Just Wondering...

...is it a coincidence that Michelle Wie is playing so well and exuding incredible confidence, composure, passion and determination the week her parents are kept just a Wie bit more distant than normal?

Steve DiMeglio has been tracking Wie's play at the Solheim Cup, first in noting before play that the team atmosphere has her bonding with teammates.

This week she's found comfort in bonding.

"I'm kind of like a hermit. I play golf and go back to my room," said Wie, one of two captain's picks. "But here I get to spend a lot of time with the girls, and they've gotten to know the real me. Hopefully, they like it."

They do. Her teammates have opened up about Wie opening up. That includes Morgan Pressel, who was one of the more vocal critics of Wie receiving exemptions in the past. This year, however, the two have become close friends, with Pressel, a robust tweeter, often posting photos of the two together on her Twitter page.

After her day one, morning best ball win with Christina Kim, DiMeglio shares these comments:

"I think this is the most fun I've ever had playing golf,"

"I was just so pumped up. I'm still pumped up. I'm still shaking from the round, it was just so much fun."

Despite this dready design and slow play, the combination of player passion, great galleries, gamesmanship, decent Golf Channel coverage and the underdogs excelling has made for very entertaining viewing. But it's especially fun seeing Wie blossom before our eyes.

Comments

[Vince Spence]

I agree TGC is doing a decent job. I just caught an announcer saying it is illegal to practice putts when a hole is finished in stroke play, but I guess he just doesn't know the rules.

Geoff, what was your opinion on overall TV coverage of the PGA? Announcing, camera work. commentary, etc...??

[mark]

agree it is fun watching Wie become a real player and not just a side show. From what I have watched thus far, she seems to be the most clutch player on the American side hitting shots and making putts when called upon.

[thusgone]

this experience will be invaluable for when wie plays in the ryder cup.

[Tiger's A Hater]

The golf may not be as good as the men, but it is so refreshing to see all of the spirit these girls play with, Michele included. The men are a bunch of robots and, of course, not nearly as hot.

[Geoff]

Vince,
Go back and check out my posts about the PGA...I was not kind. It's so nice watching the Solheim Cup simply for the lack of relentless commercial breaks and plugs for CBS shows.

Tiger Hater,
I agree the women are much more spirited, but Tiger can get pretty passionate out there too! The reaction at Torrey on 18 still gives me goose bumps. Of course it helps that I was standing there!

[Steven T.]

Can Wie do it in a real tournament?

[Sir Shanksalot]

Geoff:

"Despite this dready design"

What kind of courses do you like? It seems you're slamming courses all the time, when this course in question look like they're perfectly fun to play.

Of course I'm just a lowly muni golf player.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

Sir Shanksalot: See the previous post. As a fellow Muni player until I moved to a place with less Municipal Golf than the moon, how many public golf courses have such precious attributes as trees in the middle of fairways...Don't remember which hole it was but it from the air it looked like the tee shot required a slice-hook to get past the tree at the dogleg (unless you are J.B. Holmes). Or were built with carts in mind due to half-mile journeys between greens and tees. RHF is green and pretty, but that doesn't make a good golf course. It would seem that out there on the edge of the prairie it would be possible to build a golf course that was hard, fast, strategic, a test of the best and the not-so-good, and fun to play. But that's just me, I suppose.

[Robert]

Don't overlook her Curtis Cup and other matchplay experience. She has some great memories to draw on.

[CBell]

Tiger's a Hater - I don't think it's fair to compare women in the Solheim Cup vs. guys in regular tour events. In the Ryder Cup, the guys often get as animated as the women - for better and worse. I still think Boo Weekley's Happy Gilmore thing was embarrassing, but that's just me.

[OWGR Fan]

Sort of off the subject but did Rich Harvest Farms get rid of the artificial turf that is in use on one of the tee boxes?