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Her family is in the millions for allowing her to be manipulated and marketed the way they have. Honestly, she could show up (just to fill appearance agreements) and with smart money management she'll never have to hold down a 40-hour a week job in her life. According to TGC's "The 19th Hole" guys last season, there are no performance stipulations in her contracts. All she has to do is show up, and be Michelle Wie. IMHO, the media are as much at fault as are her parents for what happened last year. They were so happy to have a potential female Tiger Woods they jumped all over it. Oops. She has enough natural talent to eventually work her way out of this apparent "funk", that's obvious. It's going to come down to desire. Does she want it badly enough? I think so. I hope so.

77 with one birdie and a double bogie on #14 which I reckon the first tee shot is still bouncing around in Cracker Barrell parking lot. Only hit 7 greens in reg and got up and down like an elevator everywhere else. Weird day.

I was 11. On my 11th birthday I shot 84 from the forward tees at Hillandale Golf Course in Durham, NC, and beat my Dad by two shots. We played the next day and he moved me back to the whites with him. We both shot 83. I try not to let him forget it. haha! To the equipment issue, it seems like I recall Arnie saying he credits technology for allowing him to continue to have good scores and have fun playing on into his 60's. On that note, I think it's a great thing. I think it's wonderful that the game has evolved so that people can enjoy it as a life long pursuit, rather than be limited to their youth. I look forward to playing as long as I'm able. Cheers.

I had Sunday tickets. We walked the course following Annika and Laura's group first, then Cristie, Lorena, and Morgan's group, then watched the last 7 groups come in sitting in the covered chalet on the 18th green. What a fantastic course and a great tournament! We're going back to play it on vacation in a few weeks. Congrats to Ms. Kerr. A deserving champion in every sense of the word. Cheers!

It was interesting to see Ernie Els doing the Jack Nicklaus Memorial Clinic on The Golf Channel. Jack brought out his old MacGregor persimmon driver and Ernie knocked the crap out of it. He remarked that it felt strange, and Jack remarked that he never hit that far. I think this speaks to the opinion that tour players are somewhat more fit, bigger and stronger as a whole, which results in longer drives etc. That said, not everybody on tour is an "Ernie Els". According to the USGA, the average handicap hasn't dropped much in the last 20 years, which makes the obvious implication that longer drives doesn't automatically mean you're going to hit more greens or sink more putts. Practice always has been and always will be the key to game improvement and lower score. I play the same courses quite often that I played 35 years ago, and with the new clubs I don't do much better than the old days using Wilson Staff blades and a Tony Penna 2-wood, making tracks in the early morning dew in Converse sneakers. Ah, the good ol' days. I commented earlier in the thread that I'd be right there watching a tournament put on with only vintage equipment. With smaller clubheads (and smaller sweet spots), with old style grooves, I think it would be interesting to see how the pros score on today's courses. They are still pros and still better than Joe Hacker day to day, but I doubt you see many low rounds. An interesting point to make is to note that Moe Norman carded many sub-60 rounds using the old stuff without hitting it 350 off the tee. I guess not all pros are a "Moe Norman", either. All that in mind, do what makes you happy. Pick a softer, lower compression ball, and go have at it. eBay and GolfExchange.com are just a few places you can find "vintage" equipment, as well as the pre-owned section of the big online retailers. Your local pro might have some ideas on the subject.

She's probably used to people falling all over theirself to please her. She seems a bit spoiled.

Perhaps this is just a bit of frustration that's been building, but Gary got under my skin somethin' awful. In my whole life I don't think I've ever seen a better example of someone being all talk. In a whole season and now two shows he hit one good shot from a bunker, and he's got the nerve to say that he "let this lesser player" have a chance. The guy hit good shots when he had to, and Mr. Old Bigmouth folded like a lawn chair. Maybe he's the one who pulled one "out of his keester", eh? Good-freakin-bye, old man. And I might also be glad when Pam is gone. And poor Eduardo needs a cold shower.

lmao @ sweater zeppelins. It doesn't appear to be a given that she will actually be on BB VII, and being a former winner it wouldn't seem fair to others that would actually qualify as getting a "second chance". They're probably just putting some good promo shots in the commercial to make sure the guys watch. We fall for stuff like that yanno.

As Scott mentioned, the coverage I saw of the US Pro Golf Tour was interesting. At least it wasn't the same ol' same ol'. I enjoy the Bobby Jones "How I Play Golf" episodes on TGC, and the Big Break as long as there's somebody on there I don't like and can pull against.

http://www.shark.com/sharkwatch/stat.../victories.php I guess analysis of a given career is somewhat subjective, as is the judgement of personalities. So in the end, it has a lot to do with whether you admire the person or not. A look at his career stats shows he had quite a few victories after the big gag in '96. Granted none of them were majors, but some pretty big stages you must admit. The biggest reason, according to him, is a loss of competitive edge due to injuries. The "fire" is still there, but there's just not as much heat in it. I like Greg and always have. I think Tiger's arrival on the scene might have more to do with his injuries than he gives credit for. A 40-something reaching back to try and keep up with a 20-something will pull a few joints and muscles every time. IMHO, I think it was hard for him to go from being the big dog on the block back to being just one of the best. He made decisions, good and bad in business and in life, but he makes no excuses for them. Having done as much for charity as he has, he gets my vote for being an okay guy. Not perfect and he didn't change the entire world, but he made a positive mark on it anyway.

