Father Springs to Wie’s Defense

Fast on the heels of Mark Hensby’s criticism of 15-year-old Michelle Wie’s parents for accepting a sponsor’s exemption into the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic in July, someone has sprung to her defense: Her father, B.J. Wie.

Instead of bashing Hensby, the defending champion, Wie took another tack.

“I sincerely respect Mr. Mark Hensby’s comments on me for allowing Michelle to play in the John Deere Classic,” Wie said.

But?

“I wish Mr. Hensby would perceive Michelle’s participation in a more positive way.”

Wie said the fact that his daughter is playing will help raise awareness of the tournament’s breast cancer program and that her appearance would attract more fans to the tournament and bring more media attention as well.

And that’s not all, Wie said.

“Michelle’s participation in the John Deere Classic also influenced the Royal & Ancient Golf Club to consider a possibility of having a female player in the 2005 British Open, which has been positively viewed around the world.”

The R&A; said recently that it would almost certainly give Wie an invitation to play at St. Andrews if she wins the John Deere.

Hensby, who said his criticism had nothing to do with gender, did not mention the sponsor’s exemption offered to Mark McGwire last year, one that McGwire turned down.

In the meantime, also lining up to support Michelle Wie is David Leadbetter, her swing coach.

Said Leadbetter: “She can compete at the highest level right now.”

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The Big Four expands to the Big Five at the Byron Nelson that begins today, where top-ranked Tiger Woods, No. 2 Vijay Singh, No. 3 Ernie Els, No. 4 Phil Mickelson and No. 5 Retief Goosen are all playing.

Though many have pushed for Goosen to be included in any discussion of the top players -- and he is the U.S. Open champion -- Goosen is the only one of the five without a victory this year.

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Further proof that there are three levels of television ratings for tournaments came Sunday at the Wachovia.

Here are the categories: tournaments without Tiger, tournaments with Tiger and tournaments with Tiger as a factor.

The Wachovia qualified on the last two counts, but Woods was 10 shots out of the Singh-Jim Furyk-Sergio Garcia playoff. The last-round overnight rating on CBS was a 3.7, which is the best in the three-year history of the tournament, but far behind Doral’s 5.5 (which Woods won) and, of course, the Masters’ 9.8 (which Woods also won).

Wachovia’s numbers -- and possibly those from this week’s Nelson tournament -- plus a generally flat or lower ratings trend the last year and a half, are another signal that PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and top aide Ed Moorhouse are going to have their hands full when negotiations begin soon about replacing the $850-million network television package.

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After a study of tax filings, Golf Digest’s list of the top-paid nonprofit executives in golf for 2003 had Finchem at No. 1 with a salary of $3.8 million -- which would have put him No. 8 on the tour’s money list for 2003. Eight of the top 10 executives on the list were from the PGA Tour.

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In 18 PGA Tour events so far, players who led in driving distance have placed in the top 10 only five times and none have won. Woods is the latest example, averaging 324.5 yards to lead the field at Wachovia, but finishing in a tie for 11th.

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If you’re going to play the European Tour, you need two things besides golf clubs: a travel agent and a lot of pages in your passport.

In the first place, the 2005 season actually started in November when the European Tour opened at the Volvo China Open in Shanghai. Since then, the tour has been back to China ... twice. It also has been to South Africa, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, Malaysia, Dubai, Qatar, Indonesia, Portugal (twice), Spain and finally Italy.

Now, for the first time in the 2005 season, the European Tour is actually playing a tournament in England -- the Dunlop Masters at Warwickshire.

A total of 23 countries around the world are playing host to events on the 2005 tour

Els, who won by 13 shots two weeks ago at Shanghai, once again proved his mettle as a world traveler. From China, he flew home for a week off at his home in Wentworth, England, then got right back on a plane to fly to Texas for the Nelson. Els has played five European Tour events and won three of them.

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There is no Big Four on the LPGA Tour, only a Big One: Annika Sorenstam. She flopped going for her sixth consecutive tournament victory last week at the Michelob Ultra Open, but Sorenstam played arguably her worst tournament since last July (a tie for 13th at the British Open) and still missed the top 10 by only one shot.

Still, the most perplexing sight at Kingsmill was the continuing deterioration of Se Ri Pak, who has won 22 times, but now seems lost. She shot 79-75 and missed the cut by eight shots.

She is 90th on the money list with only $20,211. Pak said she doesn’t have a clue what’s going wrong, but she’s looking for one.

“I can’t think about golf all day long,” she said.

“I think I should ... [have] one day stress free ... I think I can go out there and have some fun ... so I can spend my day as mine and not think about the golf ... Now I give myself a lot of pressure [and] I don’t like that. Now, seems like I am tired about the game.”