Well, well, well… Look who entered another men’s tournament and once again, and not just missed the cut, but had to scramble to avoid finishing last in the field. That’s right, it’s our favorite teen queen and “wunderkind” Michelle Wie. Everyone who has followed the ‘Nation here knows that, while The Great White Shank thinks she’s more than a little cute, she’s being ill-served by her parents and her advising team by having her continue to enter men’s events and putting up BIG numbers (in this case, 81-80=161), the equivalent to something yours truly and fellow Goodboy Ron “Cubby” Myerow would do at a Goodboys Invitational.

Clearly, her game does not seem to be progressing under this strategy, and one could argue by her performance over the past year that it’s actually regressing (my bolding):

She has made the cut in only one of her 12 starts on men’s tours, in May in an Asian Tour event in South Korea. Last year at Kuroshio in her first appearance in Japan, she bogeyed the final two holes in the second round to miss the cut by a stroke. In her previous two men’s events, she finished last in the European Masters (78-79) and 84 Lumber Classic (77-81). In the event before that, she withdrew from the John Deere Classic because of heat exhaustion after playing 27 holes in 8 over.

Consider this: not only did she not birdie a single hole in this most recent tournament, but on the second day she finished with six bogeys and a double bogey after bogeying nine holes the first day.

That, my friends, is stinking up the joint.

The sad thing is, even though Wie seems willing to acknowledge how badly she is playing, she’s unwilling to let a simple little thing like reality intrude in the way of her mission (my bolding):

“It was pretty tragic, that’s how I’d describe it,” Wie said. “My driver wasn’t working at all and that put a lot of pressure on my short game.”

“Golf goes in waves,” said Wie. “I’ve played some pretty bad rounds lately and hopefully it’s time for some good rounds.”

She said the poor performances wouldn’t deter her from playing in men’s events.

“Not at all,” said Wie, winless in 33 career LPGA Tour appearances. “I didn’t play like myself today and it doesn’t bother me because I know I can play much better than this. I learn a lot from playing with the men.

Oh really, like what – learning to have your lunch fed to you every time you step on a golf course? This makes no sense to me. The girl is only 17 years old and, regardless of her obvious talent, this is way too much pressure to be putting on anyone – let alone yourself – at such an early age. Professional sports is littered with the wreckage of young talents who whose meteoric rise to fame and fortune result in burn-out, resentment, and disappointment, and this is road Wie finds herself traveling at a breakneck pace. Sooner or later – and it’s bound to happen – some other attractive young talent will come along and perform better than Wie is, and has been, performing, and she’ll find herself transformed overnight into exactly that – a has-been.

Again, Michelle, listen to your Uncle Shank here: tell your greedy advisors to pound sand and slow it all down; make time to do the things teenagers ought to be doing and enjoy life, for gawdsakes. If you need to keep feeding your competitive juices, enter some professional ladies’ tour events – at least there, you’re not just extremely competitive, you’ll be learning how to win tournaments, not just make cuts. Any schmuck on the men’s tour can have a good weekend and make a cut or two, and you’re above that. Like Roy Hobbs’ father in “The Natural” tells him as a youngster: “you’ve got talent, Roy, but sometimes talent is not enough.” And that’s exactly what’s happening here.

They say youth is wasted on the young, and Michelle, you’re currently wasting a lot of it on dreams you’ll have plenty of time to pursue in the years ahead. Do yourself a favor and take some time to enjoy your youth – if you don’t, someday you’ll live to regret not spending it in a different way.