Series of fortunate events gives Wie new challenges
| • | Holes in one |
| • | UHH earns berth in NCAA II Tournament |
| • | Give WAC credit if it keeps rule |
By Bill Kwon
Since 2001 when she first burst on the scene by becoming at the age of 11 the youngest player to win the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational and the Hawai'i State Women's Golf Association Stroke Play Championship, Michelle Wie has afforded fans here an opportunity to see golf history.
Advertiser library photo
Wie, now an established national celebrity, still has several mind-blowing goals she has set for herself.
Michelle Wie has made a lot of history since her first U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship in 2000, but other opportunities will probably mean the 2003 champion will miss this year's event.
Having already received exemptions to play in all four LPGA majors, Wie hopes to qualify for the two oldest major championships for men — the U.S. Open and British Open.
It all starts next Friday at the Turtle Bay Resort in the local qualifying for the 105th U.S. Open at Pinehurst, N.C., June 16 to 19.
If she advances, Wie will likely go to the June 6 sectional qualifying in Maryland because she's playing in the McDonald's LPGA Championship there that week. The best of all possible sectionals, though, would be at the Palmer Course, where she finished tied for second in the SBS Open, the LPGA's first official event of the 2005 season.
That the 15-year-old Punahou School sophomore even has a chance, however slim, to play in the British Open, which will be held at St. Andrews, the Mecca of golf, July 14 to 17, comes as a result of a serendipitous turn of events.
Talk about timing and some creative scheduling by her dad, BJ Wie.
In lining up Michelle's 2005 summer tour, again an Odyssey of some 55,000 air miles, Team Wie (which includes mom, Bo) has decided not to play in the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship this year because it's held during the same week (July 11 to 16) as the U.S. Men's Amateur Public Links Championship.
Unless there's a change of plans, it'll end a streak of five straight WAPL appearances for Wie, who became the youngest champion at age 13 in 2003, finished runner-up last year, reached the semifinals in 2002, lost in the third round in 2001 and set a record that still stands as the youngest competitor (10) when she first played in 2000.
Wie
Wie plans on visiting her cousins in Los Angeles after the U.S. Women's Open June 23 to 26, but it leaves a gap of nearly a month of inactivity if she doesn't qualify to play in the men's public links. Her next scheduled event is the LPGA Evian Masters, July 20 to 23, in France followed by the Weetabix British Women's Open at Royal Birkdale in England.
To fill that opening, BJ sent an e-mail message to Clair Peterson, tournament director of the John Deere Classic, asking if a year-old invitation was still open for his daughter. The PGA Tour event on July 7 to 10 in Illinois fits perfectly on the schedule.
"After discussing with our board and with (BJ), we offered Michelle another exemption in April and they accepted," Peterson said.
"(Our) relationship started in January of 2004," he said in an e-mail to The Advertiser.
"I made contact after the Sony Open and invited Michelle to last year's John Deere Classic ... but the date did not work on their schedule. We left it at that and that we may entertain the idea in 2005 or beyond. I sent Mr. Wie a note before this year's Sony Open wishing Michelle luck but did not have any other communications with them until he sent me a note in late March wondering what our exemption situation was for this year."
It was a go all around, according to an elated Peterson, who told the Quad City Times that he "called back immediately and found out they were very serious about coming."
Two weeks after the invitation was extended, the Royal & Ancient Club, which hosts the British Open, changed its entry regulations, opening the way for women to be eligible if they qualify, as early as this year.
It also happens, according to Peterson, that the John Deere Classic along with the Cialis Western Open, scheduled the week before, are the only tour events to have a single qualifying spot for the British Open given to the highest finisher who is not exempt for the British Open.
"Last year, 12 of the 70-plus players who made our cut were exempt for the British Open," Peterson said.
A schedule fit and a gender-policy change suddenly have resulted in improving the odds for Michelle Wie to achieve even loftier goals.
Certainly, having a chance to play in the British Open should motivate her even more.
Timing is everything, as they say. Serendipitous, too.
Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net
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Michelle Wie has made a lot of history since her first U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship in 2000, but other opportunities will probably mean the 2003 champion will miss this year's event. Advertiser library photo
Advertiser library photo | July 6, 2000
