West was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and revealed that she sent Travis Kelce a message and hoped she could get a bracelet to her. And then West looked at her phone after the game and saw the bracelet (and said phone) blowing up. What a moment for the now-retired star!
Yep! Wie West responded with an Instagram video recapping the “TNT” (Taylor n’ Travis, I presume?) bracelet Swift wore, and talked about a new version of the bracelet that’s more affordable.
But we’re here to talk about the fact that Kelce weighed in with four emojis — two of them for FIRE — giving props to the golfer for the bracelet design.
What follows is by no means an exhaustive list of women who have teed it up against the men (on any level, from state amateurs to mini tours) but instead, these are some of the more iconic moments of women teeing it up in a different arena and making history.
Here’s a look at some photos from Wie West’s career and of her husband through the years.
Michelle Wie West has had an incredibly decorated career, but at the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open, it will come to an end.
Wie West will play her last competitive tournament at Pebble Beach, putting a bow on one of the best female careers in the game’s history. Born in Honolulu, she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur when she was 10. Wie West also became the youngest winner of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links and the youngest to qualify for an LPGA Tour event. She turned professional shortly before her 16th birthday in 2005 and captured her one and only major at the U.S. Women’s Open in 2014.
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Wie West married Jonnie West, son of Jerry West and director of basketball operations for the Golden State Warriors, on Aug. 10, 2019. The couple has one child.
Here’s a look at some photos from Wie West’s career and of her husband through the years.
FAIRWAY WOODS:Callaway Epic Speed (15 degrees), with Mitsubishi Diamana TB 60 shaft, Mavrik Sub Zero (17 degrees), with Project X HZRDUS 60 shaft, Marvik (21 degrees) and Rouge (25 degrees) with Project X HZRDUS Yellow 70 shafts
Makenna West is crawling now. She loves to pick the ball out of the hole for mom on the practice green. Michelle Wie West hopes that her daughter’s early love of golf balls is a positive sign.
Makenna, after all, is the reason Wie West is back competing on the LPGA at this week’s Kia Classic. Wie West, 31, thought she was done after the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA, the last time she competed on the LPGA. Her body had failed her. Then, when the five-time winner found out she was pregnant later that year, well, that all but cemented it in her mind.
“I thought there was no chance of coming back,” said Wie West, “and I told my husband that. He was like, ‘No, no, just think it through.’ ”
And then Wie West found out that she was having a girl, and that changed everything.
She wanted to show Makenna in real-time that she could compete as a mom. That her game wasn’t limited to old YouTube videos. She wanted to lead by example.
“Goal-wise, obviously I want to win,” said Wie. “I’m not out here just to make the cut or just to do whatever.”
Wie told her caddie that she wanted full commitment on every shot this week, something she struggled with in the past when injuries were top of mind. Fun is a priority too, of course.
“As a competitor, I want to kind of show everyone what I got,” said Wie. “So I’m just going to go out there and take it shot-by-shot and enjoy myself, try to make my daughter proud.”
Wie tees off on Thursday at 3:33 p.m. ET alongside fellow Stanford alum Albane Valenzuela and In Gee Chun. While first two rounds of the Kia Classic are tape-delayed on Golf Channel from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET, fans can watch some of Wie’s first round on NBC Sports live stream from 6-9 p.m. ET.
With the ANA Inspiration as a main goal to strive toward, Wie said she started to practice more in earnest at the start of the New Year. The fact that she can drive to events on the West Coast was a big factor in her feeling good about coming back to compete with her parents, daughter and two dogs in two.
On Tuesday, she met the women who run the tour’s daycare service and said she’s easing her way into that, especially with COVID-19. Even leaving Makenna with her mom hasn’t been easy, simply because she’s not used to being away from her daughter for more than two hours at a time.
“All working moms know,” she said, “it’s a tough first week to leave your kid.”
Stacy Lewis, who won as a mom for the first time last summer, said getting out the door on time might be the toughest part about the first week back.
While Wie West still has big goals inside the ropes, she’s careful not to go too hard because her No. 1 priority is being able to hold her baby. She’s therefore putting an even higher premium on her body, her wrists in particular.
She brought three bags of recovery supplies to Carlsbad, calling it a hotel clinic.
