Michelle Sung Wie (Korean: Wie Seong-mi Hangul: born October 11, 1989) is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. In 2006, she was named in a Time magazine article: “one of 100 people who shape our world.” At age 10, she became the youngest player to qualify for USGA amateur championship. Wie would also become the
youngest winner of the US Women’s Amateur public links and the youngest to qualify for a LPGA tour event. Wie turned professional shortly before her 16th birthday accompanied by an enormous amount of hype and endorsements.
Professional career / Pre-LPGA membership (2005-2006): Having turned professional Wie was not a member of any professional tour. LPGA Tour membership age requirements require a golfer to be 18 although some players such as Morgan Pressel and Aree Song have successfully petitioned for an exemption to join at age 17. Wie chose not to request an exemption and was thus only allowed to participate in a limited number of LPGA Tour events when given a sponsor’s exemption from 2005 to 2008. She also chose not to participate in the Tour’s Qualifying Tournaments (or “Q-School”) until December 2008 when she finished 7th to gain LPGA membership for the 2009 season.
Full name: Michelle Sung Wie
Born: October 11, 1989 / Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
Height: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Nationality: United States
Residence: Champions Gate, Florida, U.S.
Michelle Wie – hits 596 yard par 5 in 2 shots Video
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- Michelle Wie
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- Michelle Wie
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- Michelle Wie
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- Michelle Wie
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- Michelle Wie
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- Michelle Wie
Wie played her first professional event in the 2005 LPGA Samsung World Championship where she was disqualified from a fourth-place finish for signing an incorrect scorecard. A journalist (Michael Bamberger) reported she had illegally dropped the ball closer to the hole than its original lie the day after she completed her third round. Her other professional event of 2005 at the Casio World Open on the Japan Golf Tour saw her shoot four over par to miss the cut.
2006 started with the PGA Tour Sony Open at her home course, the Waialae Country Club, Hawaii where she again missed the cut, this time by four strokes. In the initial Rolex World Golf Rankings in February 2006, Wie was placed third behind Annika Sörenstam and Paula Creamer. She rose to second place in July but her limited schedule meant she failed to play the minimum of 15 worldwide professional women’s tournaments over a twenty-four month period and dropped out of the rankings entirely. In August 2006, the calculation of the rankings was revised such that any player who had accumulated points in fewer than 35 tournaments had her ranking calculated as if she had played in 35. After the change, Wie’s ranking dropped to 7th.
In her first two tournaments on the LPGA Tour in early 2006, she gained a third place finish in the Fields Open in Hawaii finishing one stroke off the lead, and finished in a tie for third in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, again finishing one stroke behind. May 2006 saw her play the Asian Tour SK Telecom Open becoming the second woman (after Se Ri Pak) to make the cut at a men’s tournament in South Korea. Wie reportedly received US$700,000 in appearance fees at an event that offered US$600,000 in total prize money. In all, she reportedly netted US$5 million in appearance and endorsement money for the two-week trip.
May 2006 also had her become the first female medalist in a local qualifier for the Men’s U.S. Open. She did not compete in the “easier” Hawaii final stage qualifier as she would have been unable to play at the LPGA Championship the following week. She played at Summit, NJ vying for one of 16 available spots but finished 59th and did not advance. At the LPGA Championship Wie finished two strokes off the lead, tied for fifth and followed this up with a tie for third at the US Women’s Open. In July, she played in the LPGA HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship where she lost in the quarterfinals 4 and 3 to eventual champion Brittany Lincicome.
In July Wie played in the PGA John Deere Classic. After a 6 over par first round she reached 8 over par and 10 shots above the projected cut line before withdrawing from the tournament after the 9th hole, citing heat exhaustion. Two weeks later, she returned to the LPGA Tour, finishing in a tie for second at the Evian Masters, one stroke off the lead and tied for 26th at the Women’s British Open where she drew controversy for hitting a piece of moss on her back swing in a bunker. This resulted in a two-stroke penalty. In a post-round interview Wie said “I guess I knew the rule wrong, from what I always knew…if you swing through it everything would be OK.”
In September, she competed in the Omega European Masters on the men’s European Tour where she finished last among the 156 competitors, 15 strokes over par after shooting, missing the cut by 14 strokes, although tournament organizers reported that many of the 9,500 spectators on the first day came to see Wie. A week later, in her third 2006 appearance on the PGA Tour at the 84 Lumber Classic, she finished 14 over par after two rounds, 23 strokes behind the leaders. At the LPGA Tour Samsung World Championship, Wie finished in 17th place in the 20-player field, 21 strokes behind the leader. Her last event of 2006 saw Wie compete the Casio World Open on the men’s Japan Golf Tour where she finished last, 27 shots behind the leaders. With the conclusion of the Casio tournament, Wie had played 14 consecutive rounds of tournament golf without breaking par – eight on the LPGA Tour, two on the European Tour, two on the PGA Tour and two on the Japan Golf Tour.By the end of 2006, her first full year as a professional, she had missed the cut in 11 out of 12 tries against men, and remained winless in all 33 professional women’s tournaments she had entered, the last 9 as a professional.
