If you can't say something good...

Anyone looking to make a case why a 16 year old should stay in school and why there should be an oral exam component to turning professional in any endeavor will be bolstered by the following quote. I hope no one finds this offensive, but incredibly poor speaking skills are a pet peeve of mine.

ESPN’s Charlie Riemer asked Michele Wie to describe her nine over par first round at today’s Sony Open.

(Please read aloud and you will see how painful this is to your ears.)

“Yeah, I mean… ya know, its just…. It… just it… was not my day, I mean, you know, I just, couldn’t just get things going, I mean whenever I wanted to try and do something it uh would just kinda backfired at me and um, ya know, I just kinda got uh ah started on the wrong foot with that three putt and ya know, ya know, it was kinda of tough to kinda get back with the hard conditions, but you never know I might shoot something crazy tomorrow.”

Translation: (30 year old male cliché version)

“It was not my day and I was unable to get anything going. Every time I tried to get my round back on track it would backfire. I got off to a bad start three putting the first hole and it was pretty tough out there today. Who knows, I might go low tomorrow, we’ll just have to see.”

Nike and Sony should take a percentage of the $10,000,000 and hire a grammar tutor or communication instructor to help this poor girl with her speaking skills. I struggle with the English language to some degree. I have spell check and my wife to help keep me in line. Wie will need some serious help if something other than her clubs is going to do the talking. I cut her some slack because of her age in 2004 and 2005. If she is a pro, she can’t continue to talk like a hack. She needs to spend less time on the golf course and more time on her course work at school.

The only positive of Wie playing poorly is a possible backlash pushing Wie back to women’s golf, where she belongs. She is a fantastic talent, but she has no business playing on the PGA Tour.

The Michelle Wie and145 Monsieur Open

John B. Holmes in action at 2003 US Open.

The 2006 PGA Tour season goes full tilt and full field tomorrow with the Sony Open. No disrespect to the sleepy Mercedes Championship last week, but the Sony feels more like the real start of golf season. Several of the goffblog’s favorite folks plant their pegs in the ground at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Michele Wie’s “quest for the cut-line” enters year three in front of her hometown crowd. Wie has probably played 50 practice rounds here since last year’s tournament and would seem ready to finally play when 16 years old are supposed to play, on the weekend. I guess she has a permission slip to skip 11th grade classes and sneak in a round or two. Wie missed the cut last year by seven strokes. The odds of her winning are listed as 1001:1. That seems pretty generous. I can see it now, Wie and Vijay dueling down the back nine on Sunday with the tournament hanging in the balance. Now that would be newsworthy. Here’s hoping she makes the cut and moves on with her career.

Speaking of trying to make the cut, and proving how tough it can be, David Duval kicks off ‘06 at the Sony. Duval made one cut in 20 events last year and maybe this is the year Duval gets his game back in shape.

With the 6:29 PM tee time, playing out of the Campbellsville Country Club… The most intriguing story of local interest is the pro debut of Kentuckian John B. Holmes. The 2005 University of Kentucky graduate starred on last year’s victorious Walker Cup team and wrapped up 2005 as the Q-School Medalist. Holmes 6:29PM EST tee time places him in the final group tomorrow. ESPN’s coverage starts at 6:30PM. Hopefully they can fit in some of his round between Wie’s shots. Just last year Holmes was attending UK and the PGA Tour was just something on TV, not your occupation.

Updating past posts:

TGI… Hawaii
Appleby’s third straight victory at last week’s Mercedes pushes his earnings in 51 events, since the start of the 2004 season, to around $6M. That’s $1,000,000 on average at the three Mercedes events and an average of $62,500 in the other 48 events.

2006 TV Deal announced
CBS, NBC & the Golf Channel are in, ABC, ESPN, TNT, and USA Network are out. The Golf Channel will host complete coverage of the two Hawaii stops and the season ending “quest for the card.” They will also host all first and second round coverage of the remaining schedule. TiVo scheduling should get a little easier in 2007.

Goffblog Promotion
We are running a special promotion for our readers: Submit a topic to the goffblog and if you topic is selected for future posts you will be paid $1.00 cash money as compensation.


Wie, Wie, Monsieur!

ABC gone after '06?

PGA Tour Commissioner, Tim Finchem, is finalizing the Television rights for 2007-2012 and it is rumored ABC will be out of the mix on covering golf after the 2006 season.

For nine years ending in 2004, ABC had Curtis Strange in the booth. He was a familiar voice, but was third on the depth chart of the three major networks. CBS slid Lanny Wadkins into the chair occupied by Ken Venturi for 35 years in July 2002. It doesn’t hurt Lanny being surrounded by talent like Nantz, Feherty, McCord, Oosterhuis, Clampett, Macatee and Co. CBS also happens to be the home of that little tournament held at Augusta. Frank Chirkinian, CBS’s former longtime golf producer, helped build a dynasty that golf fans under appreciate. That is until we have to watch events on the other networks.

ABC tried Ian Baker Finch and Terry Gannon after Curtis Strange failed to get the contract extension he was looking for in 2004. Soon after Finch said, “He’s a good striker of the ball” for the 1,000 time, ABC realized they where hurting in the booth and needed to try something different if they where going to compete with the other networks.

Enter Paul Azinger and Nick Faldo in October 2004. The move was a gamble, but Zinger was a natural. Faldo took a while to get going, but his quirky wit meshed with Zinger’s brilliant no-nonsense style and suddenly made ABC’s golf coverage relevant again. In less than a year, ABC came up with coverage that rivaled NBC for second place among networks. No one would have thought ABC could compete with Johnny Miller and NBC, especially not in such quick fashion. Now it looks like NBC won’t have to worry about the ABC’s upstart trio. 2006 figures to be ABC's last year for PGA Tour Golf. NBC stands to pick up several more tournaments with ABC’s departure. ESPN will also cover some events as well in the new deal.

Lanny is predicable and conservative. Johnny generally does a good job, but will say thing just to stir up controversy. I felt Azinger had the potential to be the best of those three. Maybe Zinger and his English sidekick Faldo can find somewhere to continue their banter for more than one tournament a year after 2006. (ABC has rights to the British Open through 2009)


In other news:

Golfworld has listed their top 30 rankings for 2006:

Jim Furyk ranked #3 and Vijay ranked #4? Let’s show the Fijian some respect. Furyk is one of my boys, but last time I checked he's not Veej.

Ernie Els ranked #7, with Furyk (#3), Dimarco (#5) and Goosen (#6) ranked ahead of him? Els should have a banner year after blowing out his knee on holiday. Look out Eldrick, Ernie's back and we all know you need a rival.