Wie West teared up as she came up the 18th, knowing it would be one of her last times taking such a walk.
SOUTHERN PINES, North Carolina – Michelle Wie West tried her hand at Wordle for the first time on Friday morning and guessed the word on her second attempt.
“I thought I was pretty undefeatable today,” she said, laughing, “and then it was a gradual decline after that.”
The word?
P-H-A-S-E.
How appropriate given that the second round of the 77th U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club marks the end of a chapter for the one-time prodigy. The 32-year-old wife, mom and businesswoman heads into the next phase of life after this week. She’s not calling it a retirement, but Wie West doesn’t plan to compete again until the Women’s Open goes to Pebble Beach Golf Links for the first time in 2022.
After all, it’s only fitting that one of the most influential players of the modern game caps her career on an iconic course during an already historic week. What a celebration it will be.
In a way, Friday felt more like a see-you-later than a goodbye as it’s technically not her final event. Plus, Wie West plans to stay involved in women’s golf, maintaining relationships with her sponsors and investing in new ways to amplify the game.
When she visited the Golf Channel Live From set on Wednesday, one couldn’t help but think she’d be back in the game with a headset on sometime in the not-so-distant future. She enjoys the role.
Wie West teared up as she came up the 18th on Friday, knowing it would be one of her last times taking such a walk. Fans packed the grandstands and the Bell Pavilion, and jammed up against the ropes to catch one last look at the most recognized player on the LPGA, at least here in the U.S.
“Definitely had flashbacks of Pinehurst and just seeing all the same people,” she said. “When they come up to me, ‘Oh, I was there in 2014.’ It was just really cool to see everyone here again.”
Wie West shot 73-74 to finish at 5 over for the tournament, and said she felt rustier on Friday than she did in the first round. She tried to make a “hero putt” on the final hole.
“I gave it my all today,” she said.
A five-time winner on the LPGA, including the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst No. 2, Wie West became a household name due to her many PGA Tour appearances and quest to compete in men’s majors. For years, she was a headline magnet, and there’s no shortage of opinion the road she took and how much she succeeded.
“First off, I want to say I have zero regrets in my career,” said Wie West earlier in the week. “There’s always that inkling of wishing I had done more. But I feel like no matter what, no one is ever going to be 100 percent satisfied.”
Wie West said her husband, Jonnie, plans to caddie for her at Pebble Beach next year. But she isn’t thinking that far ahead just yet. She’ll put the clubs away when she gets back home to her daughter Makenna, who turns 2 years old on June 19. There’s a new puppy to chase after and projects she’s eager to dive into, but not eager to share just yet.
“I have definitely had an up-and-down career,” said Wie West, “but I’m extremely proud of the resiliency that I’ve shown over my career. I’m extremely proud to have achieved the two biggest dreams that I’ve had, one being graduating from Stanford, and the other winning the U.S. Open. To check both those off the list means everything to me.”
Here’s a look at Wie West’s final event of 2022 (and what she insists is her penultimate tour appearance):
Driving by Pinehurst No. 2, Wie West said it looked cool. She had no idea it was the course that made her a major champion.
SOUTHERN PINES, North Carolina – Michelle Wie West hadn’t been back to this area since she won the U.S. Women’s Open eight years ago, and well, the memories didn’t exactly come flooding back.
“I walked in Pinehurst Village this morning to get coffee,” she said. “Funny enough, I don’t remember anything about the week. It just looked like I walked for the first time. I didn’t recognize it at all.”
Driving by Pinehurst No. 2, where she won, Wie West commented that it looked like a cool course. She had no idea it was the course that made her a major champion.
“I think I just blacked out that week,” she said with a laugh.
Michelle Wie West decides on how to play a bunker shot during a practice round at the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open Presented by ProMedica at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C. on Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (Jeff Haynes/USGA)
Wie West met with reporters ahead of the 77th U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles. Last week she told Golfweek that this would be her last event of the season. That she’s planning to step away from the LPGA, returning in 2023 only for the historic Women’s Open at Pebble Beach. She stopped short of calling it a retirement.
“This week I’m just soaking it all in,” she said. “Just seeing all the fans, seeing all the players, walking the walk. It’s pretty cool.”
If Wie West remembers little of 2014, it’s probably for the best, since the last time she played at Pine Needles, it didn’t end well. In 2007, Wie West withdrew from the tournament citing wrist pain after 27 holes. She was 17 over par.
