| | The Mismanagement and Depreciation of Michelle WieSo what's going on with that Korean American female golfer Michelle Wie? You know, the darling of the American AND Korean American golf communities about two years ago. The gal with the golden 400 yard swing and eminently good looks. Sadly, pretty much nothing is going on with her. She has withdrawn from her last three tournaments, citing various minor injuries. She is fading into the relm of irrelevance and oblivion. She, like a mid-priced car, is a rapidly depreciating asset who's probably the biggest waste of talent in the sporting world today.
 The happier days of Michelle Wie
 Wie as one of Time (2005) most influencial
Flashback to Michelle Wie as a precocious 16 year old in 2005. Full of potential, full of promise. Looking at her million dollar smile and even more pretty swing that sailed golf balls 400 yards, and you just felt good being a golf fan, a sports fan and a Korean American. We Korean Americans don't have a lot of positive portrays in American media. We got spot shots on TV and movies. Videos on ESPN? Forget it. But maybe Michelle Wie was going to change that. She would portray to the rest of America that we humble, quiet and studious mongoloids were talented, well spoken, athletic, and damn good-looking in the most sophisticated and refined game in all of sports.
 Ms. Wie and all of her 6-0 modelesque frame (w/farmer's tan!)
To the rest of America, she also pointed the way to emotions and symbols that are different, but no less hopeful and positive. She was the face of America also, integrated and assimilated. An Asian girl with a white girl's height, the accent of a valley girl and almost universally considered "attractive" and "comely" by the larger American society. Just as Michael Jordan helped make black more beautiful, successful and accessible she had the potential to make Asian less foreign and more acceptable to larger society. Plus, she was Tiger Woods' heir apparent. Sponsors lined up at her parent's door. Endorsements beckoned. All this without winning a single professional tournament. So, in 2005 she turned pro...
 Wie at 14, when she won the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, her only win of note.
There was a lot of criticism in the golf world regarding this decision, especially in light of the fact that Michelle hadn't established a winning way. Something that Tiger Woods called "The Art of Winning." According to Tiger, it takes a certain art, strategy, desire and good habits to win. To come back from a few strokes back, to keep perservering, to land those key birdies and not get down on the double boogies. The psychology of winning needs to be nurtured and it's rather delicate before it becomes a rock solid habit. The late Earl Woods disciplined his son and made sure that he dominated the amateur ranks before he moved him to the next level. Earl's strategy is very different from Michelle Wie's father, who seems to want everything now... yesterday.
 B.J. in the driver's seat.
Tiger Woods has expressed his concern regarding B.J.'s tactic of putting her daughter through a rigorous schedule of tournament appearances, but no wins. B.J took offense to Tiger's statement and he blasted back:
"Michelle shot even par on the PGA Tour at age 14. How old was Tiger when he did that?" he added. "Whenever we hear these statements by Tiger, we don'tunderstand. It [Woods' position] doesn't make any sense."
Hardly subtle or open minded of B.J. and Tiger was only trying to help. In anycase, at least one member of the Wie camp believes winning a tournament - any tournament - is the best thing that could happen to Michelle. Her last victory was at the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links in June 2003; she has played in 20 professional tournaments (and just six national amateur events) since. According to one golf publication:
"At some point the credentials don't warrant the opportunity [of all the tournaments she's been allowed to play in as an amateur]. At some point the gathering of "experience" begins to look like a corporate audition. To that end the constant presence of Nike representative Greg Nared with the Wies last week was notable for its conspicuousness. Michelle has been playing Nike irons, and if not for her struggles with a 9.5-degree model during her practice rounds, she would have played a Nike driver."
Well, when she went pro, she signed a $5 million contract with Nike, so go figure.
 Not winning anything lately... and the "swish" is not helping.
Golf insiders describe B.J. as overbearing and omnipresent in Michelle's life. Not suprisingly, many in the golf world is not happy with B.J.'s handling of his daughter's career, which seems to be centered around pressing palms with golf celebrities, appearences in men's tournaments just for the sake of "making the cut", corporate sponsorships, etc. In America you need to be either good or interesting. B.J. has elected to make Michelle "interesting," but with no victories or titles, the novelty is wearing thin and wearing off...  Remember Anna Kournikova? Hot, but talentless, her star faded fast.
Many of my fellow Korean American friends have said, "...yeah she hasn't won anything, but she's only 16... only 17... only 18..." but it's an excuse that sounds more absurd as this talented girl gets older. Being so hyped up and then disappointing so many can't be good for Michelle, the delicate psyche of a young person, her fans or for the game of golf.
What is it with B.J. and his rather convoluted theory of developing talent? Well, my theory is this. It's a very Korean thing sometimes to want to skip the steps and want success as soon as possible. An English journalist once spoke with a retired chairman of one of Korea's giant congolmerates about Korean character and he said something very relavent to the topic at hand: "Somehow we feel our time is coming. But people sense this and get overambitious and greedy. Koreans are greedy for more than God has given us.... You have a certain history and there wre problems along the way and you could advance by solving them. There are steps to go through. But we Koreans want to avoid the steps..."
Here is the classic problem with many Koreans when they have a world class asset. They see the potential, get excited about it and they want all the benefits of that asset without thinking about all the work that goes into developing it. They tend to take four steps forward and take three steps backwards. Spectacular rises followed by almost equally spectacular falls. Korean cars are a classic case. Hyundai and Kia came into the U.S. market with dirt cheap, but very unreliable products. Sales were very high in the first couple of years, then it nose dived once customers realized that there was little value with cars that constaintly broke down. Hyundai and Kia came into the U.S. and they weren't ready. They wanted to be a world class automobile manufacturer, but they didn't have any world class products. Things are different now and Hyundai and Kia has learned from their mistakes. However, despite vastly improved products, the nameplates haven't recovered completely from the sins of its past and the perception of unreliability continues to follow the brands like toilette paper clinging to the bottom of one's shoe. Human cloning is another story of soaring Korean ambition with a lack of deliverables, but let's not go there today.
 The Anti-Michelle Wie, Christina Kim!
 What if Wie looked like her? Would we care as much?
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