Dear Michelle,
May I introduce myself? I am an admirer of yours, one who thinks that what you are doing in golf is terrific. If I say you strike the ball like a man and the trajectory of many of your shots is like a male professional’s, I mean it to be complimentary.
I hope that your presence competing against the men in the Omega European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland, starting on Thursday, will generate the desired publicity and I hope that you reach the last two rounds of the event, as you did in the SK Telecom Open on the Asian Tour in May.
Most of all, though, I hope you will not infringe any rules this week, as you have done twice in the past ten months. The first came at a tournament in Palm Springs last October when you did not position your ball in the correct place after taking a drop under penalty from a bush and were disqualified. The second was in the Weetabix Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes last month when you hit a piece of moss on your backswing in a bunker and were penalised two strokes.
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The day after that tournament ended, you dismissed Greg Johnston, your caddie. That is your right, even if he had been working for you only since last October, during which time you finished in the top five in seven out of eight US LPGA events.
I am more concerned about the fact that you do not know the rules of golf, that you did not know you cannot hit a leaf or dislodge any sand on the backswing when playing from a bunker. You are an icon in the game already, at 16, which brings responsibilities. Because of who you are, everything you do has to be right - and that means you don’t make basic errors about something as simple as rule 13-4.
You may think that this is a harsh observation, but when I was the same age as you are and playing junior golf, I knew what was what. Most of my golf was played with my contemporaries, but I played with my father and his group in friendlies and sometimes in club matches.
Playing with men three times my age was a crash course in golf manners and rules. For example, Jack Watson taught me to watch my ball and mark where it had landed in relation to a bush, say, or a tree, just as he taught me that a two-ball should take no longer than two and a half hours and that I should be ready to play my shot when it was my turn. If “Bosh” Fryer or Jack Smith had seen me hit the sand or move a leaf on my backswing in a bunker without saying anything they would have told me off in no uncertain terms. They were a hard school, but I have been grateful for their tuition ever since.
What you did in the second round at Lytham last month raises suspicions in people’s minds, however unfair that might be. One day later, a reader e-mailed me as follows: “The fact that she knew about the infringement and yet your report infers that her fellow competitor marking her card did not know until they came off the 18th so it looks like a blatant attempt by Wie to get away without incurring the penalty.”
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The reader is implying you cheated and that is neither nice nor accurate. But it is the sort of thing that is said when someone in the public eye makes a mistake.
The reader carried on: “When we were 16, (a) we knew the rule and (b) we weren’t trying to take bread off someone else’s table by trying to conceal the fact that we were in breach. What would have happened if the microscope of TV had not been watching? Would Wie have signed for a 72 and broken into a broad grin once in the privacy of her hotel room? Some awkward questions remain unanswered. It would be a great pity if a huge talent is tarnished. Golf is one of the few sports in which competitors are required to call penalties on themselves. If she knew she had touched the sand and wasn’t sure about the rule, the very least she should have done is informed her playing partners and/or the tournament referee to seek a ruling.”
Not fun hearing these sort of things said about you, Michelle, is it?
But there is an easy way of making sure this does not happen again. Learn the rules. Get a copy of the R&A and USGA-approved booklet, Rules of Golf. Although it is 192 pages long , it is the size of a wallet and easy enough to carry around. Work with a rules expert, too, and let us hope that your new caddie is strong in this area of the game. You can’t afford another mistake. Two in ten months is too many for you and too many for golf.