Wiegate: Michelle Wie and Women's Golf...It All Just got a Whole lot More Interesting

There's no denying it, we live in a pop culture world. A world where negative publicity is often more valuable than no publicity at all, and a hot babe pretty girl trumps a noble deed any day of the week. We may claim not to like it but most of us play into it to some degree. The golf blogs are currently having orgasms fun with headlines like, "Catfight! Annika vs Wie", or LPGA Catfight, Sorenstam Calls Out Wie, or Annika Sorenstam takes a swing at Michelle Wie. They're generating lots of page views and comments too. Because a catfight is much more interesting then girls behaving like ladies and playing serious golf. At least for the majority it is.

As golf blog reviewer Heather McMichael said recently, "With the U.S. Open right around the corner, golf bloggers are talking about ... everything but the coming major". Maybe that's because there are no catfights looming there. Nothing scandalous or salacious to report at all. The proverbial "Tiger/Phil duel"? Mmmmm, maybe. Kind of hard to write a compelling headline for that one though. Those guys are just too well behaved to conjure up exciting images for anyone other than die hard Tiger/Phil fans.

And that's part of why Michelle Wie's larger than life, heat-seeking persona causes consternation, criticism and probably a degree of self loathing among some golf bloggers and their commenters. They're reluctant to admit that they're fascinated by what they perceive as a teenage train wreck, but they clearly are. Or at the very least, they feel she and her potential cat fights are the most interesting story coming out of Havre de Grace, Maryland right now.

I can only imagine fans will flock to the gallery as Michelle tees off tomorrow in the LPGA Championship, and this will probably provoke further wrath as more "worthy" players are ignored. However, the way I see it...IMHO...this is ultimately good for the LPGA. Blogger Chris Baldwin, no Wie Warrior he, succinctly summarizes the situation in this perceptive post from Bulle Rock. And...we'll see what tomorrow brings.