Posted on: Friday, May 21, 2004

Wie's a magnet for LPGA

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

You can talk about the distance of Michelle Wie's booming drives. How many cuts she's made in LPGA Tour events, her lengthening list of firsts or the glowing reviews of the pros who have played with her.

Yet for all the breakthroughs — and space limitations do not permit a full accounting here — in Wie's precocious career, there was a headline the other day that, without even mentioning her name, underlined just how remarkable a performer and how much of a force in golf she has become.

In "Two LPGA events may be held in Hawai'i in '05" was a story that was testimony to the drawing power of a 14-year-old, someone able to move tournaments thousands of miles and rally six-figure sponsorships.

For there is little doubt that if women's professional golf does begin its 2005 season here with two events, it will be Wie who brought the LPGA Tour back to Hawai'i as sure as if she handed out the plane tickets.

"You can't put a percentage on it, but a significant part of this (interest in the LPGA returning) is Michelle-driven," said Greg Nichols, director of golf at Ko Olina, where a full-field event could be headed.

When the LPGA pulled up stakes here after the 2002 Takefuji Classic, ending a 21-year stay, it was anybody's guess when the circuit would be back.

Maybe, in time, the LPGA would have found its way back. Though, with a price tag of $3 million to $4 million, and the necessity of television backing, who knew when that would have been.

Instead, Wie's rise has served as an instant magnet. It has, in a remarkably short time, made the prospects of a return more likely sooner than later.

When Bill Kwon's story about the possibility of the LPGA coming back ran in your favorite morning newspaper yesterday, Nichols said he immediately started getting calls from some interested sponsors and backers.

The part that Wie's presence played in attracting record-setting galleries at the Sony Open in Hawai'i four months ago was not lost on the folks at the LPGA. Nor have all the "We Love Wiesy" and "Wiesy Does It" signs that have popped up in LPGA galleries where the Punahou School freshman has played.

So, imagine the attraction she could be if she was in the running to win an LPGA Tournament in her own backyard, which is almost what Ko Olina has become since she plays it so often.

As the leaderboards suggest, increasingly women's golf is becoming the province of the young. Sponsors and television have come to see in Wie what a lot of people are calling the future of women's golf.

Should it be any wonder that the LPGA would hurry back to Hawai'i to chase that future?

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.