Now a wife and mom, she will move on to her next chapter with five LPGA titles and no regrets. She’s especially proud of the resiliency she has shown over the course of many injuries and a host of controversial decisions, mostly regarding her time teeing it up against the men.
As Wie West prepares her exit, Annika Sorenstam returns to an LPGA major stage for the first time in 13 years. The 10-time major winner earned her exemption into Pine Needles by winning the U.S. Senior Women’s Open in 2021.
“I remember her swing was really very powerful,” said Sorenstam of early memories playing against Wie West, “especially her wedge game. She put a lot of spin on the ball, and being 6-foot something like that, I was, like, wow, this girl has got it.
“She still had a great career in many ways. Maybe other people thought she would do more, but it’s hard to win out here. She won a U.S. Open, as you know, and other events. She’s been great for the game.”
Michelle Wie West checks her yardage book during a practice round at the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open Presented by ProMedica at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C. on Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (Jeff Haynes/USGA)
Certainly, no player on tour right now has been more of a household name than Wie West.
“I had someone come up to me at player dining today saying that they were named after me,” Wie West said, “so that made me feel really young.”
That has happened often to Sorenstam over the years. In fact, a young woman walking with her on Tuesday at Pine Needles was named Annika, born in 1996, the year Sorenstam won a U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles.
Despite the decision, she won’t call it a retirement.
Michelle Wie West is proud to have blazed her own trail. No one in the history of the game has had a path quite like hers. A history maker, a prodigy, a creative marvel, Wie West commanded a presence in the game with her unique skillset, towering physical presence and daring exploits against the men. As a teen, she was as inspirational as she was controversial, a player many believed would become the Tiger Woods of the LPGA.
And now, as she prepares to fully transition away from the LPGA, Wie West’s legacy in the game is yet unfinished. The 32-year-old mom told Golfweek that she plans to compete in next week’s U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles and will then step away from the tour, with only next year’s Women’s Open at Pebble Beach remaining on her competitive golf calendar. Husband Jonnie West has volunteered to caddie at Pebble next July.
She won’t call it a retirement. After all, look at Annika Sorenstam, who will compete in her first major championship in 13 years in Southern Pines, North Carolina, at age 51.
“I’m definitely not ruling anything out,” Wie West said.
Michelle Wie of the United States celebrates with the trophy after winning in the final round of the 69th U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, Course No. 2 on June 22, 2014, in Pinehurst, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
After more than two decades of competing in the spotlight, Wie West, who gave birth to daughter Makenna on June 19, 2020, said her body can’t keep up anymore. When she teed it up in her only LPGA event of 2022 at the Hilton Grand Tournament of Champions in January, the first day felt great but it was a struggle physically thereafter (71-78-78-81).
“At times, if I do play a lot of golf,” she said, “I’m just in bed. Or I can’t lift (Makenna) up, and that scared me.”
Injuries have plagued Wie West her entire career, and she has entered a phase of life where she doesn’t want to put in the hours of rehab and practice that’s required to compete full time.
Wie West said she’s most proud of the fact that she earned her Stanford degree while competing on the LPGA (winning twice while in school!), and that she captured a U.S. Women’s Open title. Those were her two biggest dreams.
“Because I accomplished both of those, I think I feel very happy in my decision now,” she said. “I think if I hadn’t won the U.S. Open, I’d still be out there competing week to week trying to get that U.S. Open win.”
One thing Wie West stressed about in particular, however, was the call she feared from Nike that would end her contract after she stopped playing.
“I was definitely waiting for the heartbreaking call that Nike wouldn’t want to work with me,” she said, “but it was the complete opposite.”
Instead, Wie West has extended her partnership with the brand for five more years. She’ll be an athlete collaborator, getting more involved in design and the “nitty gritty.”
She’s now part of the Nike Athlete Think Tank, a group of female athletes – including Serena Williams, Sabrina Ionescu, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Simone Manuel – who have come together to help the brand break down barriers in women’s sport.
Wie West’s passions include awareness around sustainability, equal pay, maternity and postpartum.
“It seems like it’s been a couple years coming where I’ve been slowly doing things that I’ve always wanted to do, but never had time to do,” she said. “It’s been a lot of fun to learn and grow into areas that I always wanted to grow into.”
Omega, another early sponsor of Wie West’s, is also staying with her for this next phase of life. Other partnerships include MGM, Pitchbook, Berde Golf, Sportsbox.ai, Tonal, Blueland and LA Golf. (She is invested in LA Golf, Sportsbox.ai, Tonal and Blueland.)
