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Michelle Sung Wie (born October 11, 1989 in
Honolulu, Hawaii) is a professional Korean-American golfer who has gained
attention for her long drives and attempts to make a cut at a PGA Tour event. In
2006, she was named in a Time magazine article, "one of 100 people who shape our
world."
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Hangul: 위성미/미셸위
Hanja: 魏聖美/미셸 魏
Revised Romanization: Wi Seong(-)mi/Misyel Wi
McCune-Reischauer: Wi Sŏngmi/Misyel Wi
****
Early years
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, she began playing the
game of golf at the age of four. When Wie was 10, she shot a personal-best 64 in
18 holes from the 5,400-yard tees at the Olomana Golf Links, one of Hawaii's
most popular links style courses. That year, she became the youngest player to
qualify for a USGA amateur championship and advanced into match play at the
Women's U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship using her grandmother's clubs.
2002-2004: Amateur career
In 2002, Wie won the Hawaii Open Women's Division
by 13 shots over LPGA pro Cindy Rarick. She also became the youngest player to
qualify for an LPGA event, the Takefuji Classic and missed the cut.
A year later, she became the youngest player ever
to make a cut in a LPGA event at the Kraft Nabisco Championship and shot a 66 in
the 3rd round, tying the amateur record for a women's major championship, and
placing her in the final group alongside Annika Sorenstam and eventual winner,
Patricia Meunier-Lebouc. A few months later, Wie earned an historic victory at
the Women's Amateur Public Links tournament, becoming the youngest person ever
(male or female) to win a USGA event for adults. In 2004 Wie became only the
fourth female, and the youngest ever, to play in an event on the PGA Tour, at
the Sony Open in Hawaii. She shot 72-68 to finish at even par, but missed the
cut by one stroke.
That year, Wie was named to the U.S. team for the
2004 Curtis Cup and became the youngest woman ever selected to the play as the
U.S. team went on to win. She went on to finish fourth in the Kraft Nabisco
Championship. If she had played the 2004 season as a professional, she would
have earned over US$250,000 from her tournament results.
2005: Turning pro
Wie had long attracted attention not just for her
height, which had reached 6 foot 1 inch (1.85 meters) by her early teens, but
for the length she was able to drive the ball and the form of her golf swing.
When Wie was fourteen professional golfer Ernie Els remarked, "Give her another
couple years to get stronger, she can play on the PGA Tour." The 6 ft 1 in (1.85
m) Wie, at the age of 16, had an average drive of about 280 yards. Her size and
use of Els as a model have led sports media to call her The Big Wiesy, a play on
Els' nickname of The Big Easy. Fred Couples said, "When you see her hit a golf
ball
there's nothing that prepares you for it. It's just the scariest thing
you've ever seen." As to Wie's potential impact on the sport, Arnold Palmer
stated in 2003 that "she's probably going to influence the golfing scene as much
as Tiger, or more. She's going to attract people that even Tiger didn't attract,
young people, both boys and girls, and families."
Wie started her 2005 season by again accepting a
sponsor's invitation to again play in the Sony Open in Hawaii on the PGA Tour,
where she again missed the cut. She then turned to the LPGA Tour, finishing
second at SBS Open at Turtle Bay. That June, she placed second at the LPGA
Championship. She became the first female golfer to qualify for a USGA national
men's tournament, when she tied for first place in a 36-hole qualifier for the
U.S. Amateur Public Links. At the U.S. Women's Open, she finished the third
round in a three-way tie for the lead, but dropped severely after scoring an 82
in the final round, and finished tied for 23. The week after, she played in the
John Deere Classic in her third attempt to make the cut at a PGA Tour event,
where she missed the cut by two strokes.
In the Men's Public Links, Wie made the top 64 in
the stroke play rounds to qualify for match play and losing in the quarterfinals
to the eventual champion. She then played in the Evian Masters, a major on the
Ladies European Tour and a regular LPGA event, and finished in a tie for second.
The week after, she finished tied for third at the Women's British Open, the
fourth and final major of the year.
On October 5, 2005, a week before her 16th
birthday, Wie announced in Hawaii that she was turning professional, reportedly
signing sponsorship contracts with Nike and Sony worth more than US$10,000,000
per year. At the same time she announced a pledge of US$500,000 for Hurricane
Katrina relief.
