Wie nears end of summer tour, starts school Tuesday

By Michael Patrick Shiels
Special to The Honolulu Advertiser

Honolulu's Michelle Wie will tee it up with the men today in the Canadian Tour Bay Mills Open Players' Championship at the Wild Bluff Golf Club in Brimley, Mich. Associated Press

"I like the lakes here because they're really big and they remind me of the ocean. It's really beautiful," said Wie after spotting Great Lakes Michigan and Huron during her travels to the state's upper peninsula, where the Wild Bluffs Golf Course at the Bay Mills Resort and Casinos, complete with views of Lake Superior, is hosting Wie and the Canadian Tour's best players.

Wie is the only female in the $250,000 (Canadian) season-ending tournament. "I feel really welcome and I feel like I belong here," she said. "The players are really nice to me."

Wie received a sponsor's exemption from The Golf Channel, which will broadcast all four rounds live. She began her opening round this morning at 2 a.m. Hawai'i time. Though the Bay Mills Open Players' Championship is a professional event, she'll be playing with two of the three other amateurs in the field — Canadian Mike Mezei and reigning Michigan Amateur champion Colby Beckstrom.

Wie shot 6-over-par 78 in Tuesday's pro-am on the Wild Bluffs course, but was nonplussed about competing against the tour's men.

"I can out-drive them, sometimes," Wie said. "This isn't my first time playing against professional men. I played against them in the JPGA in Hawai'i so I'm kind of used to it. I played against a lot of men in tournaments before. And I played in the Sony Open qualifier, so I guess I'm pretty used to hitting it from the back tees."

Wie will use her best weapon in the 72-hole tournament — a driver with which she's been hitting the ball about 290 yards. She used her 3-wood from the tee at Highland Meadows CC in Toledo last week at the LPGA's Jamie Farr Kroger Classic where she missed the cut.

"My excitement comes from hitting a 300-yard drive. And I feel the adrenaline rush and I just play better. Hitting the 3-wood got me down a little bit," she admitted. "The course is long but it's not too long. The fairways are hard."

Wild Bluffs stretches to 6,988 yards.

The Bay Mills Open Players' Championship marks the end of a summer of tournament golf on the road for the six-foot tall Wie and her family.

"I'm looking forward to my Mom and Dad taking me back-to-school shopping and then starting high school. We arrive on Monday. School starts Monday but I start Tuesday," said Wie, who looks forward to playing on the golf team at Punahou School.