The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : Intimations of greatness

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 13, 2006

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Intimations of greatness

Sometimes in sport the cinders of an incandescent future are evident in the grey ashes of defeat. And so they are in the failure of Michelle Wie to become the first woman to play in the U.S. Open — one of golf's most prestigious tournaments. The precociously talented 16-year old — who teased and tantalised the golfing world before stumbling in the end at the back nine — played far from badly alongside the men in the sectional qualifier at Canoe Brook. She matched the competition in the drives off the tees and fairways, but her short game let her down at critical moments. She made the cut, which was creditable; unfortunately, this was not good enough to make a gender-defying appointment with history. Any discussion of Wie's talent and future raises the question: is the willowy lass, with a $10 million a year endorsement package, the product of media hype? The cynicism about Wie in certain quarters is based on facts such as the following. She has failed to win a significant women's professional tournament yet; performances by other women golfers such as the hugely talented Annika Sorenstam, who has nine majors under her belt, speak for themselves; Wie has repeatedly failed to make the cut in men's tournaments, with the exception of a relatively obscure one in South Korea. But to dismiss her as an over-hyped under-achiever on such grounds is grossly unfair. Players take much longer to mature in golf than in most other sports. Therefore Wie's skills and accomplishments need to be judged in relation to those of other golfers at the same age.

In any such head-to-head comparison, Wie easily comes out on top. At the age of 10, the Hawaiian schoolgirl became the world's youngest player to qualify in a USGA amateur championship. At 12, she was the youngest ever to qualify for a women's professional tour event. Tiger Woods, another child prodigy, did not play his first PGA Tour until he was 16; Wie did that at the age of 14. Her parents have chosen an unconventional path for her progress. Rather than take the slow but conventional road as an amateur and then establish her on the women's professional circuit, the goal is to take on the big boys of the PGA tour. This is an audacious strategy. Whether it is a good one for a young woman golfer, only time will tell. Six-foot-and-one inch tall Wie drives the ball an astonishingly long way, distances that compare favourably with the men on the professional tour. Ironically, it is in the shorter and more delicate version of the game — the chips and the putts — that her present game falls short. Wie may not be winning but she is competing fiercely and showing greater maturity with every passing year. The intimations of greatness are there for everyone to see. What she needs to do is stay the course and retain her belief that she can do what no woman golfer has done before. Bravo Michelle, you can make it to the U.S. Open next year.

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