Reports on the Golf Channel last night said the word from Ledbetter is that they have decided that she should be concentrating more on ladies events next year. Oh what a great idea! Maybe EVERYBODY ELSE ON THE PLANET DIDN'T ALREADY KNOW THIS! geez.

Costner and Wagner team up with the greenskeeper (Jack Black?) to try and rob a casino to get money to pay for a lovable child character's life saving operation, fail miserably and wind up winning the money anyway in a million dollar Vegas alternate shot tournament. Could be good.

Man ol' Jeff needs to get busy and quick! All Denny has to do is halve three holes and it's over, right? It's harder to read the girls though. In the commentary they both have negative body language, which only makes sense if which ever one won the ladies part also lost the final man v. lady match. I wish it would hurry up and get over, too. It's just about the only thing I watch on TV at night.

Hey those are nice irons, mr. shotz. I think you're on the right track in considering the 3-wood off the tee for a little while. At least until you regularly hit it solid and consistently hit the fairway. If money is not a concern it might be a good idea to go ahead and find a driver that suits your eye so you would have it to practice with occasionally on the range, but using the 3-wood will allow you to have more fun on the course. The hybrid clubs that go with your irons are highly rated for playability, so maybe a 22° hybrid and a 3-wood with comparable offset would round out your playing set nicely. You don't necessarily have to get a Nike club, but it's important keep in mind the progressive offset of those irons and try to maintain that progression in your longer clubs. Good luck, and just remember to have fun. It's a great game. And who knows? Maybe it's not too late to tell ol' Santa we needs a new 3-wood!

Hiya shotz! Welcome to the game! I'm interested to know what irons you are using, and if you can tell me a little about how you hit them on the range we can make a better decision about the woods.

LMAO! oh gosh I thought the same thing! Sneaky rascal. My wife doesn't like Phil because he sounds like an opthamolo ... and optomi .... he sounds like an eye doctor explaining a complicated surgical procedure or something. I like him alright but Elvis has been seen more than him since the Ryder Cup. Geez, talk about spoiled atheletes. I don't dislike any of them that I can think of, but I get very frustrated with the extremely slow ones. They look at a putt six ways from Sunday and still miss it the same six inches you or I would if we stepped up and popped it. I have a vision of maintenance crews coming out and running the string trimmer around Ben Crane's feet while he's finally addressing the ball.

Aye, chief. Pardon my lack of clarity. The sextuple bogey had me shellshocked.

Taking the short way through a dogleg, or catching the wind just right, there's all kinds of ways to blast one over 300 but it doesn't happen as often as some might like you to think it does. Sure kids are more flexible etc., but even the tour stats will show less than 300 on average for most pros. I have before many times but something has to happen to help it along. Heck I hit one 340 not too long ago on a flat hole with no wind, but I landed on the 200 marker and it was hot, dry Summertime. I don't know about everybody else, but if I'm chipping to a par 4 most of the time I laid the sod over my second shot to get there.

I love grandpas! Mine said " will is a wish. did is a fact." It's hard to argue with "did". *nod*

You mean this look? -----> I mean, seriously, she's just a kid and all that but gee whiz, if they are going to cram her down our proverbial throats I wish she'd play better so she would smile. That frowny face makes me want to turn off the television.

I'm too cheap to buy one! However, if Santa has been paying attention .... *shifty eyes* ... I might have one soon.

I can attest to this. You'd be surprised how far the new balls go using old equipment. On good solid strikes I hit my old Tony Penna 2-wood almost as far as my G5. The main problem was the sweet spot is about as big as a dime instead of a silver dollar. Sounds funny, too. More like a nasty spank than the metallic turbo "tink" we've gotten used to. I'd be all for watching a vintage tournament. But I'm sure they'd have to dial back to courses a bit. No way anybody could score well on 7000 yards with old balls and clubs. Not humans at aleast.

It's very subjective at my home course. Almost all the O.B. is to the right as we're making left turns the most of the way around the course, so a hook stays in play if it gets away from you. As to distance, if the ground is firm then the draw is longer, where more carry from the fade is longer on average if you're not getting roll on soft fairways. I just wish I could hit it straight and not worry about it.

85. With a 10 on a par 4 and two triples. 12 over on 3 holes. For anyone who says they wish they could hit a hook, I beg you to reconsider.

Fairway bunker, 175 to the pin over water. I thought it was simple enough. Good solid 6-iron should put me landing in the middle and run to the back, except for I caught it thin and plugged into mud under the lip. Took an "unplayable", dropped in the bunker. Then I proceeded to do it almost exactly the same way again with the ball stuck about a foot directly to the right of the first plug hole. Okay I might have cussed a little under my breath ... ... took another drop and proceeded to hit it fat and dump it in the pond. At this point there was definitely some verbalization of my frustrations, but I tried to stay calm. Took a drop from the hazard, pitched to 6 feet and made a nice curler for a quick li'l niner. But it's a great game ain't it?