Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
January 23, 2004, Washington Post

Wow-Wie! It's Time to Rethink

Michelle Wie has got me thinking.

Wie is the 14-year-old golf phenom who played in a men's Professional Golfers Association (PGA) event last weekend and missed, by only one stroke, the cut to play on the last two days of the tournament. Wie's score for the first two rounds (72-68 for a 140) beat or tied 64 male golfers.

Wie wowed everyone. The 6-foot ninth-grader blasted drives more than 300 yards down the fairways. She sank 50-foot putts. She stayed cool under tremendous pressure. In fact, Wie played so well that she told reporters, "I never felt out of place."

So here's what I am thinking: In what sports can women (or girls) compete with men head-to-head at the highest levels?

It sure seems that women can compete with the guys at golf. Annika Sorenstam almost made the cut in a PGA tournament last summer. Se Ri Pak finished 10th in a men's tournament on the Korean tour. And after last weekend, I don't think Michelle Wie is going to be content just to tee it up with other women when she grows up.

I figure that the women can compete with men at any game where physical strength and raw speed are not essential. Sports such as bowling, archery or pool should be no problem. So why are there separate leagues or tournaments for women in those sports? Female distance runners are getting closer and closer to the men. Some women have achieved at the highest levels in auto racing and horse racing.

But why stop there? I don't see any reason why a female soccer player can't kick field goals for a team in the National Football League. Women such as Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach are just as strong and athletic as Tampa Bay kicker Martin Gramatica.

Or how about a female baseball pitcher? It may be hard to find a woman who can fire a fastball at 90-plus miles per hour (it's difficult to find men who can throw that hard). But you don't have to throw that hard to win. Tim Wakefield of the Boston Red Sox has won 116 major league games by throwing a knuckleball that flutters to the plate at 60-65 miles per hour. Why can't a woman learn to throw a knuckleball?

Maybe what Michelle Wie and her eye-opening performance are telling everyone is that we have to rethink how we look at female athletes. Maybe there should be more mixed boys and girls teams in kids sports. Maybe the best female athletes should not always be shuffled off to girls teams or to "girl sports" such as softball.

Now, I am sure that plenty of readers (especially male readers) are shaking their heads and saying that there is no way that a woman is ever going to compete in big-time sports such as pro football, baseball or basketball. But, honestly, I never thought I would see a 14-year-old girl play the same course as PGA pros and beat so many of them.

Maybe Michelle Wie is telling female athletes and sports fans everywhere that a new day for women is coming.