Tough loss, but Michelle Wie will win soon

How ironic that Michelle Wie left college life at Stanford to play in her first LPGA event as a rookie, only to find herself tied and paired with Angela Stanford on the final day. But this Stanford had a class for Wie as well, and it was called "How to Close Out a Tournament." Wie is just a couple of credits short of graduation.

Going into the final round at the SBS Open at Turtle Bay, Wie carried herself like a winner, leading by 3 strokes at the turn. But, oh my, how things can turn around faster than a 50-mile-per-hour gust of wind. For 45 holes of the 54-hole event, the typical Hawaiian trade winds were blowing in Wie's favor. Then her tee shot found the hazard on No. 11, beginning a chain of events between Wie and Stanford that all the winds in Hawaii couldn't change.

Stanford and Wie simply changed places on the last nine after a two-shot swing on 11 in Stanford's favor. After taking a drop from the lateral hazard, Wie hit her third shot just over the 11th green. Her next shot, a short chip, ended up short and nowhere near the hole. A fabulous two-putt saved double bogey. It's easy to say "what if," but Wie lost the possibility of an up-and-down to save a shot after what looked like a rushed effort to hit that chip shot.

Hole 13 is where Stanford taught Wie a lesson in experience. Taking deliberate time with each shot, managing the wind and hitting irons with precision, Stanford birdied three holes in a row, propelling her lead to two shots. Then, Wie struck back on 16, sticking her second shot within 3 1/2 feet of the hole, only to miss the birdie putt. Another shot gone with the wind that would have put Wie only one back. After a drive into a fairway bunker on 17, Michelle made her last bogey of the day, and finished with a par on 18.

Before hitting her second shot on 18, the camera zoomed in on Wie and her caddie having a laugh about something. It was nice to see her giggle. It was good to see her comfortable and happy. It was great to see her in contention to win. After she signed her card and posted the second-place finish, Wie admitted her disappointment but said she will take a lot of positives from this experience.

And there were many positives, with only a couple of hiccups. Wie will win, sooner rather than later. After all, she really didn't lose this one; Stanford just came on strong and blew right by Wie.

(Robert Beck/SI)

Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Carol Preisinger is director of instruction at the Kiawah Island Golf Club. To learn more about Carol, visit carolpreisinger.com .

The LPGA is right about English rule

As an LPGA member and former touring professional, I’m closely following the controversy over the Tour’s English-proficiency requirement, which will be enforced at the end of the 2009 season. I played many events in Asian countries, and I can certainly appreciate the language barrier. Often I was paired with young players or caddies who did not speak a word of English except “good shot!” But we Americans are spoiled because in most foreign countries people realize the importance of knowing some English. Asian tour officials, hotel staff and others connected with my travels all spoke conversational English. While it may seem strict and discriminating on the surface, the LPGA policy is actually a great idea for the Tour and its international players. Here’s why:

1. It’s a free education! The LPGA is fully committed to offer resources and tutoring to help foreign players become more proficient in English. Who wouldn’t take advantage of this opportunity? By no means is the LPGA putting the burden exclusively on the player and asking them to be fluent in less than two years. In a letter to LPGA members posted Tuesday, commissioner Carolyn Bivens says, “New members do not need to immediately possess the English-language skills in order to earn their way onto the LPGA; nor are they expected to gain the skills on their own. Instead, the LPGA provides and will continue to provide on-line learning along with tutors and translators over the course of two years in an effort to help them gain the functional communication ability needed to succeed on a U.S.-based tour.”

2. The LPGA Tour does not make sufficient revenues through ticket sales and advertising like many other professional sports. This means the players assume the responsibility for creating and maintaining relationships with corporate sponsors and their customers. These relationships formed in pro-ams and charity events benefit both the player (through endorsement contracts) and the Tour. Corporate involvement equals more events to play and potentially more money to win. In addition, the LPGA needs every bit of visibility it can get. This is not Major League Baseball or the NFL, with their billion-dollar TV contracts and sponsorships. LPGA players need to be able to give interviews, make acceptance speeches and directly interact with fans and volunteers. Seon Hwa Lee, the only Asian player with multiple victories this year, works with an English tutor in the winter. She told Golfweek, which first reported the new policy, her English is improving. "The economy is bad, and we are losing sponsors," Lee said. "Everybody understands."

