Notebook
Wie Has No Problem Being a 'Freelancer'
Thursday, July 6, 2006; Page E03
Michelle Wie has had top five finishes in the three LPGA majors so far this season, finishing a shot out of a playoff in the Kraft Nabisco, two shots out of a playoff in the LPGA Championship and two shots from joining Annika Sorenstam and Pat Hurst in an 18-hole playoff Monday for the U.S. Women's Open title.
Any questions about her skill level at 16 should now be answered. The only remaining question concerns when she will become a card-carrying member of the LPGA. And judging from her comments last week at Newport Country Club, that's not going to happen anytime soon, if at all.
 "Obviously I would like to play the PGA Tour later on, be a member there," says Michelle Wie, who has endorsement deals that bring in close to $10 million a year. "And then if I can be a member of the LPGA Tour, too. I don't like being stuck in one place." (Chris Trotman - Getty Images) |
Wie, who will begin her senior year of high school in the fall, can now accept six sponsor's exemptions to play in LPGA events and six more to play in PGA Tour events. She is free to play on any tour in the world -- men's or women's -- and when she goes abroad she can accept guaranteed appearance fees.
Although she is not eligible for LPGA membership until she is 18, she could petition the commissioner for early admittance. But at the moment, she says she has no intention of doing so.
"I feel like a freelancer," she said. "It almost reminds me of a newspaper, where you have your staff writers and then you have your freelance writers. I'm like the freelance writer. I love this freelancing. I'm playing a lot of tours. I'm playing the Japanese Tour, the Asian Tour, the PGA and LPGA. It's awesome.
"Obviously I would like to play the PGA Tour later on, be a member there. And then if I can be a member of the LPGA Tour, too. I don't like being stuck in one place."
Wie has endorsement deals worth an estimated $10 million a year, and as long as she can keep contending in major championships -- and perhaps even make the cut in men's events -- she is on course to become one of the most highly compensated female athletes in history.
She said last week that she will apply for early admission to Stanford this fall. She also has a larger goal in mind.
"I want to use my good golf to make a better world, to have a positive influence on other people's lives," she said. "Using my golf, using my sponsors to help me donate money and to help people less fortunate than me, that's what motivates me. How I might influence other people's lives, how I might make an impact on the world. It's pretty cool to think that I have the opportunity to do that."
Women Pooh-Pooh Playoff
Both Hurst and Sorenstam would have preferred that the U.S. Women's Open had not been decided by an 18-hole playoff after both were tied after 72 holes at even-par 284. Sorenstam won by four shots, posting 70 to Hurst's 74.
"The competitive juices weren't flowing as much as they were [Sunday], even though we did play 36 holes," Hurst said. "To play a three-hole or six-hole sudden-death type of deal would have been better."
Said Sorenstam: "I think a three-hole playoff would have been better, especially when all the excitement and all the adrenaline was there [Sunday] night with all the people. You work so hard and then we leave Sunday and we still don't know who won. You would think you could determine a champion with 75 holes."
Quigley Sneaks In to British Open
Brett Quigley, one of the hottest players on the PGA Tour over the last two months, was disappointed when the British Open qualifier scheduled last week at Congressional was rained out. Officials of the Royal & Ancient, which runs the tournament, initially said they would give the top 12 players in the world rankings from the Congressional qualifier entry list a spot in the British Open at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake July 20-23.
Quigley, who finished tied for sixth at the Booz Allen Classic, was 13th on that Congressional list and the odd man out. But there was a second list, as well.
The R&A was prepared to give two spots based on money earned in four tournaments -- the Barclays Classic, Booz Allen, the Buick Championship and the Western Open. But Quigley was third on that list and missed the Buick because he was told to rest his sore knee. He would have needed a big finish this week at the Western Open to qualify for the British.
But last Thursday, Quigley got a call from the PGA Tour telling him he was in the field. It seems the R&A decided to go with the top 13 in the world rankings from the Congressional list, and Quigley got into the tournament.
"I feel very lucky," he told the Boston Globe. "I think 13 is my lucky number."
Locals in U.S. Senior Open
In addition to former University of Maryland golf coach Fred Funk making his Champions Tour debut this week in the U.S. Senior Open at Prairie Dunes in Kansas, three members of Congressional Country Club -- all of them amateurs -- will be in the field.
Ben Brundred Jr., the son of the longtime Kemper Open tournament director, qualified for the event, along with Washington attorney Jack Vardaman, who made it to the semifinals of last year's U.S. Senior Amateur at age 65, and Pat Tallent, the former George Washington University basketball star.
