Rise of Golf Star
What would you like for your 16th birthday? A big party, a lot of cakes and surprise gifts? How about an endorsement1 deal worth US$10 million and a chance to win hundreds or thousands more as a professional athlete?
That's what US golfer Michelle Wie received when she turned 16 on Oct. 11, 2005.
Wie has been shocking the golf world since she was 12 years old. She is considered the hottest female golfer to come along in many years.
She finished second in LPGA2 Championship and tied for third in the Women's British Open in 2005.
It's her desire to play against men professionals that makes her a celebrity3. She has played against men five times. “I like challenges,” says Wie. “I get bored easily.” “That's my goal. I just love playing the [men's] PGA4 Tour events.”
Female PGA Player
In January, 2006, the Korean-American golfer tried for the fourth time to become the first woman since 1945 to make the cut5 on the PGA Tour. She competed against 143 men at the Sony Open in Hawaii, but she didn't make the cut.
Wie made her PGA Tour debut6 at the Sony Open on January 15, 2004. She missed the 36-hole cut by just one stroke, but finished with a higher score than 47 grown men! However, Wie was a bit disappointed at not making the cut. “Just one more shot, and I would have made it,” she said after finishing with birdies on two of the last three holes.
Debates are heated on whether Wie should continue to play in the men's event. Some say she has no chance of winning, although she may make the cut eventually. Many have suggested that she should focus on winning a women's event before playing in more men's events.
“She's going to make a cut eventually,” World No.15 Mark Calcavecchia of the US said. “She's never going to win, period7. Maybe once she makes a cut, she'll forget about it. She should try to win some LPGA tournaments first and go from there.”
But many people believed that Wie should move on.
“Playing PGA Tour events makes her better,” her coach David Leadbetter said. “It raises her level. It helps her up the ladder of improvement.”
“She's got great talent,” World No.7 Jim Furyk from the US said. “I can't think of a 16-year-old girl who can hit it8 like that. I don't know too many 16-year-old boys who hit the ball that well. She's definitely one in a million, or one in a billion.”
Starting Young
Michelle began her golf career at four and was introduced to the game by her parents, who moved to Hawaii from Korea. Her mother is a realtor9 and her father is a professor at the University of Hawaii.
She says she started beating her parents at golf when she was seven or eight years old. “They say I started beating them when I was nine. But I refuse to believe that,” she says.
She is now 183cm tall, has a perfect swing10 , and already drives the ball about as far as the average golfer on the men's tour.
She performs so well that it is easy to forget that she is just a high school student, and that golf is still an after-school sport.
Michelle watches pop star contest “America Idol”, listens to Coldplay and Good Charlotte, loves Jim Carey11 movies, and goes shopping with her friends.
She also works out12 every day, practices for three hours after school, and eight hours on the weekend.
Other than13 that, she seems very much a normal teenager, but one difference is her height. “I'm just too tall. I hope I'm no longer growing,” she says.
Did you know?
What country invented “golf”? Many countries did. If there were sticks and objects that could be hurtled14 along, then there was “golf”. Though the name didn't come into being until some time in the 15th century, there were many, many games of early man that could be called an ancestor to golf.
Nearly every area around the world has some claim to the beginning of golf. Scotland, of course, has its claim. But so do China, Rome, England, France, Holland, Belgium, even Laos. Every country has a game consisting of sticks and balls, and every country is correct in its assumption15 that it invented the game. But there is no one country where “golf” actually began.
“GOLF”, sometimes believed to be the combination of the first letters of “green”, “oxygen”, “light” and “foot”, always gives people a beautiful fantasy16 of walking with a casual17 step on soft grassland, reveling in18 the bright sunshine and breathing fresh air.
For a long time, its high cost and the time it takes have made it the pastime19 of the noble and the rich. It seems that golf is widely played only in developed countries. Nowadays it is popular around the world.
●Michelle's nickname on the golf tour is the Big Wiesy.
●Wie's caddie20 is her father, B.J. Wie.
●Michelle Wie is the youngest winner of the Women's Amateur Public Links.
●Michelle Wie wears size 10 men's golf shoes.
