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The girl is HOT folks. As hot as
hot can be.
Tournament
sponsors and corporations are lining up to give this All-American
girl all the money she will ever be able to use. Having Morgan at
any event will boost the gate and the interest of both the media and
golf fans everywhere.
But now she will go back to high school and try to be a student again,
biding her time till the LPGA Q- School and then being allowed to
turn pro and compete in 2006 when she turns 18. That is just RIDICULOUS.
Kids like Pressel, Wie and Creamer are NOT your average kids. They
have already lived, in their short lives, a level of accomplishment
that few of us might ever achieve who chase the traditional 9-to-5.
They have traveled. They have played before massive crowds who observe
their every move. They have handled countless media interviews without
coaching. They have competed at the highest levels and succeeded.
We aren’t talking about kids who went to these events and shot
a pair of 80’s, proving that they were in over their heads. These
kids went out and won (Creamer, twice on the LPGA Tour) and as teens
finished top-3 in major championships (Pressel 2nd at the Women’s
US Open and Wie 3rd at the British Women’s Open).
This new “Big Young Three” of women’s golf, in terms
of fan interest and media hype, are poised to cause women’s golf
to explode across the landscape of the American sports scene.
It’s commonly thought that there is an overexposure of certain
men’s sports.
Many people are sick of hearing about multi-millionaire male athletes
complaining about courses, or contracts. So sports fans turn their
interests elsewhere.
Witness the interest in women’s basketball, Danica Patrick in
racing, women’s tennis and now women’s golf. Fans are tired
of the same old, same old. The stories are all the same, “the
big Three”, the “Big Five”. Lazy golf media try to
create controversies and rivalries that don’t exist.
But now, with the ascendancy of these three prodigies, each of whom
seems to be taking a different course to stardom (Wie with her desire
to play the men’s tour and the Masters, Creamer’s course
being to win and keep winning on the LPGA Tour and Pressel, who is
just looking to kick everybody’s butt!) the stories won’t
need to be forced. Once they are all out there together just sit back
and watch the fireworks. The rivalry will be real this time!
Yet, Votaw’s decision to prohibit Pressel from turning pro now
will, in retrospect, turn out to be a blunder of gigantic proportions.
With that decision Votaw is short-circuiting his own efforts to expand
the coverage and marketability of the LPGA Tour. He is handcuffing
his own tournament sponsors by denying them one of the biggest gate
draws in golf and he is costing Morgan Pressel millions of dollars
in tournament winnings and endorsements.
Morgan’s birth certificate may say she’s 17 but its 17 going
on 25.
Players like Pressel, Wie and Creamer have never been “normal”
kids. Prodigies are usually prodigies in everything they touch. Witness
Pressel’s recent SAT score of 790 out of 800 ! That’s not
your normal score. Pressel is not a normal kid.
It’s all well and good that Votaw wants her to “at least
finish high school”. And Pressel had committed to Duke to play
college golf. But one must ask the question:
Why do we go to high school and then college? To get an education,
so that we might get a good job and succeed in the world. Right?
It seems that these three have already arrived at that point and Votaw’s
decision can be fairly said to amount to restraint-of-trade !
High school can be finished by correspondence or home school cirricula.
Tutors are available and certainly for Pressel and Wie, if they were
making money instead of being amateurs, paying for the tutors would
be no problem. Pressel passed on about $275,000 for her runner-up
at the Women’s Open!
Wake up LPGA.
The new LPGA commissioner, a woman, Carolyn Bivens, should countermand
Votaw’s foolishness and allow Morgan Pressel immediate access
to the LPGA Tour through sponsor’s exemptions and allow Morgan
and her family to decide when and how for her to finish high school.
Let Morgan get out there. Between the three of them, Creamer, Pressel
and Wie, they’re going to light up the LPGA Tour and the golf
world in general.
You go girl !
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