Michelle Wie

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Michelle Wie

Personal Information
Birth: 11 October 1989,
Honolulu, Hawaii
Height: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Nationality: Flag of United States United States
Residence: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Career
College: n/a
Turned Professional: 2005
Current Tour:
Professional wins:
Majors:
Awards:

Michelle Sung Wie (born October 11, 1989 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is a professional American golfer who has gained attention for her 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." She has been accepted to Stanford University and has said she will be enrolling in fall 2007.

Contents

[edit] Early years

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Korean-born parents, Wie began playing golf at the age of four. When Wie was 11, 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.

[edit] 2002-2004: Amateur career

In 2002, Wie won the Hawaii Open Women's Division by thirteen 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.

[edit] 2005: Turning pro

Michelle Wie at the 2005 Samsung World Championship
Michelle Wie at the 2005 Samsung World Championship

Wie had long attracted attention not just for her height, which had reached 6 foot 1 inch by her early teens, but for the length she was able to drive the ball as well as 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 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.

[edit] 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 by sponsor exemption. She can also play in an unlimited number of non-LPGA professional events, including the US Women's Open and Weetabix British Open 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. As with all non-LPGA member professional female golfers, she does appear in the Rolex World Golf Rankings.

[edit] 2005

Wie played her first event as a professional in the limited-field Samsung World Championship, an LPGA event open only to 20 top professional female 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 she did not report 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 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; she missed the cut again, this time by seven strokes.

Michelle Wie hits a tee shot at the 2005 Samsung World Championship.
Michelle Wie hits a tee shot at the 2005 Samsung World Championship.

[edit] 2006

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 of 15 world-wide professional women's tournaments in the preceding twenty-four months. She had dropped off the rankings for a brief time 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. After the change, 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 and 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. On 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 last among the 156 competitors, 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 for the first two rounds. [3]

Wie finished out 2006 by competing in the Samsung World Championship on the LPGA Tour, where she finished in 17th place in the 20-player field, 21 strokes behind the leader. Once again, Wie gained entry by virtue of a sponsor's invitation.

In her last event of 2006, Wie competed again at the Casio World Open on the men's Japan Golf Tour. She finished last among the professional players, some 27 shots behind the leaders. With the conclusion of the Casio tournament, Wie had played 14 consecutive rounds of tournament golf without breaking par – eight on the LPGA Tour, two on the European Tour, two on the PGA Tour and two on the Japan Golf Tour. [4]

By the end of 2006, her first full year as a professional, she had missed the cut in 11 out of 12 tries against men, and remained winless in all 33 professional women's tournaments she had entered, the last 9 as a professional. [5]

[edit] 2007

In January Wie accepted her fourth consecutive sponsor's exemption to the PGA TOUR's Sony Open in Hawaii. At the conclusion of the second round, she missed the cut by 14 strokes, finishing third from last in the 144-player field, and was 25 strokes behind the second-round leader.

[edit] Criticism

[edit] Poor performance in men's events

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. After missing the cut at the 2007 Sony Open by 14 shots, many sports critics began to doubt whether she ever will.[6] Following Wie's poor performance at the 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii, AP golf writer Doug Ferguson suggested that her nickname be changed from "the Big Wiesy" to a more appropriate moniker, "the Big Queasy."[7],[8]

[edit] Use of exemptions

Professional golfers, fans, and media critics have remarked that allowing Wie to compete in PGA events takes away opportunities from more deserving golfers who need more playing time to attempt to earn a PGA TOUR exemption for the following season.[9] [10] [11] [12] 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.[13]

[edit] Caddie turnover

Wie has employed at least seven caddies since her father stopped caddying for her in 2004. Some of the caddies have been borrowed on off weeks from other players. Her most recent professional caddie was Jimmy Johnson, at the Casio World Open in November 2006. When Wie played at the 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii, her father was once again caddying for her.

[edit] Performance against women

Much of the criticism of Wie comes from the belief that she has not proven herself enough on the LPGA Tour. She has yet to win an event in over 30 starts dating back to 2003.

[edit] Education

Wie attends Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is scheduled to graduate in May, 2007. On December 19, 2006, Wie announced that she will be attending Stanford University in the fall of 2007.[14]

[edit] Amateur and professional victories

  • 2003 USGA Women's Amateur Public Links

(showing individual victories only)

As of January 11, 2007, Wie played in a total of 46 professional events as either an amateur or a professional: 33 against women on the LPGA Tour and 13 against men: 7 on the PGA TOUR, 1 on the Nationwide Tour, 1 on the Canadian Tour, 2 on the Japan Golf Tour, 1 on the Asian Tour event, and 1 on the European Tour. As an amateur she played in several Hawai'i state and USGA national amateur events.

[edit] Results in LPGA majors

Tournament 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Kraft Nabisco Championship T9 LA 4 LA T14 LA T3 DNP
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.

[edit] Golf records

  • The youngest player ever to qualify for an adult USGA-sanctioned tournament – 10 years, 298 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 men’s U.S. Open qualifying tournament – Age 16 (2006 U.S. Open Local Qualifying at Turtle Bay Hawaii)

[edit] 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. ^ Golf Capsules SI.com 15 October 2006
  5. ^ Michelle Wie Statistics on LPGA.com
  6. ^ Wie's woes worsening Winnipegsun.com, retrieved 14 January 2007
  7. ^ Where Does Wie Go ... PGA.org, retrieved 16 Jan 2007
  8. ^ Another wipeout for Wie ESPN, retrieved 16 Jan 2007
  9. ^ Wie paid to play not to win Worldgolf.com, retrieved 23 November 2006
  10. ^ Wie's exemption opposed Honolulu Advertiser, retrieved 23 November 2006
  11. ^ Michelle Wie prompts gallery debate USA Today, retrieved 23 November 2006
  12. ^ Michelle Wie Nothing But Hype The Asia Pages, retrieved 23 November 2006
  13. ^ pgatour.com All-Exempt Tour Priority Rankings, retrieved 14 September 2006
  14. ^ Wie gets accepted to Stanford Yahoo Sports, retrieved 19 December 2006

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Web sites

[edit] News citations

Preceded by
Yao Ming		 Laureus World Newcomer of the Year
2004		 Succeeded by
Liu Xiang
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/i/c/Michelle_Wie_0b9f.html"