Michelle and her father had a few goals at the start of the week. The immediate goal was to make her first LPGA cut. This she easily did with rounds of 72 and 74, putting her in the top 20 going into the weekend. This also made Michelle the youngest girl to ever make the cut in a Major, beating Aree Song's record by a few months. Their second and third goals were not going to be so easy. They wanted to go Aree one better; like her, they wanted to play in the final group on Sunday, but if possible, wanted to better Aree's tenth place finish in 2000.

Any thought that those goals might be a bit ambitious were blown away by an absolutely awesome Saturday round. After this round, not only did a top ten seem possible, but even a win was not out of the question. Michelle went out blistering the course early on; in just 12 holes she was an unbelievable 6 under par. As usual, her drives were beyond incredible, giving her short approaches into greens. But this time she was making her putts. When all was said and done, she had a 66, tied for low round of the week; and had moved into third place at 4 under par, only 4 shots behind leader Patricia Meunier-Lebouc and just one shot behind Annika. Among those she had passed were Seoul Sister Se Ri; indeed, she was ahead of all the Korean players in the field.

Michelle waves to the fans after her final round
AP Photo/Larry Ignelzi

Michelle holds her low amateur award
AP Photo/Larry Ignelzi

You couldn't help get the feeling that Michelle was blissfully unaware of what she had just accomplished. When asked in an interview if this were her most impressive round ever, she replied, 'No, I shot a 64 once.' Of course, not under Major pressure! She also remarked how she was constantly trying to get her dad, who doubled as her caddie, to calm down, repeatedly asking him to 'just chill, please'.

On Sunday, the enormity of the situation caught up to her a little. She played well on the front nine, keeping herself in contention, but on the back she started to make putting mistakes galore. She had a fifteen footer for eagle that she three putted. Several more short misses followed. She ended up with 38 putts on the day, and at even par for the tournament. A 32 or 33 putt round would have put her right in contention until the end, amazingly. However, though she had her problems, she still hung onto to a 9th place finish, and thus accomplished her goal of beating Song's record (keep in mind, though, that Aree had a two stroke penalty when her ball moved on one green, otherwise she would have beaten Michelle).

It's easy to go crazy and wonder what else Michelle can accomplish from here, but we should try to keep things in perspective. Aree Song, having had a similar accomplishment at the same age, is an interesting case study. Now 16, she is arguably the top amateur women's player in the world. She has played about a dozen LPGA events, and has had some good success, including a top ten in the Safeway Classic of 2000. But she never really duplicated the success of her first Major, at least not yet. Granted Aree does not have the length of Wie, but Michelle has still never won anything of note in amateur golf, unlike Aree, who even at 13 had a gaudy record of achievement. The elements are all there to make Michelle a world beater; indeed, her skills give her a natural advantage over almost anyone else who has ever played the game. But winning is about more than driving distance, as we saw this week. Only time will tell if she will develop a killer instinct and a mind perfectly suited to collecting trophies.

In the meantime, though, the women's golf world got a huge thrill watching the debut of an unquestioned talent on the world stage. The memories of those sizzling drives, the sweet smiles, the brashness, will for now be a tantalizing glimpse into what could be in store in 2008 or so.