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!