Woods’ 2009 season could benefit LPGA Tour

2009 has been a strange year for Tiger Woods and one he will surely want to forget in a hurry. But the problems surrounding the world number one could prove beneficial for the LPGA.

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Could Michelle Wie Save the LPGA?

Recently the LPGA released their 2010 Tour schedule and it is clear that the women’s circuit has been something of a victim in the wake of the global financial meltdown. The main proof is in the fact that since 2007 the number of tournament staged on the LPGA has dropped by almost one quarter from 31 tournaments to just 24.

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Wie withdraws as Ochoa takes the lead in LPGA Tour Championship

Michelle Wie’s quest for back-to-back LPGA victories is over after the 20-year old was forced to withdraw from the season-ending LPGA Tour Championship with an ankle injury.

Wie, who had injured the ankle during her Solheim Cup heroics, shot a second round 72 but aggravated the injury during her round. She had reached 3-under par through 12 holes but on the 13th tee felt her ankle give way, causing her to slice her shot into the rough as she stumbled backward before eventually finishing with a bogey.

She bent over in apparent pain on the 14th hole, before a second slip on the seventeenth tee at the Houstonian Golf and Country Club.

After coming off the course, Wie headed straight to the treatment tent and withdrew from the tournament an hour later; preferring to look after the injury rather than risk doing any additional damage.

Lorena Ochoa, whose tournament Wie won last weekend, holds a one-shot lead over Reilley Rankin in the tournament where she is bidding to overhaul South Korea’s Jiyai Shin, who leads the Mexican world number one 156-148 in the race to become the tour’s player of the year. To earn that accolade, Ochoa must win the tournament or finish no worse than third and also hope Shin places out of the top 10.

The pair are also locked together for the Vare Trophy, which is presented to the player with the season’s lowest scoring average.

But for Wie, her season is over.

“I wanted to do everything I could do to fight through the injury,” Wie said in a statement. “It bothered me last week in Mexico, but I was able to play through the pain. I realized today that I wouldn’t be able to continue to play through it.”

Wie Wins in Mexico to announce her arrival on the big stage

She may have been in the public eye for quite some time since first coming to prominence in women’s golf at the tender age of just 10 years old, but Sunday saw Michelle Wie finally come of age.

Following on from a strong Solheim Cup showing where she was arguably the United States’ top performer in the biennial US v Europe ladies’ competition, and a string of top ten finishes throughout the season Wie finally got her hands on the top prize when, on Sunday, she held off a strong challenge to claim her first LPGA Tour win to capture the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara.

Wie carded a final round of 69 – 3 under par – to record a two-stroke victory over Paula Creamer, with Morgan Pressel, Jiyai Shin and Cristie Kerr a further three shots back. Wie even had the temerity to seal her win with a shot out of the Tiger Woods’ repertoire when punching a greenshide bunker shot to within six inches of the hole for a tap-in birdie.

Starting the day level on ten-under-par with Cristie Kerr, the nerves understandably showed during Wie’s final round but she coped with them well and steadied into her round as her rivals began to falter. In the past, it has often been Wie who has buckled under the strain of being in the uppermost part of the leaderboard but that was not the case on Sunday.

It appeared that the final day could be another opportunity missed as chances went begging which could have seen the young Hawaiian home, but she still reached the turn in two-under par to keep on level pegging with both Kerr and Creamer before a birdie at the eleventh edged her ahead. Wie quickly gave that stroke back, however, after a tree trunk caused her recovery from trees to be diverted back up the fairway towards the tee.

Wie then made par through seventeen before her touch of magic sealed the win. Creamer had drawn level with Wie with an eagle on the tenth, but two bogeys down the stretch ruined her chances of victory while Kerr couldn’t find the birdies needed to challenge and could only record a level-par 72.

As the final putt went in, the 20-year old Wie raised both her arms in the air and then put her left hand over her mouth in a ‘what have I done?’ gesture, before realisation dawned. After retrieving her ball from the hole she looked skywards and let out a huge sigh of relief – it’s been a long time coming.

Michelle Wie has finally made her entrance on the main stage and can only go on from here. But will she go on to dominate the LPGA in years to come in much the same way Tiger Woods has done? Only time will tell, but with her maiden victory putting the seal on a memorable rookie season for Wie, there’s little to stop her when she is on top of her game.

Wie puts studies first

Michelle Wie has put her schooling ahead of her golf career after informing organisers of the LGPA Challenge tournament that she will be unable to take part.

The tournament, which takes place between September 24th-27th at Blackhawk Country Club conflicts with the beginning of Wie’s autumn quarter classes at Stanford University. The scheduling conflict means that Wie has yet to play in a tournament in North Carolina.

Wie is in her first full season on the LPGA and although has yet to win on the Tour, she has earned just under $600,000 and carded six top-ten finishes in her sixteen events to date.

Players have until September 18th to confirm their participation in the Blackhawk event and despite the absence of Wie there is still an expected strong field for the lineup with Wie’s fellow Solheim Cup team-mates Paula Creamer and Natalie Gulbis in attendance along with current world ladies’ number one, Lorena Ochoa.

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