Michelle Wie: From Qualifying USGA At 10 To Being In Top 10

When someone discusses golf as a sport to someone, what comes first to mind is an adult human holding a club about to hit the ball. We usually do not imagine small hands and a body shorter than the club itself doing the same. Michelle Wie did the same by holding a golf club at the age of four. She made it evident to everyone that she was made for it; just at the age of 10, she became the youngest player ever to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship. The beginning of the Prodigy in her starts as…

The beginning of the journey

Michelle Sung Wie West was born on October 11, 1989, in Honolulu, Hawaii, the U.S. Her parents were from South Korea, but in 1980, they came to the U.S as immigrants. Wie’s mother, Bo Wie, was South Korean women’s amateur golf champion at her time. Her father was a former professor at the University of Hawaii. As if she was born in the U.S and her parents were Korean, she had dual citizenship, but she accepted U.S citizenship in 2013.

Michelle Wie started playing golf at the age of 4 and, when she became 10, was the youngest golf player for the U.S women’s Amateur Public Links championship. Michelle Wie joined Stanford’s golf team in September 2007, but she was not eligible under NCAA rule as a professional golfer.

The beginning of Professional Career

She could not compete with adults due to her age.

Even though she was already a professional player, she was only allowed to participate in a limited number of LPGA Tour events as membership age requirements require a golfer to be 18. The 2005 LPGA Samsung World Championship became her first professional event. Later Wie went to tally four top 5 finishes on the LPGA tour. Wie was placed 3rd in the initial Rolex World Golf Rankings in February 2006, which was later changed to 7th due to a limited schedule. In the same year, she went against male competitors in the PGA Tour Sony Open.

Wie passed LPGA Qualifying School in December 2008. In August, Wie was picked as captain for the United States team in the Solheim Cup competition. She led the American squad to victory with excellent performance, the best record on the American team. Later in 2009, Wie won her first professional individual tournament in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. Next year she posted a win over an entire field at the CN Canadian Women’s Open, held at St. Charles Country Club in Winnipeg, Manitoba. April 19, 2014, she won her third LPGA Tour event.