Fourteen-year-old Michelle Wie talks to the press Thursday, January 15, 2004, at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Playing in a PGA Tour event for the first time, Wie shot a two-over-par 72 in the opening round. (Photo by A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
Wie West first made national headlines when she became the youngest player to ever qualify for a USGA amateur championship at age 10. She’d go on to become the youngest player to ever qualify for an LPGA event at age 12, the youngest to win an adult USGA championship at age 13 and the youngest to make the cut at an LPGA major when played her way into the last group of the 2003 Kraft Nabisco (now the Chevron) thanks to a third-round 66.
It was her adventures against the men, however, that truly made the 6-foot phenom with the 300-yard drives a household name. In 2004, Wie West shot 68 at the Sony Open, the lowest round ever recorded by a woman at a PGA Tour event. She missed the cut by a single stroke.
She’d go on to compete in seven more PGA Tour tournaments and advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur Public Links in her quest to play the Masters. The winner of the now-defunct USGA tournament traditionally earned an invitation to Augusta, Georgia.
Stacy Lewis, runner-up at Pinehurst in 2014, often wondered why Wie West chose to play against the men growing up. She finally asked when the pair were practicing together when they both lived in Jupiter, Florida.
Growing up in Hawaii, Wie West told Lewis, she played against the guys all the time. There weren’t a lot of female amateurs to compete against, so when the prospect of playing on the men’s tour came about, it made sense to her.
“Her reasoning is really quite funny because it makes sense in her head,” Lewis said. “She doesn’t look at it the way the rest of us look at it. She had this child-like perspective. She didn’t realize how big the world was.”
Seemingly everywhere Wie West showed up in those early days, something sensational followed. At times, it was a spectacular fail.
Many wondered if a more traditional route would’ve resulted in a World No. 1 ranking and a boatload of titles. She steps away from the LPGA with five victories, her most recent coming in 2018.
Michelle Wie gives a piggy back to Danielle Kang of Team USA during the afternoon fourball matches of The Solheim Cup at Des Moines Golf and Country Club on August 18, 2017, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
Wie West doesn’t look back at what-ifs. Instead, she views her unique and sometimes crazy path as a positive.
“I don’t have any regrets because I feel like I’ve always learned from every mistake that I’ve made,” she said. “I feel like even if it was a huge major fail, at least it makes for a good story now.”
And because she took chances then, Wie West likes to think that it has given her more confidence to take calculated risks now. She’s certainly not scared to make a mistake.
Wie West on her baby: “Even the reason why I’m playing is because of her.”
Michelle Wie West has new digs, a new nanny, a new puppy and the goal to play freely. Life has been somewhat of a whirlwind of changes in recent years for the one-time prodigy and she enters this week’s Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions as somewhat of a surprise entry.
For starters, Wie West, 32, hasn’t won on the LPGA since 2018. The TOC typically invites winners from the previous two seasons and last year, Wie West missed the event while still on maternity leave. Because the 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, winners from the previous three seasons were invited to the event in 2021.
“Before I committed,” said Wie West, “I texted Marina (Alex), ‘Hey, what’s up with this event? Do I really want to play in it? Something I should do?’ ”
Alex raved about the tournament’s celebrity component, and said it’s a fun way to celebrate a victory. Wie West recently teed it up with former tennis player Mardy Fish, last year’s winner of the celebrity portion of the TOC, and said he’s the best celebrity she’s ever played alongside. John Smoltz topped the celebrity field in 2019 and 2020.
This year’s event will be staged at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club and boasts a field of 29 players, including last year’s champion Jessica Korda and her sister, World No. 1 Nelly Korda. LPGA players will compete for a purse of $1.5 million with the winner’s portion of $225,000. The 50 celebrities compete in a modified stableford format for $500,000.
Michelle Wie arrives at Omega San Francisco Grand Opening VIP Celebration at de Young Museum on November 18, 2021 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Miikka Skaffari/Getty Images)
Wie West and husband Jonnie West, son of NBA legend Jerry West and an executive with the Golden State Warriors, recently moved from San Francisco to the Los Angeles area.
“Yeah, I guess we moved down south,” said Wie West during a pre-tournament press conference, “warmer weather I guess. But, yeah, it’s been a big change.”
Wie West, who signed with Excel Sports Management at the start of 2022, said she hasn’t put down roots yet as far as a membership near her new home, but noted that Hillcrest lets her use the range. She’s trying to nab a membership at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, California, a Robert Trent Jones, Sr. design that underwent a $10 million renovation in 2017. Rees Jones spearheaded the renovation of his father’s work.