Professional career
Wie cannot officially become a member of the LPGA
Tour until her 18th birthday, unless she petitions for an exception to this rule
as some players, including Morgan Pressel and Aree Song have previously done.
She has not chosen to file such a petition. Since she is not an LPGA member, she
is limited to playing in no more than six LPGA events per year and only when
granted entry to the events by sponsor exemption. Her earnings also do not
appear on the official ADT money list and she is not eligible for Rolex Rookie
of the Year honors. Nor do her statistics appear on the LPGA's web site.
However, as a professional, she is allowed to collect prize money. In addition,
she may enter any non-LPGA events to which she is invited or qualifies, such as
the US Women's Open, and she appears in the Rolex World Golf Rankings.
Wie played her first event as a professional in the
limited-field Samsung World Championship, an LPGA event open only to 20 top
professional ladies golfers. She was invited to play by a sponsor's invitation
and was initially credited with a fourth-place finish and US$ 53,000. However,
shortly after signing her scorecard, rules officials were alerted by a
journalist of a possible infraction of the rules on the seventh hole of the
third round (played the previous day). It was decided that Wie had made an
illegal drop by dropping the ball closer to the hole than its original lie.
Because Wie signed her scorecard without reporting the rules infraction, she was
charged with a violation of the rules of golf for signing an incorrect scorecard
and was disqualified from the tournament. Had she reported the infraction, she
would have instead merely been penalized two strokes.
Wie played her second professional event in
November, 2005 at the Casio World Open on the Japan Golf Tour and shot four over
par to miss the cut. Her third professional start was in January 2006, returning
to the PGA TOUR at the Sony Open in Hawaii at her home course at the Waialae
Country Club, and missed the cut again, this time by 7 strokes.
In February 2006, the first release of the Rolex
World Golf Rankings controversially placed Wie third in the world for women,
behind Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer. As of July 31, 2006, Wie ranked
second in the world for women in the weekly rankings, behind Sorenstam. In order
for her to remain in the rankings, she needed to accumulate a minimum 15
world-wide professional women's tournaments in the preceding twenty-four months,
and she had dropped off the rankings for a brief while during the spring of
2006. However, in part as a result of the controversy over her ranking as well
as in response to criticism over how players on tours other than the LPGA were
ranked, the procedure for calculating the Rolex Rankings was revised, effective
immediately, on August 3, 2006. The "minimum tournament" requirement was
eliminated, but a minimum divisor of 35 tournaments for calculating a player's
ranking was added, meaning that any player who had accumulated points in fewer
than 35 tournaments would have her ranking calculated as if she had played in 35
tournaments. After the change in the ranking formula, Wie's ranking dropped to
7th. All players ranked above her had at least one professional tournament win
in the preceding 12 months.[1]
To open her first season on the LPGA, she earned
US$73,227 for a third place finish in the Fields Open in Hawaii and US$108,222
for finishing in a tie for third in the Kraft Nabisco Championship.
In May 2006, Wie participated in the SK Telecom
Open on the Asian Tour and became the second woman (after Se Ri Pak in 2003) to
make the cut at a men's tournament in South Korea. Wie reportedly received
US$700,000 in appearance fees for competing in the event that offered US$600,000
in total prize money. On May 16, Wie finished first in a local qualifying
tournament for the Men's U.S. Open. According to officials with the sponsoring
United States Golf Association, Wie became the first female to be a medalist in
a local qualifier for the men's U.S. Open. Weeks later, she was competing
against 152 players (135 professionals, including 48 PGA Tour players) in the
final stage of U.S. Open qualifying at Summit, NJ vying for one of 16 available
spots in the men's U.S. Open at Winged Foot G.C. Wie finished 59th and did not
advance. In June, Wie tied for 5th in the LPGA Championship and tied for 3rd in
the US Women's Open. In July, she played in the HSBC Women's World Match Play
Championship on the LPGA Tour where she was eliminated in the quarterfinals 4 &
3 by Brittany Lincicome. On July 13 and 14, Wie played in the John Deere Classic
on the PGA Tour, finishing the first round at 6 over par, well above the
projected cut line. In the high heat of the second day, her score rose to 8 over
par for the tourney and 10 shots above the projected cut line. She voluntarily
withdrew from the tournament after the 9th hole, citing heat exhaustion. Two
weeks later, she returned to the LPGA Tour, finishing in a tie for second at the
Evian Masters, then finished tied for 26th at the Weetabix British Open, where
she drew controversy again for grounding her club in a bunker, by touching a
loose impediment during her backswing, resulting in a two-stroke penalty. In a
post-tournament interview, Wie said that she was not familiar with the rules and
"knew the rule wrong." In September, she competed in the Omega European Masters
on the men's European Tour where she finished in last place among the 156
competitiors, 15 strokes over par for the first two rounds, missing the cut by
14 strokes. She still managed to draw large crowds; tournament organizers
reported that many of the 9,500 spectators on the first day came to see Wie. [2]
A week later she made her third appearance of 2006 on the PGA Tour at the 84
Lumber Classic on the 7,511 yard Mystic Rock course at Nemacolin. Wie finished
14 over par after two rounds, 23 strokes behind the leaders, again the highest
score among all players completing the first two rounds. [3]
Wie's remaining 2006 schedule the Samsung World
Championship on the LPGA Tour, and a second appearance in two years at the Casio
World Open in Japan.
