Age-old question: Is Wie's way right?
HONOLULU -- A walk along Waialae Country Club is easily dominated by sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean, each made more spectacular when accompanied by brilliant sunshine.
This is the landscape she is accustomed to, the warmth that has always embraced her, and Michelle Wie feels at home in this environment. At so many vantage points amid the swaying palm trees, one could almost see forever, but Wie, wise beyond her 15 years, is not consumed by such visionary thoughts.
It's all about the here and now, she said, not some sort of grand, lifetime scheme.
"I'm not out here to prove anything. I just want to do what I want at this point, and you know, I'm just having so much fun," said the teenage phenom, who today will tee it up for the second straight year against the men in the PGA Tour's first full-field event of the season, the
Born and raised just a few miles from here, the sophomore at Punahou High School has been part of the world golf stage for a few years now. At 12, she made the PGA Tour guys take notice when she played in the pro-junior tournament here at the Sony and slammed 300-yard drives. At 13, she won the Women's Public Links Championship, the youngest winner of an adult tournament in US Golf Association history. Last year, even though Annika Sorenstam and Suzy Whaley the previous season had also played against the men -- something that hadn't been done since the days of the legendary Babe Didrikson Zaharias -- Wie's sponsor's exemption into this tournament set off a media frenzy and all but cemented her position in the public spotlight.
The fact that Wie shot a second-round, 2-under-par 68 and only missed the cut by one quieted the critics, for she had a better score than heralded names such as Adam Scott, John Cook, Scott Hoch, Steve Flesch, Jeff Sluman, and Craig Stadler. It was a stirring performance, yet what percolates beneath the surface is a critical assessment of the way in which Wie is going about things. She accepted six sponsor's exemptions into LPGA Tour events last year, also played in the US Women's Open, and took on the challenge of just three amateur tournaments of note.
To some, Wie is surely testing her game, but she's not cultivating a winning attitude.
"There's an art form to winning," said Tiger Woods, whose father insisted on a philosophical route for his son that is far different from the one Wie has chosen. Unlike Wie, Woods dominated junior golf circuits, then amateur golf, then went to college for two years. "From my own personal experience, I think that winning breeds winning, and you know, my dad always believed that if I wasn't able to win at this level, we weren't moving up to another level."
Surely, Wie was competitive on the LPGA Tour a year ago. She was fourth at the Kraft Nabisco Championship and joint 13th in the US Women's Open. In all, she was top 10 twice, top 20 in six of seven starts, but you will find plenty of observers who don't emphasize that success; rather, they point out that Wie fared poorly in the US Women's Amateur (a second-round loss in the match-play phase to In-Bee Park) and in defense of her US Women's Public Links Championship title, the young Hawaiian was stunned by Ya-Ni Tseng in the final. There was also a failed attempt to get through a qualifier for the US Men's Public Links Championship, and when Wie talks of her amateur plans for 2005 and only mentions qualifiers for the men's Publinx and the men's US Amateur, skeptics shake their heads.
Then again, there are those who are quick to defend her decisions.
"You play with the juniors if you want to learn to play like a junior," said Justin Rose, an Englishman who knows a thing or two about jumping into the thick of things quickly. Back in 1998 he nearly stole the show as an amateur at the British Open, his tie for fourth a scintillating story. The next day, he turned pro and over the next two years he missed cut after cut and pretty much got pounded. So he can relate to what Wie is going through, even if she insists she'll stay amateur for a few more years.
"Whether I was ready or not to turn pro is a different question, but I know I learned a lot and I feel like I'm a lot more mature now at 24 than I would have been had I gone to college and then turned pro," said Rose now a card-carrying member of PGA Tours in the US and Europe. "But ultimately, the best place to learn about the professional sport is on the professional sport [level]. Obviously, she's in the deep end, there's no doubt about that. But you're either going to learn to swim or you're going to sink."
Rose insists there is no blueprint for how to go about it, that up and down the roster of PGA Tour names you will find those who have earned their stripes in different ways.
"Everybody matures differently. Everyone's got to find their own formula," said Rose, and none other than Ernie Els agrees that Wie is going about things in a proper manner.
"I don't think she takes her age group seriously," said Els, who played a practice round with Wie last year here and did so again yesterday. "I think we've got a different person here. I think from when she was 13, she wanted to play out here on the PGA Tour and I think she wants to make a difference in life. That's what she's after and I don't think you should stand in her way. I think her dad and her mom are doing what they feel is best for Michelle."
According to Wie, that's a point a lot of people seem to be missing, that these tournaments are not being forced on her by her parents -- B.J., a professor at the University of Hawaii, and Bo, a real estate agent.
"Growing up, I always wanted to be known as someone who did crazy stuff. I always wanted to be known as doing stuff that no one ever thought of," she said. "I just want to push myself to the limit.
"I'm not here to say, `Oh, we [women] belong here.' I'm not here to make a statement. I'm just here to do stuff that no one has tried before. It's fun. Just think outside the box."
Sorenstam shot 71-74--145 and missed the cut by four in her appearance at the PGA Tour's
"It's not new. Everyone knows who she is now. We all know she's great. Now she's 15 and not 12 anymore," said Sorenstam. "We all know it's fun here and there, but long term, it's not the thing to do, really."
Warns Woods, "I think what she's doing might hurt her," but then he paused and emphasized that it was an opinion based strictly on how he was eased into the competitive golf world. He then offered a sort of disclaimer.
"At the end," said Woods, "she might be so talented she might just win everything and it may be a new way of doing it."
