Michelle Wie might fulfill her potential if she concentrated more on golf and less on school, according to LPGA Tour Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam.
“I think really her focus, in my opinion, should be more on the golf,” Sorenstam told reporters Wednesday on the eve of the U.S. Women’s Open at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. “She’s very distracted with school, doesn’t really play as much full time as I thought she would. I think she needs to come out here and compete more regularly.”
Wie, who will compete in her eighth women’s Open, has a less-than-stellar record in the major. In addition to finishing with a share of third place in 2006, the 21-year-old Stanford student who arrived on tour with great fanfare and huge expectations has two missed cuts and a withdrawal on her Open record.
“When she came out there was a lot of buzz, a lot of potential from this young lady,” Sorenstam said. “She probably has one of the best golf swings in the game today.”
Lovely motion and all, Wie has not lived up to her billing, Sorenstam said.
“I would say she has not performed to her expectations or her potential,” said Sorenstam, who earned her first of 72 LGPA Tour wins as well as the first of 10 majors at Broadmoor in 1995. “But she’s one of those long hitters, one of those who plays with a lot of different shots in her bag. She hits some wedges just beautifully.”
When Sorenstam lowered the velvet hammer on Wie, did she mean to suggest that the college student should quit school and play full-time on tour? If so, what kind of message would that be for youngsters eager to chuck their studies for the perceived glamor of professional golf?
It was certainly not the advice Sorenstam had for 16-year-old Lexi Thompson, who just received a waiver of the tour’s age restriction. For sure, “slow down” appeared to be the caution Sorenstam had for the youngster for whom tour commissioner Mike Whan suspended the requirement that a golfer must be 18 to compete at qualifying school for her tour card.
“I’m sure there are some young ladies who would [handle the travel and tough competition] better than others,” said Sorenstam, who offered counsel to Thompson and others.
“Hey, take your time,” Sorenstam recommended. “Enjoy high school golf, enjoy college golf, enjoy representing your own country in the Curtis Cup or all these different events they have out there.”
Recalling her own experiences as a tour rookie in her early 20s, Sorenstam urged the star of the 2010 Curtis Cup at Massachusetts’ Essex County Club and others to prepare fully for the pressures of professional golf before jumping into the fray.
“I just hope that [Thompson] takes her time,” said Sorenstam, who worried about young players “who push themselves too hard and you wonder how long they will stay” when facing the mental and physical strains of competing at golf’s highest levels.
“You have to be ready for this challenge,” Sorenstam added, “not just to hit golf shots, but for the whole thing around it: media and traveling and sponsors and all the obligations that come with it.”
Wie, by the way, will return for a fifth year to finish classes and receive her degree from Stanford, which she credited with helping her mature.
“I really grew up when I went to college. I was still a kid when I was in high school and I feel like I really grew up and became an adult,” Wie said during an education workshop sponsored by McDonald’s.
Wednesday was also not the first time Sorenstam criticized Wie. A series of events in 2007 brought the wrath of Annika down on the then-17-year-old.
Indeed, Wie took heat from all quarters following claims that a wrist injury — and not a 14-over score through 16 holes — forced her to withdraw from the Ginn Tribute event, which Sorenstam hosted. After Wie circumvented tour rules and began practicing at the site of the LPGA Championship two days later, Sorenstam unloaded on her.
“I just feel there’s a little bit of lack of respect and class just to kind of leave a tournament like that and come out and practice here,” Sorenstam said at the time.
Might Sorenstam’s most recent zinger be residual resentment in what Golf.com labeled one of golf’s best feuds?
(Photo:
Getty Images Files, Postmedia News; Montreal Gazette)
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, National Golf Examiner, and GottaGoGolf websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter @golfexaminer.)
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