The kid needs braces. The car won't start. The boss is looking for you.

Men, think you have problems?

Well, your day could be worse. After all, you could be Marvin Willis "Will" Claxton III.

Claxton is the 23-year-old opponent of Michelle Wie in today's opening round of U.S. Amateur Public Links match play, a position for which few are offering to swap places.

What Claxton did to anger the golf gods of late isn't known, but they have surely gotten even with him by virtue of this draw. For there might be no more unenviable position in the sport this week, flailing away at forehead level from a bunker at St. Andrews included.

We're told Claxton was a quarterfinalist in the APL last year but really that is about as relevant to what he steps into today as jumping directly from kindergarten to college. Surely nothing in his five seasons of golf at Auburn prepared him for this. Playing in the Hootie at Bulls Bay (S.C.) tournament was never like this.

Not when galleries that could be larger than his hometown, Swainsboro, Ga., (population: 7,100) start examining his every move. And most of them have an empathy for, if not rooting interest in, his opponent, the first female to qualify for the event.

Kevin Hayashi and other men who have played with Wie in the Sony Open in Hawai'i and last week's John Deere Classic had it easy by comparison — they weren't going head-to-head in elimination with her. And, you saw the toll it exacted on them.

"I'm just going to try and treat her like any other player and things will take care of themselves," Claxton told the media, which, if he really believes that, should give you an idea of just how far in over his head he could be.

For this day, at least, Claxton is in a no-win position even if he manages to capture their 18-hole duel. Should he prevail, he is the guy who beat the 15-year-old girl. There will be no roaring high-fives for that, even if she is the talk of the field this week.

But heaven help Claxton if he doesn't win. For one thing the next couple of guys who might have to play her will never forgive him. And, that's the least of it.

Among the Wie-haters — and some spectator was said to have worn a "Michelle Who?" T-shirt yesterday — Claxton is their put-her-in-her-place hope. He is the one who can end the Wie boom in Lebanon, Ohio, before it really gets rolling. He can return the event to the all-male preserve it has heretofore been.

To hear 48-year-old Danny Green whine, that's been no small bone of contention.

"I don't think she should be here," said Green, who tied for second in medal play and has played in more than 40 U.S. Amateur events. "I think she should play in the women's tournaments because they don't let men play in women's tournaments. I just don't agree with that, but it's not my call. She qualified and she is going by the rules. She's here and she is a great player. I've got nothing against that."

In this you've got to think Hootie Johnson and some of the boys in Augusta, Ga., are watching with more than casual interest since the winner of the APL traditionally has been invited to play in The Masters the next year.

Wie said: "I don't really care what they think because I actually qualified for this event. So, I feel I belong here. I'm not looking for 100 percent support. I know there are going to be people against me. I'm not going to stop just for them."

Swell, Claxton might be thinking, just what he needed, a talented and now defiant 15-year-old looking to ground him into history.