Coming in to the U.S. Women's Open Michelle Wie had not shot a round under par in her last 20 competitive rounds.
Make that 21.
The Michelle Wie Train Wreck Tour continued today as Wie posted a round of 82 (+11). That is 14 strokes behind the current leader. That is 121st place. Wie is a complete joke at this point. A joke that is being enabled by her parents who are pushing her to play in tournaments she is not ready for, as well as by sponsors who continue to give her exemptions. As for the sponsors, their motivation is obvious. Wie sitll remains the single biggest TV and gallery draw for the LPGA. At this point however, with Wie missing the cut every week (that is, if she does not quit before then) are these sponsors really getting that much of an advantage out of Wie? While Wie might give a moderate spike in Thursday and Friday attendance on site, if she is playing so poorly that she can't make it past the cut and to the weekend then the sponsors are missing out on any real benefit. Weekday TV ratings for the first two rounds of an LPGA tournament are never going to be big. The only chance for a real spike would be if Wie was able to make it to the weekend in contention. Right now however, Michelle Wie is probably only about a year away from joining Anna Kournikova in the pantheon of womens sports has-beens.
