Wie turns 13, takes aim at PGA's Sony Open
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By Bill Kwon
Most Fridays, Michelle Wie can be seen playing a practice round of golf at the Pearl Country Club.
Photo courtesy of Wie family
But not last Friday. It was her 13th birthday and she was celebrating it with her parents, BJ and Hyun Kyong.
Michelle Wie, and her parents, BJ and Hyun Kyong, took this photo in May during the LPGA Asahi Ryokuken International at Mount Vintage Plantation in North Augusta, S.C.
She went "shopping and stuff" and then ate her favorite food, sushi, at Sansei Restaurant.
So how does it feel to be a teen-ager finally?
"It doesn't feel anything different. It feels the same," said Wie, Hawai'i's well-publicized golf prodigy.
Not that you can blame her.
Even though her age might finally be starting to catch up with her 5-foot, 11-inch body, being a year older is no big deal to the Punahou School eighth-grader. She has been preternaturally mature for her age since breaking into the local golf scene three years ago.
And especially not when you've already played in three LPGA Tour events, set milestones as the youngest qualifier in USGA competition and crashed the gender barrier in the Manoa Cup and other men's amateur events.
She's not through making golf headlines.
Last week, a PGA production crew filmed Wie at school, where she's in the honors class in math, and at the Olomana practice range for a TV special that will air on USA Network next January, the Sunday morning before either the Mercedes Championships or the Sony Open in Hawai'i.
Wie was also interviewed for profiles that will appear in next month's issue of Golf for Women and the December and January issues of Golf Magazine.
Pretty heady stuff, but it hasn't turned Michelle's head.
She's still quiet, preferring to let her golf clubs do the talking.
And nothing is deterring her from her next two goals — playing in the Hawai'i State Open next month at the Makena Resort and qualifying for the Sony Open.
Yes, the PGA Tour's Sony Open at the Waialae Country Club.
It's the reason she has been playing after school on Fridays at the Pearl Country Club course, which will be the site of the Sony Open's Monday qualifying. It's not her first attempt. She tried it as a 10-year-old, shooting an 84.
Obviously, her overall game has improved tremendously since then. It's no longer just 280-yard drives for show.
Last Saturday, a day after her birthday, Wie shot a 2-under-par 70, playing from Pearl's championship tees where the men will play from in the qualifying. Last month, she finished tied for fifth in the Hickam Invitational, a men's event featuring some of the state's top amateurs.
Wie is well aware that no woman has yet to play in a PGA Tour event and she'd like to be the first.
She's also aware that a Connecticut club pro, Suzy Whaley, has become the first woman to qualify to play in the PGA at next summer's Greater Hartford Open, after winning the state sectional championship. Whaley, who qualified by playing from the women's tee, isn't sure she'll enter the GHO since she would have to play from the men's tees.
"Michelle thought it was unfair that she qualified playing from the women's tees," said BJ Wie. "She knows you should play from the men's tees to qualify."
Wie, though, won't be doing any gender-bending in the 54-hole Williams & Associates Hawai'i State Open, in which she will be playing in the women's division. For now anyway.
If she wins it one of these years, Wie would like to try for the men's state open title as well.
The reason? To accomplish another gender-breaking goal i being among the state's top 12 amateurs in order to play in the Governor's Cup, a men's-only event. Despite playing in only a few point-qualifying events this year, Wie finished 21st in the standings.
Next school year, as a ninth-grader, Wie will finally be eligible to play for the Punahou golf team.
Will it be for the boys' or girls' team? Surprisingly, there will be no gender-bending for Wie, who's looking forward to finally playing high school golf for the Buffanblu girls.
"She hopefully can raise the bar for the other girls," says BJ Wie.
Michelle Wie already has done that. And she's barely into her teens.
Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.
