Wie has become major player
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Michelle Wie's presence at the 33rd annual Kraft Nabisco Championship looms so large there is actually a suspicion the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile over by the historic 18th green might be related.
Associated Press
Not that the Punahou School freshman is perceived as a hot dog here, though the 14-year-old has admitted "I feel more nervous when people are not watching me" — and emphatically proved her point. It's just that a Wie sighting somehow always morphs into Wie-mania.
LPGA superstar Annika Sorenstam says Michelle Wie is a "great asset" to tournaments on the tour.
At last week's Safeway International in Arizona, Wie joyously appeared in the media interview room a tournament-record six straight days, and finished tied for 19th. It is no different this week and Wie isn't even playing in the two-day Pro-Am that concludes today at Mission Hills Country Club.
She tees off tomorrow in the 72-hole tournament at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course.
Wie rocketed from wannabe to legitimate wunderkind here 363 days ago when she fired a 6-under-par 66 at the non-believers in the third round of the LPGA's first major of the year. It didn't matter that she couldn't keep up with the others in her final-group pairing Sunday — winner Patricia Meunier-Lebouc and LPGA superstar Annika Sorenstam — and ultimately finished tied for ninth. Wie had officially introduced herself to the world after attempting to ram in the door since age 10.
Becoming the youngest U.S. Women's Public Links champion later in the year and remarkably coming up one stroke short of making the cut on the PGA Tour's Sony Open in Hawai'i in January nearly seemed like overkill.
But not quite. It served to sustain Wie-mania and here, in a desert where the smog sits like a sandstorm frozen in time, Wie is again the woman.
She is a legitimate threat to win according to someone who should know — Mission Hills Director of Golf Course Operations David Johnson. He keeps the rough surrounding his 25-yard-wide fairways "three to four inches in some areas and it will be a good five inches Saturday," or some two inches higher than the LPGA wants. He likes "to push the envelope."
So does Wie.
"She hits the ball so far, if she can keep it straight it will give her a big advantage over everybody else," Johnson said. "And she seems fairly strong. If she gets in the rough she should be able to advance the ball more so than other players. Then it's about her putting. Watching her putt at the Sony I started thinking she has a good chance of winning this thing."
WIE
Sorenstam will enjoy watching Wie try.
"She's a great asset," Sorenstam said last week. "She's fun to watch. She's young. She's powerful. She's the next generation."
Wie is the only player here attracting unrelenting interest, other than Sorenstam. The 33-year-old Swede has shyly come to grips with that type of attention while dominating women's golf the past few years, and making a memorable appearance on the PGA Tour last year.
In contrast, Wie has always thrived in the presence of strangers. The more the merrier.
Sorenstam never plans to play on the PGA Tour again. Her sole goal now is to win the "Sorenslam" — all four LPGA majors in the same year. With seven top-10 finishes in nine starts here, including victories in 2001 and 2002, and a win last week, she is clearly the favorite here.
Wie wants to split her time between both tours, and take a whack at the Masters. After her spectacular showing at Sony, it's hard to doubt her.
Clearly, Wie and Sorenstam are dramatically different golfers, and people. Someone asked Sorenstam, who started golfing at 12, if she would have been "mentally prepared" for life on tour at 14.
"No way," she said quickly. "I don't know if I can handle it today, really. I'm still learning."
She's still learning about Wie.
"She is so talented," said the woman who won her 49th LPGA event last week and sixth Player of the Year in 2003. "It must be great to be 14 and hit it that far. And, I love her attitude. I think she's very brave on the golf course and outside the golf course. I think she has improved since I played with her last year. But still, she's very young, she has a lot to learn. I think she can do that by being out here."
SHORT PUTTS: The first two rounds — tomorrow and Friday — of the Kraft Nabisco Championship are scheduled to be televised on ESPN2 from noon to 2, Hawai'i time. ABC (KITV-Channel 4) is scheduled to televise Saturday's round from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Sunday's final round from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ... Michelle Wie's third-round 66 last year tied the low round by an amateur at an LPGA major. ... The $14,000 Wie would have earned for her 19th-place finish last week would have put her in the top 35 on the money list.
Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043.
