I'm reluctant to link the Matthew DeBord-authored Huffington Post piece that reader Rick sent, but it's so uninformed and off base that I just can't resist. The topic? The media and white men running the game of golf are to blame for Michelle Wie's 2006-2008 doldrums. (Yes, it's a timely piece, too!)

Why would golf do this to its most bankable star since Tiger Woods? Simple: She's a woman in a sport full of men who never stop being threatened. The golf establishment, especially in the United States, is full of venal, haunted little men--players, executives, sportswriters, broadcasters--who pledge allegiance to the spirit and dignity of an ancient Scottish game, but who in truth want to dismiss anything that disrupts their once-comfortable lock on the sport.

If only the golf establishment was an interesting as he suggests.

That said, we know the situation is quite the opposite in two ways. First, that the establishment was most definitely hoping (and continues to pray) she succeeds so they can profit off her success. And two, her parents have received the harsh treatment for career mismanagement and oddball things like wanting to live in her dorm and hanging with her on campus.

It's been forgotten now, but Tiger was assailed when he first arrived.

That's right, he was a tad rough around the edges and his dad made some ludicrous suggestions that, well, turned out to be about right.

Some called his epic 1997 Masters win a fluke.

Riiiiiggggghhhhhtttt!

Others suggested that he had been given unfair advantages by being allowed to skip the PGA Tour's qualifying school.

Maybe in a barber shop in Indonesia? Because after all he skipped Q-school because he made enough money to earn his card.

But over the ensuing years, through sheer brilliance, Woods wore down his critics. By the time he won the 2008 U.S. Open, limping through a Monday playoff on what was effectively a broken leg, all naysaying had been vanquished.

Yep, not until Torrey Pines in '08 had the naysayers been vanquished!

Arianna, this is embarrassing. Wait, there's more?

Michelle Wie had the potential to be bigger than the game and to provide women's golf with the worldwide explosion in popularity that it needs.

And last I heard, no one doubts that is still possible. I guess except DeBord?

But the best possible time for that to happen was two or three years ago, before she was buried under an avalanche of negativity and slumped. She's back now, and she seems like a more mature person and more complete player. But opportunity lost is still opportunity lost. And if women's golf continues to falter, golf will only have itself and its ridiculous, petty culture to blame. Wie was, and to a degree, still is the future. Her ascent was Tiger Woods crossed with the Williams sisters. Her decline was troubling. Her comeback is critical.

Well we agree that her "comeback" from brilliant talent is critical.