With Wie in contention, crowds will keep coming

It will be a big challenge for Michelle Wie to seal the deal Saturday. But her station near the top of the LPGA Lotte Championship leaderboard may have already helped complete a big one for the tournament itself.

As Jason Kaneshiro reported in the Star-Advertiser earlier this week, the LPGA and the Asian conglomerate are close to a three-year sponsorship extension, taking this event through 2017.

And with several hundred fans showing up to watch Wie’s every move during Friday’s third round, you get the feeling final handshakes and ink hitting paper could occur very soon … and there would be no reason to move the tournament away from Hawaii.

That’s a win for all of us here, whether you like golf or not. While the LPGA Lotte Championship doesn’t bring in as much tourism as the Pro Bowl or the Sony Open in Hawaii, it certainly doesn’t hurt.

It also helps to have so many outstanding role models for young athletes on the island for a week. I can’t seem to remember the last time an LPGA player got in some kind of trouble here … probably because one never has.

With Wie just one shot off the pace of Angela Stanford after Thursday’s second round, Good Friday meant good gallery for Wie, Stanford and Cristie Kerr.

While the latter two are solid pros with 21 LPGA wins between them, there’s no doubt who sold most of the tickets Friday — and will again for Saturday’s final round.

"My friend (Moses Magno) called me and said, ‘We gotta go watch her," said Carlton Young, 62, of Pearl City. 

Magno, 61, from Waianae, and Young are local businessmen who just want to support the hometown girl. They said they’ll be back again for the final round.

"I’m not even a golfer," Magno said. "I’m just a fan. I admire how she’s dealt with pure pressure all these years." 

Young said he doesn’t want to miss a potential comeback for Wie’s first win as a pro in Hawaii.

"I’m always rooting for her," he said. "But Angela Stanford is tough. She made no mistakes (Friday) and Michelle had some bad breaks with the putter."

Of course it is TV that accounts for the backbone of sports sponsorship deals. And the galleries here Friday were still small compared to what Wie has drawn in many other events, including the Kraft Nabisco Championship two weeks ago.

The point is the crowd is much bigger with Wie in contention than it was when she didn’t make the cut in 2012 and barely made it in 2013. And she’s still popular enough to move the meter on TV ratings on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.

The odds are against Wie chasing down the leader and avenging the steady Stanford’s comeback against her in 2009 at Turtle Bay. But plenty of folks will watch to see if she can.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.