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As for time spent working on her game, Wie West said daughter Makenna is at an age where she runs around so much that she had to quit taking her to the range. That’s where the new nanny has been a “game changer,” allowing Wie West to get out to practice around two to two and a half hours each day.
“I’m not at the stage of my body where I can go and beat balls for four hours anymore,” she said. “So, yeah, definitely always taking into consideration my body and my wrist, neck.”
As for the new puppy, the Wests got another sheep dog like Gatsby and named her Daisy.
Life is full for the businesswoman, wife, mom and competitor, who more than anything wants to be a good role model for Makenna. Last year the Stanford grad came back from maternity leave and competed in six events, making the cut in her last two. Her last competitive round on the LPGA was the KPMG Women’s PGA in June. When asked about this year’s schedule, Wie West said she hasn’t yet decided.
“Before her, golf was my number one priority,” she said. “I ate, slept, breathe everything golf. Now it’s her. Even the reason why I’m playing is because of her.”
Notably absent from the field is last year’s LPGA Player of the Year.
If last year’s season-opening event on the LPGA is any indication of what’s to come, buckle up for the newly renamed Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, now held at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando.
World No. 1 and Olympic gold medalist Nelly Korda and defending champion Jessica Korda, who shot 60 last year en route to victory, will be on hand Jan. 20-23 along with Michelle Wie West, Danielle Kang, Brooke Henderson, Lydia Ko, Inbee Park, Ariya Jutanugarn, Anna Nordqvist and Stacy Lewis. Nelly Korda won the Gainbridge LPGA event at Lake Nona in 2021.
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Wie West qualified for the event by winning the 2018 HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore. She did not play the 2021 tournament while on maternity leave after giving birth to daughter Makenna in 2020.
Notably absent from the field is last year’s LPGA Player of the Year, Jin Young Ko, Sei Young Kim and Florida resident Lexi Thompson.
The LPGA stars will be joined by approximately 50 celebrities including 2021 champion Mardy Fish, 2019 and 2020 champion John Smoltz, Annika Sorenstam, Marcus Allen, Charles Woodson, Jack Wagner and Blair O’Neal. The celebrity field will compete for a $500,000 purse using a modified Stableford format.
Meanwhile, the LPGA purse will increase by 25 percent from 2021 to $1.5 million. All four rounds will be televised live on Golf Channel, with weekend coverage extending to NBC.
Nasa Hataoka, Sorenstam, Ko and Jutanugarn and are all members at Nona.
As she stares down the weekend at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Michelle Wie West acknowledges how far she’s come.
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – Michelle Wie West heard a baby babble on the 18th at Atlanta Athletic Club’s Highlands Course and felt herself tear up.
“I was like, get yourself together,” she said with a laugh.
This week marks the first time Wie West has competed outside of the state of California in 2021, much less on the other side of the country. Daughter Makenna is busy getting spoiled by her grandparents while Wie West makes her sixth start of the season at the KPMG Women’s PGA.
“The guilt is real,” she said. “You go out there and like should I be really here so far away from her? You just have to fight through it and know that she’s having fun and all that.”
After Wie West opened with a 5-over 77 at the KPMG, husband Jonnie gave her a short pep talk.
“He told me to get my head out of my ass, so I did,” said Wie, calling him her sports psych. “I played, got my head out of my ass, and I played some golf today.”
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Wie West poured in four birdies in the first seven holes to turn things around. Her 3-under 69 matches her low round for the season, and at 3 over she’s currently inside the cut line in a share of 56th.
“That was the first time in a really long time where I felt like every hole looked like a birdie hole to me,” she said.
Wie West made her first cut of the year two weeks ago at the LPGA Mediheal Championship, held at her new home course of Lake Merced. She said it has taken some time to get used to her ball flying 15 yards farther in warm conditions.
It was two years ago at this event when Wie West didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to play the game. She hobbled around Hazeltine clutching ice packs, opening with an 84 that matched her highest round as a pro. In a rare display of emotion, Wie West broke down in front of a small group of reporters after the round.
Wie West gutted it through the second round to shoot 82 and then announced that she’d be taking the rest of 2019 off to heal her right hand and wrists. She got married, had a baby and came back to the tour in March.
A made cut at Atlanta Athletic Club would mark her first weekend at a major since the 2018 KPMG Women’s PGA, when she tied for 28th.
“It’s pretty crazy when you think about Hazeltine and where I was and where I am now,” she said. “I’m just eternally grateful that I have a chance to come back.”