Pre-LPGA membership (2007-2008): Wie accepted her fourth consecutive sponsor’s exemption to the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii in January where she missed the cut by 14 strokes, finishing third from last in the 144-player field, 25 strokes behind the second-round leader. Her next competition, after a four-month absence and reported injuries to both wrists, was at the LPGA’s Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika where she was 14-over par through 16 holes in the first round before withdrawing, after a conversation with her agent, citing an aggravated wrist injury.
The withdrawal was controversial due to the LPGA Rule of 88, which states that a non-LPGA member shooting a score of 88 or more is forced to withdraw and banned from LPGA co-sponsored events for the rest of the year. Wie claimed the injury and not the rule of 88 was the cause of the withdrawal but some observers, including one of her playing partners, Alena Sharp questioned this claim. There was further controversy when both Sharp and Wie’s other playing partner, Janice Moodie, questioned the involvement of Wie’s father, B.J.. They said he appeared to give Wie advice during the course of play could have resulted in a two-stroke penalty but as Wie withdrew, this became a moot point.
Wie was seen two days later practicing at the site of the LPGA Championship in Bulle Rock, Maryland, which drew criticism from Ginn Tribute host Annika Sörenstam who said, “I just feel there’s a little bit of lack of respect and class just to kind of leave a tournament like that and come out and practice here.” At the LPGA championship Wie was 3 over par and bang on the cutline after two days to extend her run of cuts made at LPGA majors to 13 but shot rounds of 83 and 79 on the weekend to finish last of those who made the cut, 35 strokes behind the eventual winner.Wie entered the US Women’s Open in June but withdrew midway through the second round after hitting her second shot out of the rough on the 10th hole citing a wrist injury. Her tournament score through 27 holes was 17-over par, 22 strokes behind the second-round leader.
At the Evian Masters in July, Wie broke her year-long streak of 24 consecutive rounds at or over par by shooting a second-round one-under par 71 but shooting a 12 over par 84 in the third round led to her finishing 20 strokes behind winner Natalie Gulbis,third from last of those making the cut. One week later at the Women’s British Open Wie shot rounds of 73 and 80, missing the cut by two strokes, her first missed cut in an LPGA Tour event since 2003, and her first missed cut in a major.
Wie next played in August at the Canadian Women’s Open, where she was invited as a sponsor’s exemption. She shot rounds of 75 and 74 on the par 71 course, missing the cut by four strokes. The following week, with another sponsor’s exemption, Wie played in the Safeway Classic, at Portland, Oregon. After shooting rounds of 79 and 75, she missed the cut by six strokes and finished 21 strokes behind the second round leader. Three weeks after beginning her freshman year at Stanford University, Wie played as a sponsor exemption in the limited field Samsung World Championship, finishing 19th out of the 20 player field, 36 strokes behind the winner.
In December 2007, Wie was ranked at #4 in the Forbes Top 20 Earners Under 25 with an annual earnings of 19 million dollars.
2008 was the first time since 2004 Wie was not granted one of four available sponsor exemptions to play the PGA Tour Sony Open. She started the year on a sponsor’s exemption at the LPGA Fields Open where she shot 69,73,78 to finish tied for 72nd, last among players making the cut.Two LPGA sponsor exemptions were offered and accepted to the Safeway International and Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill tournaments but Wie was unable to play at the Safeway as she announced she had injured her wrist practicing.She did play the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill, shooting rounds of 75 and 71, missing the cut by four strokes. Wie’s next competitive appearance was her first on the Ladies European Tour playing on a sponsor invitation in the Ladies German Open where she finished sixth place, seven strokes behind the winner, fellow eighteen year-old Amy Yang.
In June Wie played in Maryland at a sectional qualifier for the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open. She finished in second place, earning one of the 35 qualification spots available. She shot an eight-over-par 81 in the first round of 2008 U.S. Women’s Open and ended up with a 10-over total of 156, missing the cut. July saw Wie playing on a sponsor exemption at the LPGA State Farm Classic. She was in the middle of her third round when it was realized she had failed to sign her second round scorecard. Event organizers waited until the conclusion of that round to notify her that she was disqualified in order to give her an opportunity to explain what had happened. She was one stroke off the lead at the time.Two days later Wie announced that she had accepted an invitation to play her eighth PGA Tour event in the alternate field Legends Reno-Tahoe Open. She shot rounds of 73 and 80, missing the cut by nine strokes.
Wie had expressed her desire to attempt to earn membership on the LPGA Tour for the 2009 season by earning the equivalent of 80th place on the 2008 money list through her earnings at the events she played in through sponsor exemptions. When she failed to reach this goal, she entered an LPGA Sectional Qualifying Tournament. At the tournament, held from September 16 through 19 at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, she finished tied for 4th place. This was sufficient to advance her to the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament held in Daytona Beach, Florida in December, 2008.During the Final Qualifying Tournament, Wie finished in a tie for 7th place to make her eligible to play full time on the LPGA Tour in 2009.