新星横空出世
16岁生日时你希望得到什么礼物？盛大的生日派对，无数的生日蛋糕还是意外的礼物？那么你觉得这份礼物怎么样：价值1,000万美元的支票，外加一个成为职业运动员去赚很多很多钱的机会？
这就是2005年10月11日美国高尔夫运动员魏圣美16岁生日收到的礼物。
从12岁起，魏圣美就不断给高尔夫界带来惊奇。人们认为她在未来很长一段时间内会成为最走红的女高尔夫运动员。
她获得2005年女子职业高尔夫球协会锦标赛亚军，在英国女子高尔夫公开赛中获得并列第3名。
她一举成名归功于她渴望同男子职业高尔夫运动员决一雌雄，她先后5次与男选手同场竞技。她说：“我喜欢挑战，我（对旧东西）很容易厌烦。”
“那是我的目标，我就是喜欢参加（男子）职业高尔夫球协会的巡回赛。”
巾帼不让须眉
2006年1月，这位韩裔美国女孩第4次尝试成为自1945年以来第1位在美国男子职业高尔夫协会巡回赛上晋级的女选手。她在夏威夷举行的索尼公开赛上同143位男运动员一决高下，结果未能如愿晋级。
2004年1月15日魏圣美首次亮相美国男子职业高尔夫协会巡回赛，参加索尼公开赛。她36洞打出标准杆，最后仅以1杆之差未能晋级，她的成绩超过47位成年男性！然而，未能晋级，她感到有些失望。“只多一杆，否则我就晋级了。”在最后3洞打出两个小鸟球后魏圣美这样说。
魏圣美是否应该继续参加男子高尔夫比赛，人们对此进行了激烈的争论。有人认为尽管她最终能够晋级，但不会夺冠。有人建议她现在应该集中注意力去打赢女子高尔夫比赛，然后再考虑参加男子高尔夫比赛。
世界排名15的美国高尔夫运动员马克·卡卡维查说；“她终究会晋级的，但永远不会获得冠军，仅此而已。也许她一旦晋级了，就该忘掉这一切。她应该先去赢得女子职业高尔夫比赛，然后再来这儿。”
但是，许多人相信魏圣美应该继续走下去。
她的教练大卫·里德贝特说：“参加男子职业高尔夫比赛使她进步很快，提高了她的水平，帮助她一步一步前进。”
排名世界第7的美国运动员吉姆·福瑞克说：“她是一个奇才，我没有想到一个16岁的女孩能取得如此成就。能够像她那样击球的16岁男孩也不多见。她无疑是百里挑一，万里挑一。”
英雄出少年
魏圣美4岁开始打高尔夫球，从韩国移民到夏威夷的父母是她的启蒙老师。她母亲是房地产经纪人，父亲是夏威夷大学教授。
魏圣美说她7、8岁的时候父母就不是她的对手。她说：“他们说我9岁的时候才超过他们的，但我不相信。”
魏圣美现在身高1米83， 她挥臂击球的姿势完美，击球的距离已经达到男子高尔夫巡回赛一般球手的距离。
她表现得非常出色，人们常常忘记她还是个高中生，打高尔夫还只是她的课外活动。
魏圣美喜欢看“美国偶像”的流行歌手选秀节目，喜欢听酷玩乐队和狂野夏洛特的音乐，喜欢金·凯利演的电影，常和朋友一起去购物。
她每天坚持健身，放学后练习3个小时，周末练8个小时。
除此以外，她和一般普通女孩没有两样，但她的身高让她鹤立鸡群。她说，“我确实太高了，我希望不要再长了。”
你知道吗？
高尔夫起源于哪个国家？答案可不止一个。只要有棍棒和可以用力抛掷的物体，就可以算作是“高尔夫”。尽管“高尔夫”这个名称到15世纪才出现，但是早期人类的许多运动形式就可以看作是高尔夫运动的始祖。
世界上几乎所有地区都宣称自己是高尔夫的发源地。当然，苏格兰就是这么认定的，中国、罗马、英格兰、法国、荷兰、比利时，甚至老挝也不例外。每个国家都有用棍棒和球进行的体育运动，所以它们认为自己的国家发明了这项运动也没有错，但是，实际上“高尔夫”不属于任何一个国家。
人们有时认为“GOLF”这个词是由green（绿色）、oxygen（氧气）、light（日光）和foot (脚步) 这4个英文单词的首字母合成的，它给人一种美丽的遐想：在柔软的草地上悠闲漫步，沐浴明媚的阳光，呼吸清新的空气。
长期以来，高尔夫因为其昂贵的费用和漫长的运动时间而成为贵族和富人的娱乐活动，似乎只有在发达国家这项运动才得以普及。现在，它成了全球的热门运动。
● 魏圣美在高尔夫巡回赛时的绰号是“大魏”。
● 她的“球童”是她的爸爸老魏。
● 她是美国女子业余公共球场锦标赛上最年轻的冠军。
● 她穿10号男子高尔夫球鞋。
1. endorsement n. 背书，票据签字
2. LPGA: Ladies Professional Golf Association的简写，女子职业高尔夫球协会
3. celebrity n. 名人
4. PGA: Professional Golf Association, （美国）职业高尔夫球协会
5. make the cut 晋级。在高尔夫比赛中，运动员必须达到或者超过一定的分数（标准杆）才能进行下面的比赛，这叫make the cut。
6. debut n. 首次登台，初次亮相
7. period n. 句号，这里的意思是她就此终止，不会有新的进展。
8. hit it取得成功
9. realtor n. 房地产经纪人
10. swing n. 挥动高尔夫球杆的姿态
11. Jim Carey 金·凯利，美国喜剧明星。
12. work out锻炼身体，健身
13. other than 除…以外
14. hurtle v. 用力掷，猛投
15. assumption n. 假设
16. fantasy n. 想象
17. casual adj. 随便的，漫不经心的
18. revel in 纵情于
19. pastime n. 娱乐
20. caddie n. 球童