More
Rick Lipsey, writer-reporter, Sports Illustrated: Where you gonna eat: Players' family dining room, caddie dining or media dining?
Hack: Gary, I've got some raw almonds and protein shakes if you need 'em.
Evans: Is Van Sickle the first golf writer with a kid in a tour event?
Dick Friedman, senior editor, Sports Illustrated: Vans joins at least one that I know of: longtime L.A. baseball writer Ross Newhan, whose son, David, was an eight-season major leaguer before being released by the Astros this spring. In 2004, Newhan finished seventh in the AL in triples. Let's hope we don't say the same thing some year about Mike!
Hack: Speaking of famous relatives, did anybody take a peek at Tiger's niece at Wegmans this week? Nice to see she's continuing in the family business. At the same time, that's a tough name to carry. Would she be better off changing it? Maybe Cheyenne Smith? Lot to live up to. She seems to have a pretty good attitude about it.
Evans: Listening to her talk, she reminds me of the early Tiger Woods, before he won his first Masters in '97 — a normal kid.
Morfit: I agree she'd be better off with a different last name or a different sport. My hat is off to her for following her passion, since I'm sure she was first to know how unfair the expectations would be.
Bamberger: She'll have to be very careful not to take too many anythings — sponsors' invitations, endorsements, whatever — because of her surname. It's a way to get yourself frozen-out by your LPGA colleagues.
Herre: And she'll need to have some success. A bunch of missed cuts could be damaging.
Evans: Who cares about getting frozen out? If she can raise the profile of the LPGA Tour, I'm sure the other girls will let her act like Uncle Tiger.
Hack: Yeah, but she doesn't want to go the Michelle Wie route, does she? Cart before horse?
Lipsey: The LPGA players haven't been so warm to the Michelle Wie circus, so they might not like the Woods circus either. Pro athletes have big egos and want the spotlight to themselves.
Hack: Any buzz — Cheyenne Woods, Gulbis on "The Apprentice," Christina Kim Tweeting, Michelle Wie doing anything — is good for the LPGA.
Van Sickle: Cash your checks any way you can. Use your name to get in the door.
Shipnuck: I don't think there's any pressure on Cheyenne. I think most golf fans know she wasn't raised by Earl and Tida, and therefore she has none of Tiger's magic mojo. As for how she'll be received on tour, golfers are in general a selfish breed, but the women of the LPGA know their tour needs eyeballs. Cheyenne will be warmly received if she proves she can play.
Bamberger: Tiger earned his sponsors exemptions, as did Mike Van Sickle. If you get them for other reasons, and then make lousy scores or play in a league for which you are not ready, it can really hurt you.
Gorant: Speaking of Wie. Watched her a bit today. She was five under through 12 to get to T6, but dropped two shots coming in to finish just outside the top 10. It's a little bit one-step-up, one-step-back with her these days, but she's good enough to contend, and I have to think that with a little more time she's going to get there.
Hack: Me, too, Jim. That darn putter. Again. Seems like she just freezes over the short ones. No rhythm.
Lipsey: Sadly, I think that no matter what Wie does now, it won't have nearly the oomph it would've had she not been so messed up the last couple of years.
Hack: It's a new landscape now. Ochoa, Shin, Lincicome, Pettersen, Creamer. Wie is just one of many faces instead of the female Tiger she was supposed (packaged?) to be.
Shipnuck: I disagree. A couple of wins, maybe a major, and once again Wie will be one of golf's most-watched and talked-about players.
Gorant: I'm with Alan's line of thinking. Carolyn Bivens visited us in the office recently and said Wie still generated the most interest for the tour.
Van Sickle: Alan is right. Wie is just one win, maybe even a couple of 64s, away from reigniting Wie Fever. She's a media blitz waiting to happen.
Evans: Wie's parents have to be out of the picture for their daughter to ever win golf tournaments on a regular basis.
Shipnuck: Kinda harsh, but true. The way Wie's parents hover around her at all times creeps me out. I could sorta understand it when she was 13. Now that she's a woman, they need to back off. I bet her first victory will happen when her parents miss a flight and she has to fend for herself.
Lipsey: Impossible. If Mom and Dad miss the flight, so does Michelle. She's with them.
Gorant: It does feel sometimes like she's an E True Hollywood Story waiting to happen, but I still think she pulls it off. Then again I've been pushing the David Duval comeback for years.
Hack: I walked a few holes with the Wies in Springfield, and they were pleasant, as always. While they are not the only parents rooting audibly, shadowing their progeny's every step, it does seem over-the-top and unhealthy. But Morgan Pressel's grandparents are ever-present, and so are Creamer's folks. The Wies haven't found a middle ground, it seems, and I'm sure it has affected Michelle in ways none of us really know.
Shipnuck: Since we're on the topic of my favorite tour, the LPGA, Jiyai Shin won again, strengthening her case as the new No. 1. It's a little weird to me that Shin has won all around the world, including last year's British Open, and she's still considered an LPGA rookie. One of the players who finished a very distant second to her this week was another rookie, Stacy Lewis, her best performance of the year and a nice follow-up to a top-10 at the LPGA Championship. There's no doubt Shin is going to win rookie of the year honors, but it's still an open question as to who will be runner-up. Michelle Wie has the edge so far, and she had another solid finish (11th) at the Wegmans, but it looks like Lewis is going to make things interesting over the second half of the year.
