There is no "I" in team. But there's certainly one in Wie.

Except in 2004, when she was the youngest player in Curtis Cup history at 14, Michelle Wie has had few occasions to be a team player. She never played for her high school team at Punahou and turned pro before enrolling at Stanford, so no college golf there, either.

Wie has always taken the road less traveled and sometimes a rocky one at that in trying to break new ground. She played 46 LPGA events, 22 as a professional, without being a card-carrying member until this year.

So it's a refreshing change of pace to see Wie playing for Team USA against Europe in the Solheim Cup, the women's version of the Ryder Cup, in Sugar Grove, Ill., this week. So nice to see her as just one of the girls for a change.

Making the Solheim Cup team was one of Wie's goals starting the year, and when Beth Daniel named her as a captain's pick, "Michelle was on Cloud Nine," according to Daniel. Wie, the first player from Hawai'i and only the second rookie since Paula Creamer to make the U.S. team, vowed to do her best to justify Daniel's selection.

"It's been so exciting. It's a great honor and a privilege," Wie said after Tuesday's practice round.

Based on her showing in the 2004 Curtis Cup, Wie should do well in Sunday's match-play singles. She played lights out in that format at the Formby Golf Club in Merseyside, England, breezing to 5-and-4 and 6-and-5 victories as the Americans won, 10-8. But Wie lost both of her team matches. Team play will be more of a factor in the Solheim Cup, which features four-ball and foursome matches tomorrow and Saturday before the 12 singles matches.

More important than her showing this week is the camaraderie Wie will be enjoying as part of a team. "It's been so much fun getting to know everyone," she said.

Playing in the Solheim Cup is the best thing that could have happened to Wie, said Judy Rankin, a member of the LPGA Hall of Fame, more than once in her television commentary for NBC and the Golf Channel. Rankin told the Honolulu Advertiser's Ann Miller that Wie being named to the Solheim Cup might be just the inspiration she needs to get her first LPGA victory.

"The fact that she was picked for the Solheim Cup team," Rankin said, "should be a real affirmation for her that she's part of the LPGA tour."

Here's hoping it indeed will be a catalyst for Wie, who has earned millions of dollars in endorsements and on the course without a victory to show for it. And wouldn't it be the irony of ironies if it's because Wie finally became a team player.

Golf remains mostly an individual sport, but there's still room for team play such as the biennial Solheim Cup for the women and the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup for the men.

Here's also hoping someday that there will be an event similar to the Presidents Cup in alternate years for the best women players from the rest of the world, especially Asia and Australia. Also Mexico, which seems to be the new Hawai'i with three LPGA events next year. That would afford Wie an opportunity to become a member of yet another team.

But it's nothing compared to making the ultimate team — the U.S. Olympic team — now that the International Olympic Committee's executive board has recommended that golf, because of its global appeal, be included in the 2016 Summer Games. Making that team will be a goal Wie will try to attain. She'll be 26 years old then. Tiger Woods? He'll be pushing 41 but odds are he'll still be favored to win Olympic gold.

Wie, who is of Korean ancestry, said she was pulling for Y.E. Yang in the PGA Championship, having played a practice round with him and seeing him again at last year's Reno-Tahoe Open.

"Gave me a couple of putting tips," Wie said.

Wouldn't Woods & Wie be a media and Nike Dream Team if the 2016 Olympics had a mixed twosome competition? Unfortunately, no team competition is planned. The initial proposal calls for a 72-hole stroke play competition for men and women with 60 players in each field. The world's top 15 players will qualify automatically.

BIRTHDAY GREETINGS

With the 50th anniversary of Hawai'i statehood tomorrow, we'd like to wish a happy 5-0 to the following golfers born in 1959: Cindy Rarick, Rick Castillo, Wade Nishimoto, John Ramelb, Craig Sasada and Kirk Nelson.