How To Kill The LPGA

Why doesn't LPGA star Annika Sorenstam generate more acclaim, and what is the meaning of 15-year-old Michelle Wie? Leonard Shapiro samples some thoughts on both in She Has Two Legs, But Wants Another-- Sorenstam Vies for 3rd Straight Major:

Most players know that Wie may eventually do for their game what Tiger Woods has already done for the men's tour -- more visibility than ever before along with larger purses coming from increased dollars in new television contracts when Wie finally does turn professional. But many players also wonder why that's not happening right now in the Sorenstam era when arguably the greatest player in women's golf history is performing at the peak of her game.

"Annika has done so much for the tour already and she hasn't gotten half the attention she deserves," said Meg Mallon, the defending Open champion.

"That's going to be the big question if she does win the Grand Slam. Are people going to just say 'here she goes again,' or is she going to get to the level of idolatry she basically deserves? I think she deserved it after Colonial, but then she's won 25 times since then and people are blase about it, which is really sad."

When Sorenstam played the Colonial in 2003, it was riveting and I watched every shot. But she missed the cut by four strokes (for my non-golfing readers, that means she, and everyone else who missed the cut, was sent home after two days and thus barred from even trying to win on the weekend). I bet Sorenstam doesn't think she deserved idolatry , but then who really does.

Will Wie create "more visibility than ever before" for the Ladies' PGA, "along with larger purses coming from increased dollars in new television contracts when Wie finally does turn professional"? Maybe when Wie deigns to play for the LPGA. But Wie doesn't care much for the LPGA. She cares about competing at the highest level, and for her that means playing with the boys:

"I'm out there to learn from them. Playing in all the different tours, PGA, LPGA, amateurs, they're all so unique and I feel like I'm a better player learning from all those different kind of players. Even on the LPGA, I still have a lot to learn and I'm still learning from Annika, a lot of the players out here, and that's good for me."

Yeah, that'll make famed LPGA vet Nancy Lopez feel a lot better; Shapiro quotes her as saying "it's a little insulting" that Wie wants to play on the men's tour. But play there she will, including this July  at the PGA's John Deere Classic.  Here's an excerpt from the latter's promotional material:

Wie’s rationale for playing in a regular PGA TOUR event is straightforward: she wants to play against the best and learn from the best. And that means the PGA Tour players. She plans to try to qualify for the men’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst this year. Should she succeed, the Open would be the only other men’s event in which she plays before the John Deere.

“When I go out and play in a PGA Tour event, I don’t go there to win now but to learn from the best,” Wie said. “The more PGA Tour events I play, the better my chance of making the cut and eventually becoming the first female member of the PGA Tour.”

For most of our modern bourgoise sports era--and the previous few millenia as well--men and women usually didn't compete against each other athletically for the obvious reason that the top men would always beat the top women. We have sex-segregation to thank for inspiring sports heroes from Wilma Rudolph  to, well, Annika Sorenstam.  But the more Michelle Wie guns for the PGA, the less the LPGA will matter.  Golf fans will understand the monumental achievement if Sorenstam wins the Slam, and the wider world will look elsewhere to find the best of the best.

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