In the September 2007 issue of Golf Digest, there is a great article called "Wondering About Wie" that attempts to understand what has happened to young golf prodigy Michelle Wie and why she's had such a poor year. Here's just a few of the embarassing events that have taken place:
- July 2006 - In the PGA John Deere Classic she is ten strokes above the projected cut and she withdraws, citing heat exhaustion.
- August 2006 - She gets a two-stroke penalty for grounding her club in a bunker at the Women's British Open and says, "I guess I knew the rule wrong."
- May 2007 - Wie is 14 over par after 16 holes in the Ginn Tribute. She cites her injured wrist and withdraws with two holes to play. If she had lost two more strokes to par, she would have faced a ban from LPGA competition for the rest of the year under Rule 88. She comes under great criticism when she is seen practicing just two days later.
- June 2007 - Citing her wrist injury at 17 over par after 27 holes, she withdraws from the US Women's Open.
Of course, I have no idea if her excuses for her awful scores are legit - but it certainly comes across as poor sportsmanship and even cheating in the case of the Ginn Tribute in May this year. She's not playing well, so she just fakes an injury and withdraws. I pondered why she would do such things and found an article on Korean culture that might explain her behaviour. The author, Dr. Horace H. Underwood, is a teacher in a Korean university and reflects on the cultural differences he found. He says, "In Korea as in the West, honesty and loyalty are both virtues. In the West, in general, honesty is the higher virtue. In a Confucian society like Korea, loyalty is the higher virtue....It is not the case that Koreans are dishonest. It is not the case that honesty is not a value in Korea. Korean culture has a strong sense of honesty. The problem is the hierarchy of values. Honesty is a value, but there is a higher value, and it is loyalty." He goes on to describe how cheating was a major problem with his students. It wasn't because they didn't know it was wrong to cheat - it was because it was more important to show loyalty to their parents by bringing home an A grade. Korean culture stresses the absolute importance of excellent performance..."A-" is a failing grade.
Rather than fail her parents by not playing her "A" game, Michelle may be simply being dishonest (lying about injuries and withdrawing rather than finishing with a poor score) to get around it. And it's not because she's a horrible person - it's just that in her culture it is more important to be loyal to her parents and to not fail than to be honest. Korean culture is not going to change, so the best we can do is understand why they do what they do and not look down upon it.
I may not want to compete against her, but on the positive side, she'd probably make a great friend - heck, she'd lie, cheat and steal before she'd double-cross me!
