Expectations return with Wie’s 1st win
From a hotel suite in Honolulu overlooking the golf course where Michelle Wie first showed her awesome potential, she looked at newspaper photos from various stages of her youth and realized those days were behind her.
She was 15 and had just turned pro.
Within a year, her income approached $20 million, more than any other female golfer.
“I know I have to win. That’s my priority now,” Wie said that day. “They all expect me to do better and work harder.”
That was four years ago, spanning 42 starts on the LPGA Tour. Those expectations took a long time to fulfill.
Her face was flush with celebration and relief Sunday when Wie blasted out of a bunker to tap-in range for a two-shot victory in Mexico. She thrust her arms in the air, and before long, she finally tasted that LPGA tradition for first-time winners by getting showered with beer.
An enormous burden lifted.
Wie created those expectations by shooting 68 on the PGA Tour at age 14, by having at least a share of the lead on the back nine of three major championships when she was 16, by coming within nine holes of qualifying for the U.S. Open and by developing shots that few other women could hit.
“For sure, it’s definitely off my back,” said Wie, now 20 and in her third year at Stanford. “I think that hopefully, life will be a lot better. But I still have a lot of work to do. I still have a lot to improve. It just feels so great right now.”
But as one burden is lifted, another is soon to arrive.
The timing could not have been better for the LPGA Tour, which is starved for attention and struggling to climb out of an economic morass that likely will lead to the fewest tournaments it has had in years.
The LPGA needs star power, and no one moves the needle like Wie.
Paula Creamer was 18 and had not gone through high school graduation when she captured her first LPGA Tour victory. Morgan Pressel was 18 when she became the youngest major champion in LPGA Tour history. Neither generated the attention of Wie’s first win in Mexico at a tournament shown on tape delay.
Wie won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, named after the No. 1 player in women’s golf. Yet even Ochoa could not carry the tour. When she was going for a record-tying fifth consecutive victory last year in Oklahoma, it received only local coverage. The Golf Channel did not send a crew to document her streak.
Wie has the kind of appeal not seen since Nancy Lopez – but only if she keeps winning.
Ochoa remains the No. 1 player, and Jiyai Shin has shown to be the best this year, on the verge of becoming the first player since Lopez in 1978 to win player of the year and rookie of the year in the same season. Wie played 18 times this year and is not among the top 10 on the LPGA money list.
To predict greatness after one victory is tantamount to the predictions she faced when she first turned pro. Although the LPGA Tour faces a mighty struggle, Wie winning can only help.
