|
Michelle Wie started playing golf at the age
of 4. Even at that young age she was able to hit the ball
100 yards off the tee, a sign of things to come. By the time
she was 10, she was making huge noise in Hawaii. At that age
she made her first try at qualifying for the PGA tour event
held there. While she did not come close to qualifying, shooting
an 84, it was still an amazing achievement. That year, 2000,
she also became the youngest girl to ever qualify for a USGA
event, in this case the US Women's Public Links Championship.
By the time she was 12, Wie had grown to nearly
six feet in height, and was frequently blasting drives in
excess of 300 yards. The PGA pros that got a look at her were
astonished; Tom Lehman gave her the nickname 'The Big Wiesy',
because, like Ernie Els (aka the Big Easy), her swing was
smooth and powerful. In January of 2002, she made history
again by qualifying for the LPGA's Takefuji Classic, the youngest
to ever do so. Though she missed the cut, it was a good learning
experience for her.
In 2003, she tried again to qualify for the
Sony Open. This time she shot a 73 and finished 47th out of
96 players. This got her so much notoriety that she was offered
a plethora of LPGA sponsor exemptions throughout the season.
This, combined with an amazing 9th place finish
at the Nabisco Championship a few weeks later, propelled Michelle
into the media spotlight; she is arguably the best known of
all the players on this site, though she is still (probably)
years away from turning pro!
Michelle ended up playing many LPGA events
throughout the year, making the cut in all but one of them.
She also played two men's events, though she did not come
close to making the cut in either one. Unfortunately, she
played relatively few amateur and girl's events, but did manage
to win one of them, the prestigious Women's Public Links Championship
(again the youngest ever to do so). This was her first significant
national level title.
In 2004, the PGA's Sony Open finally decided
to give her a sponsor's exemption into the event. She made
it count, shooting 72-68 to miss the cut by only a single
stroke, garnering yet again more headlines. A few months after
that, she put herself into contention at the first LPGA Major
of the year, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, eventually finishing
4th, and she also had a good finish at the US Women's Open
later that year.
2005 was another great year for Wie. Although
she did not do so well at her second attempt at the Sony Open,
later in the year she was given another PGA exemption into
the John Deere field. With just a few holes to go in round
2, she was several shots below the cut, and looked assured
of making it. But then she made a couple of key mistakes,
and once again just missed the cut. She had another chance
against the men a few months later, at the Men's Public Links,
where she shocked everyone by making it to the quarterfinals
before being eliminated. Had she won that, she would have
qualified for a trip to the Masters.
Meanwhile, she posted her best finishes ever
on the LPGA tour. She finished second at the first event of
the year, in Hawaii, and at the second Major of the year,
the LPGA Championship, she not only became the first non-LPGA
member to be allowed to play, she finished by herself in second
place behind Annika Sorenstam. She was tied for the lead at
the US Women's Open going into the final day, but did not
do very well on Sunday, and finished tied for third at the
British Open.
Surprising virtually no one, Michelle turned
pro just after her 16th birthday, and immediately thereafter
signed huge endorsement deals with Nike and Sony. She is not
interested for the moment in joining the LPGA tour full time,
although she will continue to play a number of times on that
tour during the year. In her first event as a pro, the 2005
Samsung World Championship, she played well, but an illegal
drop in the third round forced her disqualification.
In 2006, she continued her pro career, and
unlike her problems at the Samsung, she could seemingly do
no wrong. She finished third at the Fields Open, then contended
in the first three Majors on tour. She finished in the top
ten in every LPGA event she played through July in 2006. She
also managed to finally make a cut on a men's tour: she finished
tied for 35th at the SK Telecom event on the Asian tour. Thus,
the only living women to make the cut at a men's tour event
are she and Se Ri Pak, who finished tied for 10th at a KPGA
event in 2003.
Wie's game took a marked downturn towards
the end of 2006. It started when she was forced to drop out
of a PGA event due to dehydration. She went on to finish virtually
last in the next couple of men's events she played. Even when
she played a women's event, the Samsung, she was not competitive.
As she reached 17 years of age, she was mired in the first
slump of her career.
Michelle graduated from high school in 2007
and, in the fall, went to Stanford. That was about the only
positive news she had all year. On the golf course, she had
a disastrous time. Her wrist injury forced her to miss several
months of tournaments, including the year's first Major, the
Nabisco. When she returned to action at the Ginn Open, she
played so poorly that she was in last place when she was forced
to bow out. Instead of challenging for wins thereafter, she
was frequently struggling just to finish the event or make
the cut. Even when she did make the cut, she would finish
last in the field among those who did. Wie only broke par
twice in 2007, and made less than $10,000 on the course.
After her fall semester at Stanford, Wie took
the spring off to prepare for golf in 2008. Although she struggled
with her long game, she still started the 2008 Fields Open
(in her native Hawaii) well, shooting her first round in the
60s in over a year. But she struggled toward the end and finished
last among those making the cut.
|
