On this day in 1941 Virginia Woolf placed rocks in the pockets of her fur coat and walked into the sea to drown. Michelle Wie must wonder how much better her life would be if only her father had done the same thing 5 years ago. When Michelle was 13 she nearly made the cut in a PGA Tour event.  Let me say that again in a more plangent and incredulous tone - 13 years old, nearly made the cut, PGA (that’s like against guys) Tour event.

But rather than use the confidence from that success to dominate the LPGA (that’s like against girls) Tour Michelle continued to try to play against professional men, and the best professional men at that. She even said such things as, “My goal is to win The Masters.”  Does THE ARBITER blame Michelle for her absurd expectations and comments? Of course not. Like any teenager she needed guidance. Instead she got a myopic, perhaps blind, father who chose for his compliant daughter exactly the wrong path.

Since her wild success at the age of 13 she has been vilified which is bad enough, but has now become a laughingstock and a girl to be pitied which is even worse. She has not won a single tournament and as her confidence and morale has waned her performances have become ugly and bizarre.  Last year her season was truncated by a wrist injury which may very well have been true but which was treated skeptically because of all the dramatics that preceded it (the sponsor’s exemptions, the bad play, the WDs, the heat stroke, the stretcher).  At the time THE ARBITER thought maybe it was for the best, a chance to disappear, refocus reinvigorate and rejuvenate.  But instead her college professor father (he evidently knows something, but it sure ain't phenom management) advised her to go to Stanford.

THE ARBITER is not here to bash the college experience (although you can get a $200,000 education for $2 in late fees at your local library if you really want to - and yes I do love Good Will Hunting) but professional golf is not a part-time job.  Michelle (or I should say Michelle's father) - if you're going to play then play.  Life is, after all, best viewed through one window.

The latest installment of woe is a re-injury to her wrist caused by hitting balls out of the rough, a practice now curiously in vogue though who knows why you'd do it when re-habbing a wrist injury of all things.  She apparently (and I guess you can't make this up) hit an old ball buried under the ball she was actually trying to hit.  THE ARBITER can only shake his head and cry.

Michelle Wie is still a teenager and still a remarkable talent and therefore it is premature to concede her failure but she better hope that Scott Fitzgerald was wrong when he said there are no second acts in life.  Her first act brought down not the house, but an early curtain.

There's no break in a three foot putt.