Four Fairways for Wie

The inclement weather didn’t come soon enough for Michelle Wie in today’s first round of the US Women’s Open. While continuing to hit an average drive of 250 yards, only four of them found the fairways for Wie, leaving her out on the edges and fighting her way back to the middle. Wie wasn’t the only golfer struggling today at Pine Needles, Karrie Webb finished the day with a surprising round of 83, just one from the bottom of today's leaderboard.

The wayward weather did limit the young newcomer, Alexis Thompson, to a short round of nine holes, but at last check she was holding her own at +3 and hit 7 of 7 fairways on her drives. Pretty impressive first showing for the 12 year old athlete, don’t you think?

Tomorrow there is more in store as the USGA starts things off at 7:30 a.m. trying to make up for lost time today. One by one the players will head up to the tee box, either praying for the skies to stay clear or hoping for another lightning storm. Either way, the electricity is high in Southern Pines this late June weekend as the US Women’s Open heads for day two.

Williamson Could Help Wie

If anyone deserves a mulligan, it’s Jay Williamson. His performance this past weekend at the Travelers Championship was exceptional and a schooling on professionalism. Can you imagine what goes through his head while he’s setting

up for his tee shots? My voices just say things like, “Don’t hit it right, don’t even think about that fabulous old white oak over there…you’re going to hit it that way, aren’t you…don’t do it, aim left….”

He had to endure thoughts like, “Don’t hit it right, you’ll never get your card back, everyone’s watching, do you hear them?” But somehow, with all that pressure, he played some great golf and we all hoped he’d get his card back, didn’t we?

Michelle Wie could take some lessons from Jay Williamson. In fact, maybe she needs to hire him while he’s temporarily available. He could mentor her on the finer points of being competitive and gutting it out to win the respect of her fellow players, fans and commentators. She’s shown us that she can play golf, but she hasn’t earned that place in my heart that makes me want to pull for her like Jay Williamson. I think she would have been better served to finish the Ginn, lose her ability to play in the LPGA events, and gut it back like Williamson.