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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Wie may not know
all she is missingHERE is where everyone tells me to shut up, and everyone has a point. Michelle Wie and Stephanie Kono are wonders, prodigies, and the rules are different for prodigies. If all Michelle wants to do in the world is golf, why not let her? If that is what makes her happy, who am I to object? How would I know how they feel? How would I understand? I am, like, older than 30.
And everyone is right.
You shouldn't keep these girls from golfing any more than you could have made little Wolfie Mozart stop playing the piano.
But something snapped in me earlier this year while reading of Kono's great triumph in the Jennie K. It's a struggle to explain quite what, or why. Something in the language, the words used, the tone. All this talk about mental toughness.
There was just a little too much "Rocky" music in the background.
And now here is Wie, again, on the mainland and on TV and walking the course with pros. Again. On a Friday, on a school day, the summer over, but not her amateur pro career.
She was off and barnstorming again.
The TV announcers swooned and fawned, and you couldn't blame them, the way Wie played. Yeah, it's a wonderful story.
Yeah, you can't tear your eyes away.
But I found myself talking back to the screen:
It's OK to go home from school and watch cartoons.
It's OK to play with and against kids your own age.
It's OK to go through a summer without traveling to any national tournaments.
It's fine to wait at least until high school before worrying about college scholarships.
And isn't today a school day?
But no, Wie was hanging with her hero, Annika, again, yesterday, on the pressure-packed LPGA Tour. It's a great story, and she's proved she can play at this level. But I'm old, you see, like, over 30, and so I look back at good old days. And can't help but hope Wie isn't in a rush to skip them.
Yeah, that shot on 17 was a miracle, but so is a sunny afternoon after school.
So is being 13.
We wore our oversized Pop Warner football jerseys to school on Fridays. We were goofy, but those were great days.
But Wie is a great athlete instead, a prodigy. Life is different for prodigies. She knows what she wants. She's already made up her mind. This is a special circumstance. She's absolutely sure she knows what's best for her.
(Try to find a teenage girl who doesn't feel that way.)
And so she was in a hotel room yesterday, living out of a suitcase, on the road, in the pros. Thousands of miles from home. Thousands of miles from 13.
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Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com
