goosen and Els have yet to win this year on American soil, which is very surprising considering their place in the top 5 every year. Word is that Els is still having knee-related recovery problems and has in fact created other swing problems because he’s tried to over=compensate for his knee by doing other things with his swing.

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