i wonder if the manager at nike who ok'd the deal with the wie family still has a job. seriously, nike must be still making cash on the deal, or we wouldn't still be talking.

Something is seriously wrong in the Wie camp - and by the way, what's the deal with going to Stanford? Aren't professional golfers banned from playing in College tournaments? If they do have a long-term plan for poor, confused Michelle, it would be interesting to see... anyone heard from Stefano Capriati lately?

I figure Michele will be out of golf with-in two years, maybe less. I've always felt that.

That Butch Harmon is just a wonderful advisor. I love that idea of inviting Michelle to a member/guest so she can get used to winning. I hereby invite her to my big annual member/guest tournament at my club as my partner.

Hopefully, my club has become a bit more enlightened about this kind of thing than they used to be. About ten years ago I tried to invite the current ladies USGA Mid-Amateur champion and many times Curtis Cupper to this annual member/guest and the cavemen on the committee actually turned me down. Can you believe that??

The fact that there was no actual rule that the tournament was only for men wasn't even the thing that pissed me off about them turning me down. For about 75 years they'd obviously just been assuming that a member couldn't invite a female guest.

Frankly, even though they knew we would've won, that wasn't the thing that disturbed them, in my opinion. It was that I told them that she would outdrive about 98% of them from the championship tees which she would have done. I saw her do that kind of thing on more than one occassion.

So, who do I get in touch with to invite Michelle as my AJDP member/guest partner---would it be Michelle herself or BJ?

TEPaul: Contact the William Morris Agency in Los Angeles. Your club won't have any problem with paying the appearance fee of $450,000 plus expenses, right? Is your member-guest now a pro-am?

As for Stanford, she won't be playing any college golf there, obviously. Which is too bad. A year and a half ago, she was creating a genuine, honest-to-gosh story in golf by moving through the match play rounds of the USGA APL, beating guys who were the senior captains of their college golf teams.

I agree that this spectacle is not good for golf, and particularly bad if we initiate a whole new era of teenage burnouts contrived on the Team Wie model.

can anyone say Ty Tryon?

I blame Wie's parents but not for the reason that most criticize them. I blame them for not being discplinarians, and letting her decide where she wants to play instead of protecting her from "too much too soon"

If Michelle needs to learn how to win my advice to her would be to join a golf club and then try to win the ladies club championship. I think that could give her the necessary confidence to go back out and have a pretty good shot at winning the Men's US Open. But if she fails to win her ladies club championship I'd advise her to give up golf and go out for the Stanford ladies freshman basketball team. She certainly is tall enough and having seen her play golf in person I'd say it looks like she might have a pretty good jump shot.