3. Foreign players may actually perform better as a result of learning English. Consider this story: After playing the third round in the 2006 Florida's Natural Charity Championship in Stockbridge, Ga., South Korean rookie Kyeong Bae and her father drove 400 miles to her home in Florida. When she got home, she logged on the Internet to learn how much money she had earned. To her surprise, she realized the event was NOT YET FINISHED! (She did not realize it was a 72-hole event.) Barely able to speak or read English at the time, Bae had misread tournament information given to the players and thought it was a 54-hole tournament. So she and her father got in the car and drove the 400 miles back to Georgia. Tired after the overnight trip, Bae nonetheless shot a 68 in the final round to finish in a tie for 13th place and win $21,500.

With the LPGA Tour becoming truly international, the English-proficiency policy is a necessary step in preserving the integrity and growth of the Tour. Fans and sponsors in the United States will benefit as will the players themselves.

It's not too late for Michelle

Michelle Wie is playing this week's PGA Tour event in Reno.  A few years ago, this would have caused great excitement among the media and the fans. As this young phenom teed it up with the men, there would have been intense speculation about her ability to make the cut.  But now, many folks in the golfing world are shaking their heads and saying, "Not again."

It's really sad to see a young woman with so much talent undergo so much criticism. She's been under more scrutiny in her short career than most players endure in a 25-year career.

In just a few years, we have seen her struggle with her game, get disqualified for an improper drop, withdraw from a tournament due to heat exhaustion and have her integrity questioned by the No. 1 female player when Wie was on the verge of not breaking 90. Countless experts have criticized her parents as over-controlling. Most recently, she was disqualified for failing to sign her scorecard when she was in position to win the State Farm Classic.

To be fair on the last issue, LPGA officials should have caught the error in the first place.  In all the years I participated in tournaments the officials never let me leave the table without two signatures, so why did it take them a day to find her mistake?  Sometimes you can't help but wonder if she's snakebitten.

Personally, I would have liked to have seen Wie come up through the amateur ranks and learn how to compete and beat her peers.  When you learn how to win, the spoils will come.  But she jumped right from the wading pool into the deep end.    By turning professional, she never experienced that training ground, and now she can only play in a handful of LPGA events on sponsors' exemptions.  Even when she has played, she has not been very competitive.

So playing with the men on the PGA Tour is one of her only options.  Do I think she should play? No, but I don't blame her. Where else is she going to play?

It's hard to say how she'll perform in Reno, but her presence means someone else is missing out. In a second-tier tour event like the Reno-Tahoe Open, a guy on the bubble could get a spot in the field and have a great week. She's taking that opportunity away from him.  But the tournament organizers aren't concerned about that. It's all about selling tickets, and people will come out to watch Wie.

Do I think it's too late to turn her career around? No, she has the talent. She needs to go to Q-School, get her card, play on the LPGA Tour, and learn how to compete and win. Then she can take her crack at the men. As Smith Barney would say, she has to do it the old-fashioned way. She has to earn it.

(Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

A Caddie's Notes: Kim is rising star and Wie's wrist looks strong

I was fortunate enough to spend last week inside the ropes at the U.S. Women's Open at Interlachen Country Club in Minnesota. I had double duty, both coaching and caddying, and let me tell you, caddying at a U.S. Open is definitely so much more demanding than any other event I’ve been around. Virtually every hole at Interlachen has a false front and is sloped from back to front (except No. 4). You are always giving yardages to safe landing areas, rather than just to the pin.

I caddied and worked with Kimberly Kim, and we made the best of a tough week. There were personal distractions going on that were outside of everyone’s control, which made it almost impossible for Kim to play her normal game. However, I just want to say that this 16-year-old girl is mature beyond her years and has so much game, that even when her mind is elsewhere, it is still obvious that she can be one of the elite players in the game. Actually if she had a better caddie (I wasn’t as good as I should have been) who could have directed her better on holes 3, 9 and 17, we would have been in contention going into the weekend. I am not making any excuses, but rather complimenting Kim on how well she did with a poor caddie and numerous distractions.

