Go, Michelle Wie!

NYT: 15-year-old golf phenom Michelle Wei is trying to become the first woman to make the cut of a PGA event in 60 years. I'm hoping she does it, not only because she's incredibly cute, but also because it will help put the John Deere Classic in the headlines.

I spent much of my childhood in Davenport, Iowa -- one of the Quad Cities, where the JDC (formerly the Quad Cities Open) was born. One year it was played at my Dad's golf club, and I remember watching power-hitter Jim Dent drive a ball to the green on par-4 no. 10 -- from the back tees. Ouch!

John Deere has always been a big part of my life, too. My dad had a long career with Deere (a great company) and taught my brother and me to cheer for the green-and-yellow tractors as we drove across the midwestern landscape. We did so lustily, and boo'd International Harvester, Oliver, and Massey Ferguson -- all of whom are now out of the farm implement business.

(By the way -- is Deere now a fashionable brand? I noticed John Deere hats and T-shirts on sale next to the pirate-themed stuff in the souvenir stores on Hatteras Island. Weird.)

Anyhow -- Go Michelle Wie, Go Quad-Cities, Go Green and Yellow!

Update: Michelle fell two strokes short of making the cut, and I was wrong about Massey Ferguson: they still make tractors.