LPGA Veterans upset over attention given to 13-year-old

Younger players' popularity is tinged with jealousy.
By BILL NICHOLS
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
DALLAS -- Women have been out front for much of the golf season. The Martha Burk issue dominated headlines before the Masters. Annika Sorenstam attracted worldwide attention by playing the Bank of America Colonial. And 13-year-old Michelle Wie generated a lot of publicity the last three weeks.
Yet each big happening has come with controversy. The Burk debate drew a line in the sand on all-male memberships. Sorenstam ruffled some PGA Tour feathers. And Wie and her father were taken to task at the U.S. Women's Open.
Lost in the hoopla is the fact that the LPGA stands on the precipice of something very big. It is poised to attract attention because of its quality of play.
Breeding grounds
This is not your mother's LPGA, which was dominated by a handful of popular veterans who charmed a small core audience with their personalities. The future lies in the golf academies in Florida, where teenagers are modeling their swings and no-fear attitudes after Tiger Woods.
That's what makes Wie so appealing. She is 6 feet tall, knocks drives 300 yards and is accomplishing things at a startling rate.
That's also what makes Wie a target. Just as with Woods when he broke in, her popularity is tinged with jealousy from other players.
So she walked through Danielle Ammaccapane's putting line, on the other side of the flag? So what?
Ammaccapane chastised the teenager in the scoring tent, then after B.J. Wie went public with the details, the 37-year-old veteran had her father confront Wie's father. Ralph Ammaccapane reportedly gave B.J. Wie a strong warning last Saturday morning. Later that afternoon, B.J. Wie retracted his statement that Ammaccapane bumped Michelle during Thursday's round.
The women's game needs publicity but not a soap opera. Some LPGA players may be upset that Wie is attracting more attention than they are, or even more than she deserves.
But they should be smart enough to realize that Wie's stardom will only help them, just as Tiger padded ratings and wallets on the PGA Tour.
"I think people get worked up because maybe the media attention is focused so hard on one person," said Angela Stanford, who lost in the Open playoff. "They don't feel like they're getting their share of it."
If Wie's Open appearance had not turned ugly, then more attention might have been paid to the other youngsters who performed well. Instead, this issue will probably continue to make news.