Nationwide Tour welcomes Wie

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Michelle Wie's entry has led to an increase in ticket sales and media passes. Advertiser library photo

The anonymity of the Nationwide Tour has been shattered by Hawai'i's precocious 13-year-old, who is 3 months older than the PGA's developmental circuit. Her face is on the Idaho Statesman's front page every day. Her unique sound bites chew up time on TV. The Golf Channel extended today's coverage until 3 p.m. HST to show every Wie shot to its international audience of 54 million.

"There were mixed reactions when we first heard she was playing," recalls Keoke Cotner, a 1989 Kamehameha Schools graduate who has been on the Nationwide Tour since 1990. "The first thing in a lot of players' minds is that she's taking up a spot. Well, not really; she's on a sponsor's exemption and they can give it to whoever they want.

"After a while guys started getting used to the thought that this tour — like a lot of tours — needs help, especially in Boise. We need to get somebody there to help bring people in. That's the case here. It does help our tour.

"People have heard about this for months," Cotner adds. "That helps Albertsons, all the sponsors, the kids who get the charity money. Slowly, all the guys started warming up to the idea."

Record crowds are expected to follow Wie this afternoon when she becomes the first female junior amateur to play in a PGA-Tour-sanctioned event. Ticket sales are twice any previous year. Extra toilets have even been brought in. At Monday's Kraft/Nabisco Shoot-Out, with Wie, Nancy Lopez, John Daly and Hank Kuehne, concession stands ran out of beer.

About 60 media requests have been filled —10 times the average. That list includes the New York Times, but not the half dozen eighth-graders from Meridian Middle School's newspaper who followed Wie yesterday.

The highlight of their field trip was Wie's typically offbeat press conference. The Punahou freshman was at her stream-of-consciousness best:

On her friends at school: "They don't play golf that much, don't really know it. They don't understand it's really difficult. They think it's really boring — you hit balls into a little small hole and everyone claps. It's harder than that, trust me."

Homework on the road: "I'm my own tutor, which isn't really helping."

One regret: "On weekends my friends go to the shopping mall together. The one thing I really want to do is spend a whole Saturday shopping. I love sales. I'm like a sales hunter."

What she wants to be when she grows up: "It keeps changing every year. In first grade, I wanted to be a first-grade teacher, in second, a second-grade teacher and it keeps on going through eighth grade. But when I became a freshman I didn't want to teach high school. I'd like to be a professor, but I don't think I would be able to understand what I was supposed to teach, so that's out. I want be a fashion designer, have my own line of clothes. That's another goal. When I'm in college I want to be an intern for a magazine — not the kind where you write stuff, but the kind where you go out to malls and try and find stuff."

Wie knew school was out when Daly's answer to the first question at Monday's press conference — "How will you feel if Michelle blows a drive by you?" — was: "I don't give a (hoot)."

He might be in the minority. All 155 pros here, with the possible exception of Cotner and Parker McLachlin — whose brother Spencer is Wie's classmate — can't help but swivel their head to stare every time they get near her. Some still can't believe the 6-foot woman-child hits a golf ball 300 yards. But during Tuesday's practice round Wie blasted a drive exactly 300 into a chill wind on the seventh hole.

The Wies flew in Saturday, declining Albertsons' offer to take its private jet because of amateur regulations. Father/caddy BJ, mother Bo and Michelle are staying with a grandson of the founder of the nation's second-largest grocery chain. The house is 5,000 square feet on five acres. The Wies have their own wing, complete with gym and pool table. Gary Gilchrist, Michelle's instructor, is in another wing.

They are the talk of this tour, and much of golf, this week. Michelle is the only player here with her own security guard.

Her goals are nothing if not safe: "I want to make the cut and feel happy about my game," she says. "Feel really good about myself and see how good I play."

Millions will be watching.

"I just hope she enjoys it," Cotner says. "Obviously, there are big plans for her and this is just a piece of the puzzle."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043