After the ANA, Wie West plans to compete in upcoming stops in Hawaii, Los Angeles and San Francisco. While she has yet to play the Olympic Golf Club, site of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open, the LPGA Mediheal Championship is staged at Lake Merced, where Wie is a member. The 2014 U.S. Women’s Open champion said it’s pretty ideal to have an Open staged 15 minutes from your house. Olympic is a bit too hilly though to get a practice round in with a stroller.
“When I go out and play Merced,” said Wie West, “I carry my bag and I push her, and I kind of put the stroller so she can see all my shots. I think she likes it. She hasn’t complained so far.”
Michelle Wie West and Mark Rolfing on the Golf Channel set during a practice round prior to The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 11, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
Wie, who is also one of Pat Hurst’s assistant captains for this year’s Solheim Cup, said she’ll still sprinkle in TV jobs when she can. But as she told the networks and her agent, playing remains her top job priority.
“I’m going to do that as long as I can,” she said.
Before he tees up for The Match III with Phil Mickelson, Charles Barkeley and Peyton Manning, Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry is training with Michell Wie West.
Before he returns to Chase Center for the Golden State Warriors preseason training camp, Stephen Curry will pick up his clubs for a star-studded round of golf.
On Friday, Curry will join legendary quarterback Peyton Manning, five-time golf major winner Phil Mickelson and NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley for the third edition of “The Match: Champions for Charity.” Proceeds from the charity competition will benefit Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
Curry will team up with Manning against Barkley and Mickelson. While linked with Tiger Woods in The Match II, Manning was part of the winner’s circle for the round.
To prepare for his round against Mickelson and Barkley tandem, Curry has been working on his golf game with Michell Wie West. Prior to the event, Wie West shared a video on Instagram featuring her and the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player teeing off. However, instead of using tees for their drives, Wie West and Curry used OXIGEN water bottles. Both Curry and Wie West are investors and partners with OXIGEN.
The veteran golfer has five LPGA Tour wins, including a U.S. Open championship from 2014. Wie West has also finished in the top five of LPGA Tour major golf events six times. Along with former Warrior Andre Iguodala and others, Wie West is slated to serve as an analyst for The Match.
The Match III will begin at noon PST on Friday, Nov. 27, on TNT.
The field is set for the final major of 2020 as the USGA announced 28 additional players who earned their way into the U.S. Women’s Open.
The field is set for the final major of the season after the USGA announced the 28 additional players who earned their way into the 75th U.S. Women’s Open through the Rolex Rankings. Notables among those include former USWO champion Cristie Kerr and 2020 AIG Women’s British Open champion Sophia Popov.
Several big-name players who didn’t sign up to compete in Houston next month include USWO past champions Michelle Wie (2014), Paula Creamer (2010) and Na Yeon Choi (2012). This marks the final year of Creamer’s 10-year exemption into the championship after her stirring triumph at Oakmont.
“I just don’t know what COVID is going to look like,” Wie said. “I just don’t know if I feel comfortable traveling with her yet. In my mind I always thought by December it’s going to be safe to travel with her, but now … I’m not quite sure.”
The 2020 USWO, pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, takes place Dec. 10-13 at Champions Golf Club in Houston. The 2019 champion, Jeongeun Lee6, will be on hand to defend her title. Lee6, who last competed on the LPGA in February, is in the field at this week’s inaugural Pelican Women’s Championship in Florida.
The following 28 players gained entry via the Rolex Rankings: Hae Ran Ryu, Sophia Popov, Ayaka Furue, Hyun Kyung Park, Yuka Saso, Sakura Koiwai, Na Rin An, Song Yi Ahn, Erika Hara, Yuna Nishimura, Ji Hyun Kim, Anne van Dam, Alena Sharp, Min Sun5 Kim, Lala Anai, Eri Okayama, Cristie Kerr, Ga Young Lee, Ah-Reum Hwang, Pornanong Phatlum, Jun Min Lee, Ji Hun Oh, Emily Kristine Pedersen, Mi Jeong Jeon, Maria Fernanda Torres, Bo Ah Kim, Teresa Lu and Wei-Ling Hsu.
Popov, currently No. 28 in the world, will make her second USWO start in Houston. Kerr, the 2007 USWO champion at Pine Needles, has now qualified for her 22nd consecutive Women’s Open.
