Michelle Wie has heard the criticism of her decision to play in the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open this week instead of attempting to qualify for the Women’s British Open.
Like most teenagers, the 18-year-old just wants to have a good time. She isn’t worried about what Annika Sorenstam and other top US LPGA players think of her decision, either.
“There are going to be criticisms entering this tournament, but at the same time I’m just doing what I feel like I want to do and it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Wie said.
Sorenstam said at the Women’s British Open this week that if Wie can’t qualify for a women’s major, she has no business playing with the men.
David Leadbetter, who has worked with Wie for years, blamed her family for making bad choices and said she has more to lose than gain by playing at Reno this week.
David Duval, who has shown signs of regaining some of the form that won him the 2001 British Open, said Wie’s playing on the US PGA Tour “has never bothered me in the least.”
“The novelty of it seemingly is wearing off a little bit, but you know, more power to her if she wants to try it,” Duval said on Wednesday. “I don’t know if the PGA Tour is exactly the place to gain confidence. You can get your head beat in pretty easy out here.”
But Wie said she doesn’t care that some are critical of her decision to accept a special exemption to play at the event while the top 50 men are playing at the World Golf Championships in Ohio.
Ben Crane is the highest ranked player in the Reno field at 87th.
This will be Wie’s eighth time on the US PGA Tour. She has missed each cut and has only made money playing against men on the Korean Tour at the 2006 SK Telcom Open.
“All I’m thinking about is trying to play some good golf. How can I limit the number of bogeys I make? How can I maximize the number of birdies I can make out of this golf course and that’s all I can focus on. I can’t focus on the rest of the field,” she said.
“People are going to write hateful stuff about me and that’s fine with me ... Good rounds and low scores can solve everything,” she said.
Tournament director Michael Stearns said Wie and her family turned down several invitations to play the tournament before finally accepting last month.
“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion,” he said. “I happen to believe she’s a great player. Who’s on the list here who won a US Publinks at age 13?”
Scott McCarron, a player based at the club, thinks the Montreux Golf & Country Club’s 7,472-yard course through towering pines and mountain streams fits Wie’s game.
“You have to hit it high and far. I’ve watched her and she certainly does both of those,” said McCarron, who welcomed her to Reno. “I think it’s great. It’s creating a bit of a buzz for the tournament.”
Wie admitted to reporters that she still gets butterflies before US PGA events, but is excited about the opportunity.
“It’s almost like right before you go on a roller coaster — like kind of half scared, half really excited, knowing everything is going to be all right,” Wie said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier