The Michelle Wie Limited Trust
€Right now all I need is confidence to play well.€ €"Michelle Wie
She shot 82, but a lot of the talk€"yours and the press room's€"today remains with Michelle Wie, for whom golf isn't loads of fun right now.
The St. Pete Times site had this snipey quote from former Wie instructor Gary Gilchrist: €What I saw on the range the day before she teed off for her first round, I was absolutely blown away that she even teed it up the next day, € Gilchrist said. €I would've had to have had a few drinks before I teed off. She was hitting it everywhere. She couldn't hit a driver at all.€Ow.
Gilchrist makes it sound like a technical problem but in Ron Sirak's report for our web site, it sounds like confidence is the big issue:€The part of her game that seems to be suffering most is trust. What appears to be going on is more a crisis of confidence than it is the result of an injury.€
On the range, David Leadbetter, Wie's coach, had Michelle swinging with a Gary Player-like step-through move in which she would follow the flight of the ball by taking a step toward the target. €It's forcing me into trusting my shots,€ Wie said. €Because right now all I need is confidence to play well.€
Lead did a tip like that for Golf Digest and former Digest Schools instructor Ed Bowe suggested that very drill in our Breaking 100, 90, 80:€Try Player's walk-through drillIf you are taking big chunks of turf or skull the ball when you swing, you may be hanging back on your rear foot at impact, trying to scoop it in your anxiety to get the ball off the ground. Instead, let the club's loft get the ball airborne. As a drill, try Gary Player's classic walk-through swing. When you make contact, continue moving on as if you're walking after the ball.€
If you don't trust your swing, in other words, you hang back, flip the wrists or block it, which is what Gilchrist was seeing. Misses both ways, a pro's worst nightmare.
Nevertheless, I'm betting, against all odds, that Wie wins one this year.Aaron Baddeley spent most of his youth watching golf on television, imagining that one day he would get to kiss a major championship trophy. Entering Sunday's final round with a two-shot lead, he has that opportunity.
€I've watched so much golf, I can tell you about what people wore, what they shot, everything,€ said Baddely. €I loved watching the majors. I taped them and watched them over and over. I can recite commentary from when Nick Price won. I saw myself in that [winning] position, absolutely.€
When he established himself as an up-and-coming star, by winning the Australian Open as an 18-year old, Baddeley made a conscious effort to watch the top players, alongside them in their practice rounds.€When I was young, I remember asking Greg Norman for a practice round,€ said Baddeley. €I remember asking David Duval for practice rounds, because these guys were the best players in the world.€Even with two PGA Tour victories to his credit, Baddeley still makes an effort to watch the top golfers win. This April, he was watching the Masters finish on CBS, when he returned to Augusta National to see Zach Johnson win the Masters, in person.€We were at home watching the coverage, and when he birdied €" I think when he birdied 16, we were like five or ten minutes from the course,€ said Baddeley. €We drove straight back to make sure we were there on the 18th.€
Today, as the leader heading into the U.S. Open's final round, all the eyes will be on him.€Obviously I'm going to deal with some emotions because I've never been in this position before,€ said Baddeley. €But I play golf, I've worked my whole life to be in this position so I'm going to embrace it.€But will Baddeley's eyes be on the leader board?€It's not like Tiger and I are seven shots ahead of the rest of the field,€ said Baddeley. €There's a few other guys at 5-over. I think it would be a mistake not to look at the boards.€
She shot 82, but a lot of the talk€"yours and the press room's€"today remains with Michelle Wie, for whom golf isn't loads of fun right now.
The St. Pete Times site had this snipey quote from former Wie instructor Gary Gilchrist: €What I saw on the range the day before she teed off for her first round, I was absolutely blown away that she even teed it up the next day, € Gilchrist said. €I would've had to have had a few drinks before I teed off. She was hitting it everywhere. She couldn't hit a driver at all.€Ow.
Gilchrist makes it sound like a technical problem but in Ron Sirak's report for our web site, it sounds like confidence is the big issue:€The part of her game that seems to be suffering most is trust. What appears to be going on is more a crisis of confidence than it is the result of an injury.€
On the range, David Leadbetter, Wie's coach, had Michelle swinging with a Gary Player-like step-through move in which she would follow the flight of the ball by taking a step toward the target. €It's forcing me into trusting my shots,€ Wie said. €Because right now all I need is confidence to play well.€
Lead did a tip like that for Golf Digest and former Digest Schools instructor Ed Bowe suggested that very drill in our Breaking 100, 90, 80:€Try Player's walk-through drillIf you are taking big chunks of turf or skull the ball when you swing, you may be hanging back on your rear foot at impact, trying to scoop it in your anxiety to get the ball off the ground. Instead, let the club's loft get the ball airborne. As a drill, try Gary Player's classic walk-through swing. When you make contact, continue moving on as if you're walking after the ball.€
If you don't trust your swing, in other words, you hang back, flip the wrists or block it, which is what Gilchrist was seeing. Misses both ways, a pro's worst nightmare.
Nevertheless, I'm betting, against all odds, that Wie wins one this year.Aaron Baddeley spent most of his youth watching golf on television, imagining that one day he would get to kiss a major championship trophy. Entering Sunday's final round with a two-shot lead, he has that opportunity.
€I've watched so much golf, I can tell you about what people wore, what they shot, everything,€ said Baddely. €I loved watching the majors. I taped them and watched them over and over. I can recite commentary from when Nick Price won. I saw myself in that [winning] position, absolutely.€
When he established himself as an up-and-coming star, by winning the Australian Open as an 18-year old, Baddeley made a conscious effort to watch the top players, alongside them in their practice rounds.€When I was young, I remember asking Greg Norman for a practice round,€ said Baddeley. €I remember asking David Duval for practice rounds, because these guys were the best players in the world.€Even with two PGA Tour victories to his credit, Baddeley still makes an effort to watch the top golfers win. This April, he was watching the Masters finish on CBS, when he returned to Augusta National to see Zach Johnson win the Masters, in person.€We were at home watching the coverage, and when he birdied €" I think when he birdied 16, we were like five or ten minutes from the course,€ said Baddeley. €We drove straight back to make sure we were there on the 18th.€
Today, as the leader heading into the U.S. Open's final round, all the eyes will be on him.€Obviously I'm going to deal with some emotions because I've never been in this position before,€ said Baddeley. €But I play golf, I've worked my whole life to be in this position so I'm going to embrace it.€But will Baddeley's eyes be on the leader board?€It's not like Tiger and I are seven shots ahead of the rest of the field,€ said Baddeley. €There's a few other guys at 5-over. I think it would be a mistake not to look at the boards.€
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