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Wie needs a rival,
not a wannabe

SO on the first day of the great Paula Creamer-Michelle Wie golf rivalry yesterday at the SBS Open at Turtle Bay, Wie was 2 under. Creamer 1 over.

Ho-hum.

Well, so much for that.

But it's going to happen. It's got to happen.

We can always hope.

If you want to talk rivalry all you have to do is look at the galleries. Creamer's is company. Wie's, a crowd. Wie's was an army, a gallery, a large gathering.

She dropped a long birdie putt on 11, her second hole of the day. "It was about like 60 feet, I have to say," Wie said.

The sound went all the way up the next fairway, even against the wind.

At that very moment, on that same fairway, Creamer was being watched by eight people. And they were not even all there to see her, if you want to get technical about it.

Other players' relatives were there, too.

Creamer has to have noticed that, and that has to dig. That makes a rivalry, even if she downplays it. Even as the two of them have befriended each other, gone shopping together.

But there wasn't quite as much buzz in the Wie gallery as we've seen at other events. Maybe we need to see something different from her. Maybe we're just jaded now. Maybe all of her precocious accomplishments have dulled our senses.

Maybe we're just so used to seeing her shoot something great for (fill in the blank with whatever age she happens to be at the time) that it barely jolts us these days. As strange as that sounds.

A 15-year-old holding her own in an LPGA event should be exciting. It should be earth-shattering.

It should be the biggest thing since ... a 14-year-old did it.

Oh. You see, somehow, all this has just become everyday life for Michelle Wie. Another day at the office.

So we still follow, she still draws. But what's new?

Maybe a rivalry would be nice.

It would be cool, wouldn't it? That's what's missing in the Michelle Wie saga. That might shake it up, shake us up, shake her up.

I'd like to see her challenge a person, not an institution.

It would be cool to see her set on winning, not just "outrageous goals and doing stuff that other people have not thought of."

We're waiting for her next step, for that next great leap. She seems in a holding pattern right now, still talking about Augusta. Yet still between great leaps.

"I think it's getting close," she said, of putting it all together.

It's a strange time in her young career. She'll be a millionaire no matter what she does. Golf's rules don't really apply to her. She's above the fray, no one to push her. She can look convention in the face and laugh.

Not to say that she doesn't push herself. Last night she practiced into the dark, hitting balls until she could no longer see.

"I couldn't see the ball fly," she said. "But feeling how my swing felt."

She's always pushed herself. She just got over an injury from pushing herself too much. But it's all internal. And it just isn't the same, when you don't have an opponent to beat.

And so she has indulged herself the luxury of goals that are a little more offbeat. Making the cut against men. Being "different."

But a youth movement is coming, and fast. Teen sensations everywhere, one after another, more and more wannabe Wies.

And until she achieves that next breakthrough, she's less different every day.

(Before the tournament, Wie was asked how she had somehow separated herself from the oncoming pack of teens, why her name brand somehow stands apart.

"Well, I just think that I am a little bit different person," she said. "There are not a lot of 15-year-olds that are 6-foot tall."

Which brings to mind the great Chevy Chase/Ty Webb Caddyshack quote: "How do you measure yourself against other golfers?" "By height.")

Wie did well enough yesterday. In fact you could say she did great. She's in the hunt. She's 15 years old, she shot a 70, 2 under, in a major league event. "I just think that I have the feel now," she said. It was a good first day. She just might be coming on.

We should be excited. Amazed.

Of course, Brittany Lincicome, another teen, did the same, shot the exact same score.

And if another player becomes the first teen to win ... ?

Come on, Creamer. Start pushing. W(i)e could use a rivalry. The best way to be different is to make that next great leap.