The list of the 156 golfers who are in the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open field (as of Tuesday, Nov. 17):
New mom Michelle Wie West has been named an assistant captain for the 2021 U.S. Solheim Cup team.
Michelle Wie West didn’t sit around waiting for a call. When she heard that Pat Hurst was going to be the 2021 Solheim Cup captain, Wie West texted her “Pod Mom” saying that she’d love to be an assistant captain.
Hurst didn’t give the nod right away, but Wie West got her wish.
“All the players love her,” said Hurst. “They respect her, and that’s what I need.”
It doesn’t seem all that long ago that Wie West was a mystery to most. When she competed on her first Solheim Cup team in 2009, it marked the first time players got to know the former phenom away from an entourage. They discovered that the “kid” could hang. And her passion shone through in a rousing 3-0-1 Cup debut.
Juli Inkster was so impressed that she predicted a Wie West victory on the LPGA before the year was out. Wie West proved her correct in November at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.
Morgan Pressel (left) and Michelle Wie share a laugh during a team photo shoot prior to the 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Club.
“I won my first LPGA tournament after I played in the Solheim,” said Wie West on a media conference call, “and I don’t know if I hadn’t had that experience if that was going to happen that year.”
Wie West, 30, gave birth to daughter Makenna on June 19 and has posted several pictures with her on the range in recent weeks. The five-time LPGA winner confirmed that she still wants to continue playing on the LPGA, even in 2020 if possible, but her return mostly comes down to safety.
“It just depends really on the state of the world more than the state of my game at this point, unfortunately,” she said.
A silver lining to the pandemic break is that husband Jonnie West, an executive with the Golden State Warriors, will be mostly be her side through the end of the year.
“One positive thing that happened, there was a scenario where if (the Warriors) went to Orlando in the bubble and I was home by myself,” said Wie West, “I was quarantined, my parents couldn’t come, I could have been a single mother for a couple months all by myself, and that was a scary thought.”
Her parents, Bo and B.J., are in town now and Wie West took full advantage, recently playing 18 holes for the first time in a long time.
“I had to pump after nine holes,” she said, laughing.
Practice time on the range looks a bit different too these days. Wie West said she hits two balls and then goes over to check on McKenna before returning to hit two more.
The dream of hoisting hoisting a trophy on the 18th along with Makenna fuels Wie West to keep competing. She wants what Tiger Woods enjoyed at Augusta National last year.
That being said, she’s now more impressed than ever by what LPGA moms who have come before her have accomplished, notably Suzann Pettersen at last year’s Solheim Cup in Scotland and Catriona Matthew winning the Women’s British Open 11 weeks after giving birth to her second daughter. Wie West marveled at the idea, noting that she’s barely hitting driver 220 yards now.
For two Solheim Cups, Wie West was in Hurst’s player pod and greatly benefited from her nurturing approach. Wie West hopes that she can help other players feel comfortable too, given that she’s likely experienced every emotion there is in her five Solheim Cup appearances.
Wie West joins Angela Stanford as an assistant on Hurst’s squad. The 2021 Solheim Cup will be contested Sept. 4-6 at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. Next week the LPGA restarts its season at Inverness at the new Drive On Championship where prominent Americans Nelly Korda, Danielle Kang, Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda and Stanford are among those in the field. Hurst won’t be onsite for the competition, however, as it’s closed to spectators.
Michelle Wie, the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open champion, announced on Instagram that she gave birth to her first child on Friday.
Michelle Wie West delivered quite the early Father’s Day present for husband, Jonnie West. She gave birth to the couple’s first child on Friday, a baby girl that they named Makenna.
Wie West, 30, was married to West, the son of basketball legend Jerry West and an executive with the Golden State Warriors, in August, in Beverly Hills, California.
Wie West posted two photos from the hospital to her Instagram account with the following message:
“Kenna baby, I have waited my entire life to meet you. Makenna Kamalei Yoona West, your daddy and I love you more than any words can describe. You are our entire 🌎 we can’t wait to watch you grow. ❤️ 6/19/20 ❤️,” the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open champion wrote.
Wie West had been sidelined due to injury and hasn’t played on the LPGA Tour since withdrawing from the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA in June. She recently began commentating for Golf Channel and appeared on the “Live From” set at the Players Championship before the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.