Wie has employed 6 caddies, some borrowed on off
weeks from other players, since her father stopped caddying for her in 2004.
Most recently, she fired her regular caddie Greg Johnston on 8th August 2006.
Criticism
Observers of golf have criticized Wie's efforts to
play in PGA TOUR events through sponsors' exemptions. Wie has made only one cut
in a men's tournament, and has made no cuts on the PGA TOUR. Professional
golfers, fans, and media critics have remarked that allowing Wie to compete in
PGA events takes away opportunities for other golfers who need more playing time
to attempt to earn a PGA TOUR exemption for the coming season.citation needed
However, a tournament sponsor has a maximum of only four completely unrestricted
exemptions available, and those exemptions are often used to invite players
(including amateurs) who can increase ticket sales and tournament visibility.
The first four exemptions offered by a sponsor must be offered to PGA TOUR
players or other competitive players.[4]
Amateur and professional victories
2003 USGA Women's Amateur Public Links
(showing individual victories only)
As of September 14, 2006, Wie played in a total of
44 professional events as either an amateur or a professional: 33 LPGA Tour
events, 6 PGA TOUR events, 1 Nationwide Tour event, 1 Canadian Tour event, 1
Japan Golf Tour event, 1 Asian Tour event, and 1 European Tour event. As an
amateur she played in several Hawai'i state and USGA national amateur events.
Results in LPGA majors
Tournament 2003 2004 2005 2006
Kraft Nabisco Championship T9 LA 4 LA T14 LA T3
LPGA Championship DNP DNP 2 LA T5
U.S. Women's Open T39 T13 TLA T23 T3
Women's British Open DNP DNP T3 LA T26
LA = Low Amateur
DNP = did not play
WD = withdrew
"T" = tied
Green background for wins. Yellow background for
top-10.
Golf records
The youngest player ever to qualify for an adult
USGA-sanctioned tournament 10 years, 9 months, 24 days (2000 Women's U.S.
Amateur Public Links)
The youngest player ever to qualify for an LPGA
tournament Age 12 (2002 LPGA Takefuji Classic)
The youngest winner (male or female) of an adult
USGA-sanctioned tournament Age 13 (2003 Women's U.S. Amateur Public Links)
The youngest player to make a cut in an LPGA
tournament and major Age 13 (2003 Nabisco Championship)
The youngest player to play in a PGA Tour event
Age 14 (2004 Sony Open)
The lowest round by a female in a PGA Tour event
(also the first female to score a sub-70 round in PGA Tour history) 68 (2004 &
2006 Sony Open)
The youngest player to play in Curtis Cup history
Age 14 (2004)
The youngest female to make a cut in any
professional male tour event - Age 16 (2006 SK Telecom Open)
The first female medalist in a mens U.S. Open
qualifying tournament Age 16 (2006 U.S. Open Local Qualifying at Turtle Bay
Hawaii)
References
1 Two modifications announced for Rolex Rankings -
LPGA.com
2 English Trio Lead the Way in Swiss Alps -
europeantour.com retrieved 8 September 2006
3 Wie taking steps back in bid to make PGA cut MSN
Foxsports.com 15 September 2006
4 pgatour.com All-Exempt Tour Priority Rankings,
retrieved 14 September 2006
****
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Date Article Copied:
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