AROUND THE GREENS
Wies get rude welcome into big-time pro golf

By Bill Kwon

Now is the right time for father BJ Wie to give up carrying the bag for daughter Michelle. Advertiser library photo • March 27, 2003

No more Mr. Nice Guys but a dog-eat-dog world.

"I was really surprised because I guess I've always played with really nice people," Michelle Wie said.

Welcome to the real world, Michelle.

The week of the U.S. Women's Open should have been a wondrous, feel-good experience for the 13-year-old phenom. She made the cut — her fourth in a row in an LPGA Tour event this year — to become the youngest player known to do so in the event, according to the United States Golf Association.

Instead of getting some slack as any young teen should, she got a lot of flak. With so many distractions, it's no wonder that Wie shot back-to-back 76s to finish in a tie for 39th place with a 72-hole score of 298.

Still not bad, considering the caliber of competition playing in the biggest women's golf championship and Wie's inability to sink putts inside four feet all week.

The week started badly enough when 16-year-old Paula Creamer, the No. 1 junior golfer in the nation, sniffed that she beat Wie twice in head-to-head competition, so what's the big deal?

Of course, Creamer said that before Wie went on to win the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links championship, the youngest player to do so and the youngest to win an adult USGA event. Creamer? Oh, she didn't even make it to the quarterfinals. Nor, by the way, did she make the U.S. Women's Open cut last week.

The reason why Wie isn't ranked as the No. 1 junior golfer is so simple that even 13-year-old Sydney Burlison knew the answer: "Because maybe Michelle hasn't played in many junior events."

However, Creamer's catty comment was nothing compared to the controversy that followed with Danielle Ammaccapane, who berated Wie for her lack of etiquette (she probably wanted to blame BJ more) in the scoring tent after the first round of play.

Ammaccapane might not have pushed Wie as her father first claimed (then later retracted). But she certainly got in Wie's face like a drill sergeant, and it was totally out of line, said David Fay, executive director of the USGA.

It must have been. A humiliated Wie said that she would never accept an apology from Ammaccapane.

NBC's Johnny Miller told a national audience, "She's 13 years old. Cut her some slack, Danielle."

Nancy Lopez, a class act and Hall of Fame champion, said she would have taken Wie aside and spoken to her "kindly."

Ammaccapane, a 16-year LPGA veteran, has had such a history of having a short fuse and saying insensitive things that she'd be a runaway recipient of a Vijay Singh Award for foot-in-the-mouth remarks. The LPGA's No. 1 bully also previously offended Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb and Se Ri Pak, saying that they weren't doing enough to promote women's golf.

Excuse me? If anything, with the exception of Annika, Michelle is doing more for golf — women or men — than anyone else at the moment.

Besides, Wie didn't get a free ride into the U.S. Women's Open. She qualified to play in it, as did all the other teen upstarts, who seem to be rankling the older players.

So, perhaps, it's a good thing that there's no longer an LPGA tournament in Hawai'i. Ammaccapane would be booed off the course.

Still, she might have done the "Wie Are Family" a big favor in the long run. Because of the flak, BJ turned the bag over to Gary Gilchrist, Michelle's swing coach, in the final round, and BJ said he wouldn't caddie for her in pro events.

"I fired myself," said BJ, who had been toting the bag for his precocious daughter all this time.

It's a perfect time to let go as a father. The upcoming U.S. Junior Girls Championship in Fairfield, Conn., where Wie is entered with fellow Hawai'i players Britney Choy, Lisa Kajiwara and Lindsay Hong, doesn't allow parents to caddie. It's possible the USGA might adopt the same rule in the U.S. Women's Open as well, especially now that so many young teenagers are good enough to make the event.

It's a good time for BJ to let go, too, now that Michelle will be playing high school golf and will have to carry her own bag.

The trouble with being a daddy/caddie is that sometimes you do more daddying than caddieing. It's only natural, especially because Michelle and BJ are so close.

Perhaps in his fatherly excitement, BJ suffered too many lapses in basic caddie etiquette. More than once, he stood too close behind his daughter's line of play. He failed to rake a bunker after one of her sand shots. He has made one too many fist-pumping gestures after a successful putt. (Please, modest fist-fives will do).

And he nearly cost Michelle a two-stroke penalty on the 17th green in the second round by not tending the flagstick when she was putting.

So it has been good learning experience for both father and daughter, now fully aware that it's a jungle out there, full of contentious Ammaccapanes, waiting for even the slightest breach of etiquette.

Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.