Sunday, June 26, 2005
Age Before Beauty?
Like most people, I pay next to no attention to women's golf. Hell, I pay no attention to men's golf either, except when Tiger's winning a tournament. That said, I did actually watch half an hour of women's golf on Saturday, and might watch a bit more on Sunday. Why? Because of Michelle Wie, the female Tiger, of course. She's tied for the lead in the US Women's Open with one day to go, and it's interesting because she's all of 15 years old. Adding to the fun, the top female US amateur, Morgan Pressel, is just one stroke back, and she's 17, blonde, and played Saturday in a pink mini-skirt. (This necessitated some careful camera work by the network, since every time she squatted down to eye a putt they had to cut to a camera that was not in front of her, or else focus it high so they wouldn't broadcast a worldwide upskirt.)
We're all used to championship tennis players and gymnasts and track and field and swimming stars, women especially, being in their teens. Even their mid-teens. But golf? That sport is supposed to be all about precision, control, and experience. It's not a young man's or young woman's sport, since it's not a sport where you need to be especially strong, or tall, or fast. In fact, most of the top men's golfers are pudgy white guys in their 30s or 40s, which is part of the reason Tiger made such a splash when he won several tournaments at a very young age.
Michelle Wie is similar to him in that she's big and strong and tall, and hits it farther than anyone else. In fact, during the last few holes of Saturday's TV coverage, the announcers were slobbering over her potential and basicaly saying that she might end up competing on the men's tour, even winning there due to her inredible physical gifts and golf skill. The fact that she's moving from cute kid to beautiful woman certainly doesn't hurt her media attention, though there's no point in getting too excited since the fact that she'll almost certainly be earning about $10m a year by the time she turns 18 substantially cuts into the chances of her ever needing the money and career boost an appearance in Playboy, or the publication of a sexy calendar would bring. And no, you can't think about that yet, not while she's still complete jail bait.
Speaking of interesting photos, while looking at Devilfinder's offerings on Wie, I saw this huge one (5meg!) that contains roughly infintely more information than this entire post. It's from the Daily Press, which appears to be a local paper in Virginia, and it's got info about Wie, a short bio, a list of other young sports phenomens and how they're doing, her upcoming schedule, a detailed comparison of Wie vs. Tiger, and more. All on a poster-sized image. And for good measure, here's a scan of an article on her from a 2003 issue of Business Week.
Archives
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2012
