Clarion Content

Michelle Wie is rapidly disappearing into the sunset of her career at the ripe old age of eighteen. Playing in only her second tournament of the year, she finished dead last in the first, Wie failed to make the cut the Michelob Ultra Open. This wasn't one of the PGA tournaments, her parents and advisers so cruelly pushed her into in the last couple of years. This wasn't an LPGA major. This was just a regular ol' weekend on the tour and once again Wie couldn't hang, couldn't even make the cut.

Who can blame her? Since being exploited like circus sideshow freak at the ripe old age of 14, the wheels have completely come off Wie's career. Not since Tracy Austin, who incidentally achieved much greater successes, has a young athlete had their career so utterly destroyed by greedy parents and agents. Wie couldn't win on the LPGA tour, she could barely compete, yet her folks, knew if they could push her into men's tournaments through sponsors' exemptions and other back doors, her Q rating would jump tremendously. It did. We all know who Michelle Wie is.

Sadly for the teenager who was Michelle, she had to face the glare of that Q rating and the intense media scrutiny that comes with it, after relative failures rather than successes. And oh yes, a bunch of somebodies from tournament sponsors, to the tours, to the media and her family made oodles of money off of Michelle's exposure. Wie despite having never won a professional tournament, signed 8 figure sponsorship deals with Nike and Sony. Hype sells. Wonder how she feels about it now? Can she make a mid-career comeback, ala, Jennifer Capriati who fell all the way to arrests and heroin addiction before escaping the influence of the users exploiting her? Will she end up like Mary Pierce, completely estranged from her father?

Parents there is a lesson here. Let your kid be a kid first, they have the rest of their lives to be an adult.

Labels: golf, Pop Culture, sports