Here’s a good story on Michelle Wie, whose goal is to place at the Master’s, just in time for Asian-Pacific-American Heritage Month.
If you ever wondered what a 13-year-old girl whose average drive is 4 yards short of Tiger Woods’ looks like, you’re in luck! Just remember, she’s only 13, so get your mind out of the gutter:
Vijay Singh won the Byron Nelson Championship this past weekend, and then curiously pulled out of next week’s Colonial (AKA the Annika Sorenstam Controversy Invitational). Singh claims that he’s taking the weekend off because of a promise he made to his wife: if he won the Byron Nelson Championship, he would take a break before the US Open. (Curtis) Strange-ly enough, no mention of this promise was made when Singh was leading after rounds 2 and 3. My theory? I for once agree with Vijay’s earlier comments, claiming the PGA should be a men’s-only tour. You see, you shouldn’t play golf, Mr. Singh, when you have no balls.
Come to think of it, maybe he should become a racehorse…or a Sacramento King…
The Twins and Red Sox are both in first place…for now…
Sick of blowing on your games to get them to work? Turn your 8-bit Nintendo into a computer with these simple instructions.
After winning the Kentucky Derby three weeks ago, Funny Cide won the Preakness today and will attempt to become the first gelding ever to win the Triple Crown three weeks from now at the Belmont Stakes. What’s a gelding, you ask? Here’s a hint: Doug Christie.
T.J. Simers has been kicked off ESPN’s “Around the Horn” after being quoted as saying, “The show is awful, promotes conflict and the outrageous, and I do it only to pay for a wedding.”
Thanks for the heads-up, T.J., but anyone who has seen the show already knew everything but the wedding part. Sadly, with the departure of Bob Ryan and now Mr. Simers, ATH will be nothing but Woody Paige rants for the next 3 weeks–thus magnifying the flaws that Mr. Simers pointed out.
Jeffrey Shallit has determined that the US needs an 18-cent coin in order to make transactions as smooth as possible. Proving once again that theory and reality are vastly different realms, I’d like to point out two huge mistakes in Mr. Shallit’s thinking:
1) His assumption that every combination of cents, 0-99, are equally likely is false. Many businesses intentionally price their wares so that the final price ends in either 5 or 0.
2) He forgets that the average American high schooler can’t even count by 5s, let alone 18s. Shallit says, “We could speed up customer service just by replacing the dime with an 18-cent piece.” Really? How many dropouts working at the gas station can count buy 18s in their heads? Not everyone in the retail industry is a computer scientist from the prestigious University of Waterloo like Mr. Shallit.
I’d much rather get correct change–even if it is one or two coins more–than have to wait while some cashier who doesn’t want to be working tries to figure out whether 18 divides evenly into 47. I’ve spent too much of my life giving math lessons to these types of people to hold any sort of hope that they would be able to adjust to a change that drastic.
John Mathieson is a Broncos fan. John Mathieson is adopted. John Mathieson searched for his father and found out that he is a football coach…for the New York Giants! I wonder where his allegiance lies now?
I didn’t know the man personally, but the hell that was COM 101 my freshman year is enough to make this significant news in my book. Of all the courses I took in college, that was the most worthless, painful, patronizing waste of time of them all–even worse than that rollerblading class.
I can’t believe I’m the only one to use that pun so far.
Annika Sorenstam’s long-awaited venture into men’s golf begins one week from yesterday. Two months ago, the Colonial offered Sorenstam one of eight sponsor’s exemptions for the tournament, and she accepted it. And yes, there was some backlash at the time, but nothing compared to Vijay Singh’s foot-in-mouth (or is it head-up-his-ass?) diatribe last week, during which he claimed he’d withdraw if he were to be paired with Sorenstam at the Colonial (an easy threat to make, considering he knew damn well that their names were being drawn from separate pools). Of course, Vijay said he was misquoted, though a look at the reporter’s notes seems to contradict that claim. (As an aside, I think we should partially attribute Singh’s remarks to his culture. I don’t know about Fiji, but I do know that Tonga, which is a couple John Daly-sized drives away, has a culture so misogynist it makes the US look Amazonian by comparison.)
But culturally-catalyzed or not, I don’t see what the big deal is, or why male golfers are so up-in-arms about the situation. Annika has already claimed that this is a one-time shot; the course at the Colonial is shorter than most other PGA tournament courses, and thus is one of few where she could hope to compete for a win. Furthermore, most attempts by male golfers to justify their anti-Annika stances fail to hold water:
Does it take away a spot from someone else? Sure. And so do the other sponsor’s exemptions. As Mark Kreidler explains, these exemptions are usually used as political or personal favors to people who aren’t good enough to “earn” a spot in the field–and Vijay hasn’t said boo about any of them.
Does it lower the integrity of the game? No more than being kicked out of two different golf tours (albeit “only” one for cheating, right, Mr. Singh?).
Shouldn’t men be able to play in women’s tournaments? No. As I pointed out before, the line of thinking doesn’t go both ways; it’s the difference between letting a 12-year-old play against 16-year-olds because he’s good, and letting a 16-year-old play against Little Leaguers because he’s so bad.
Is Annika trying to sexually integrate the PGA? No. She’s just curious; she dominates the women’s circuit in a way Tiger Woods can only dream, and she wants to know how she’d fare against the best competition in the world. Babe Zaharias qualified for the Los Angeles Open in 1945, and that certainly didn’t tear down any gender barriers on the course.
Is Annika good enough to be at the Colonial? Well, if she finishes ahead of even one man, she has proven that she was good enough to beat someone else the rest of the PGA deemed worthy. So as long as Annika doesn’t finish last, I’d say she succeeded.
Are men afraid she’ll make them look bad? If they are, they should be checking out 13-year-old phenom Michelle Wie, instead. In January, Wie played in a qualifying round for the Sony Open and tied for 47th…out of 97! I think the 40-some guys trying to make the tour who couldn’t beat a 13-year-old girl have more to worry about than the ones who already hold a PGA tour card. (In addition, the six-foot, 290-yard driving(!) Ms. Wie today accepted a sponsor’s exemption to the Boise Open. Said the Open President, Mr. Larry Johnston, “Anybody who can hit the ball 300 yards on a consistent basis and can shoot 66 can play in my tournament.”)
For what it’s worth, Tiger Woods has wished Sorenstam luck and encouraged her to play in more than one tournament. This would not be a bad tack for the anti-Annika crowd to follow. If she truly is as bad as they say, then her scores in multiple tournaments would give a truer read of her abilities. After all, anyone can get hot enough for a weekend to win even a Major. Right, Rich Beem?