We were paired with Michelle Wie on Thursday and Friday, and I'm pretty sure her wrist is very healthy. I can't speak for her, but she hit some phenomenal punch shots with her irons, hybrids and fairway woods. Those shots require a lot of strength and support from the hands, wrists and forearms, not to mention the jarring that comes from the trapping motion against the ground. She hit a ton of very good pitches showing great feel, and rolled the ball well while having to cope with a bunch of putts that looked like they should have gone in. The only thing I did notice was the angle of attack on her driver wasn't conducive to hitting a ton of fairways. (This may have just been a couple days of reverting to old habits.) Her downswing is very narrow and her body motion is not helping her catch the ball on a more level attack. She is catching her driver with too much of a downward attack resulting in a lot of blocked shots, and a spin rate that is too high. When that gets worked out, I think Michelle will be playing the type of golf she expects from herself, and the type that will be good for the LPGA Tour.

Speaking of the tour, I do have one point of contention. Stacy Lewis made $162,487 for her T3 finish last week. I believe that is enough money to earn her a tour card for 2009, but the LPGA is not counting money earned from the Open toward her place on the money list. I would really love to know the logic behind this. You are going to penalize a girl for finishing third in the biggest event of the year? Is the LPGA really intentionally trying to keep the best players off of their tour? I'm pretty certain that Stacy will still earn enough in the remaining events to earn her card, but if by chance, she doesn't, the LPGA should seriously re-evaluate their view and apologize for getting this one wrong.

Finally, to the people of Minnesota, thank you for the amazing hospitality. Everyone was extremely kind and supportive, which made for great crowds. Hopefully Minnesota stays on the top of the USGA’s list so that these great fans will continually be rewarded with seeing the best players on the planet, having an amazing time on an amazing golf course.

Lorena Ochoa's big swing flaw (and maybe yours too!)

As a loyal Minnesotan, I went to the U.S. Women’s Open at the Interlachen Country Club outside Minneapolis during the Tuesday practice rounds. You can't skip a major championship when it happens in your home state.  Plus, Interlachen is an important course in the game's history –- it’s where Bobby Jones finished the third leg of his Grand Slam in 1930.

It was a great tournament, the course was in pristine condition, and a great opportunity for me to see the swings of the top women golfers up close, and of course I took particular notice of the swing of the world's No. 1 women golfer, Lorena Ochoa.

There's no question that Ochoa is a great player and a solid ball-striker. The average golfer would do well to copy the fundamentals of her powerful swing with one major exception -- the position of her eyes and the angle of her head throughout the downswing and at impact.

When Ochoa begins the downswing she cocks her head and her eyes to the right. As a teacher, I have seen this move before in less accomplished golfers who are attempting to swing more from the inside on the downswing.  This move gives them some level of comfort, changing their perspective of the target line.   

While these players may succeed in swinging more "inside-out" there are some negative consequences:

1. The body is in balance only when the ears are level so when you cock your head, you lose balance.

2. When the head is cocked to the right the rear shoulder naturally drops and the front shoulder is elevated. The head is the heaviest part of the body, so when it is out of position it effects the balance and structure of the rest of the body.

3. In a target sport the eyes play a key role in where the propelled object is delivered. Ochoa’s eyes probably point 20 yards to the right of the target.

People who are very talented can do things that other people can't. In this regard, Lorena breaks all the rules – she’s a clear example of how sheer talent can overcome even the worst swing flaw. I can’t imagine anyone else doing what she does -- to be that much to the right and that far off balance -- and come through with the right structure and balance on her feet. She succeeds despite making these mistakes.

If you think you might have the same swing flaw -- a good indication is that your most common mis-hit is a weak flare to the right -- the brim of your cap can help you fix it. When you swing, try to keep the brim of your cap level with the horizon throughout the swing. If your brim stays level, that means your head stayed level.

But don't feel too bad if you have to work on this: you're obviously in excellent company!