Michelle Wie is fine-tuning her language skills this week as she ventures to the remote island of Kochi, Japan to play in the $1.2 million men’s Casio World Open. She will be playing her first professional event since being disqualified at the LPGA Samsung World Championship over a month ago after signing an incorrect scorecard.
Several hundred people were at the airport to greet Wie as she stepped off the private jet flown from her home in Honolulu to Japan. “Konnichiwa, I am very much moved by your welcome,” the sixteen-year-old said in Japanese. “I will do my best and please cheer for me!”
Since her parents are originally from South Korea, Michelle is already fluent in Korean. The Wie’s settled in Hawaii in the 1980’s. The younger Wie is currently taking up both Chinese and Japanese as “Wie Inc.” expands into an ever-growing Asian market.
One of the many perks of winning a major championship on the PGA Tour is getting the opportunity to play in Hawaii at season’s end against the other major championship winners. The golfers get to showcase their respective talents on national television in a two-day event. The four men will play 36 holes over the two days, and the winner will walk away $400,000 richer.
If you’re reading this in the Sunbelt of the United States, or anywhere else in the world where the weather’s good enough to tee it up year-round, you can sit this one out. (You lucky so-and-so.) This week’s edition of The Bag Drop is all about how to get your clubs ready for a long winter’s nap.
Has anyone had a chance to play any golf lately? I haven’t played at all. In fact, I’m beginning to plan my Christmas list and it needs to have a bunch of golf equipment. Does anyone have any recommendations of new and hot equipment I should add to my list? Leave it in the comments.
I have often wondered whether or not Tiger Woods is human or some sort of alien by the way he crushes his competition and lays claim year after year to the number-one spot on the PGA Tour. Even when he struggles Woods finds a way to win just as he did in 
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It’s here! The fourth episode of our podcast is now available. You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts 
It’s pretty hard to argue that Annika Sorenstam is anything less than the most dominant woman in sports. She has been at the top of her sport since she joined the LPGA Tour in 1995. She stacked win upon win again in 2005, finishing the season with an astounding nine-win season. She has won more than eight tournaments in a season four different times. The last six years in particular she has owned the LPGA tour win column. Since 2000 Annika hasn’t won any less than five tournaments per year. The little blond from Sweden is a fierce competitor and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. Sand Trap staff member Stacy Solomon recently featured the dominant Swede in