Lauren Kim finds herself grateful to be back in competition post-COVID break. This week, she’s riding all the home feels at Lake Merced.
In the San Francisco Bay area this week, Lauren Kim is enjoying the advantage that familiarity brings.
“It’s amazing to stay at home, sleep in my own bed,” she said. “Just have the local support and know that people that are rooting for me are really close by.”
Kim is giving them reason to cheer. The 26-year-old has fired a pair of 69s to open the LPGA Mediheal Championship at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, California. At 6 under, she enters the weekend in contention.
This is the LPGA’s second consecutive stop in the area. Last week’s U.S. Women’s Open was played at nearby Olympic Club, but Kim wasn’t in the field.
Kim played this Lake Merced layout often as a junior golfer growing up in Los Altos, California. She admitted she doesn’t play it as much as an adult.
“It’s kind of fun to come back and just see how your game improves on the same course over like a decade of playing it,” she said.
It hasn’t been an easy for for Kim, an LPGA rookie in 2017, the past few seasons. She missed the cut in her first three starts in 2021 and finished 81st at the Pure Silk Championship before teeing it up this week.
“Yeah, it really has been a struggle. I’ve been kind of grinding away and hoping for results and kind of patiently waiting,” she said.
Maybe it just took a home environment to bring them out. Count Kim among the six players with Stanford ties playing in this field. Kim was a member of Stanford’s 2015 NCAA title team.
That number also includes Michelle Wie West, who attended Stanford but didn’t play for the team, and current player Rachel Heck, who won the NCAA individual title at the end of last month.
Michelle Wie West (left) and Rachel Heck (right) on the second hole during the first round of the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship. (Photo: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)
There was a period in Kim’s time on the Symetra Tour that she considered walking away from competitive golf.
“That took a lot of self-reflection,” she said. “I think realizing why I play the game in the first place and just kind of appreciating the opportunity. I think it’s really easy to get wrapped up in the grind of being on tour – whether it’s Symetra or out here even – wrapped up in results and all of the performance that goes with it.”
Last year’s COVID break brought perspective, namely a window into what life would be like without competitive golf.
“I got into cycling, backpacking, a lot of different hobbies, things that I felt like I couldn’t really do being on the road all the time,” she said of the things she focused on while on that forced break.
“And so I don’t know, just having fun with it, making the best out of a really poor situation. When I found out I wasn’t going to be competing, to have that taken away, I think really helped me practice like negative visualization in way and what would my life look like without golf.
“Just made me really grateful to be back out here.”
Wie West, meanwhile, will play the weekend at Lake Merced for the first time in five starts this season after becoming a mom. The 31-year-old fired rounds of 73-75 and at 4 over was sitting just inside the cut number. Heck, who was paired with Wie West the first two rounds, missed the cut with rounds of 76-78.
New mom Michelle Wie West continues to compete, like at the U.S. Women’s Open, but now she’s moving the needle in different ways.
SAN FRANCISCO – The first time Michelle Wie West left her daughter to go to work she cried. That’s not unusual, of course. In Wie West’s case, she was headed to the first tee for Round 1 of the Kia Classic, her first official round on the LPGA in 643 days. Wie West was staying on property at the Aviara Resort in Carlsbad, California, and when Bo Wie came out on the balcony with granddaughter McKenna to give a wave, Wie West broke down crying again.
“I was like what is happening to me?” recalled Wie West. “Hormones?”
She promptly hit her next shot into the water.
Jane Park first met Wie West during a rain delay at the 2002 U.S. Girls’ Junior at Echo Lake Country Club in Westfield, New Jersey. She invited Wie West to play a game of spoons in the locker room.
“She was kind of sitting there alone,” said Park. “We all knew that she was a prodigy. I think she just felt like the odd one out because she was new to the scene.”
Wie West, 31, gave birth to Kenna two months before Park had daughter Grace. They text often, with Park checking to see if a new rash or a new sound is normal. Park was paired with Gerina Piller at the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open in April and asked how long it took before she felt back to her former mind and body after giving birth to son A.J.
Piller said almost 2 ½ years.
“She said ‘You just need to remember that you made a freakin’ life in your body,’ ” said Park. “None of these other girls are thinking ‘Did I bring enough diapers?’ in the middle of the round.”
The 2021 U.S. Women’s Open is being played 15 minutes away from Wie West’s home in San Francisco. She didn’t get out there much ahead of the championship because the Lake Course seemed too taxing to carry her bag and push Kenna. That’s how she typically practices at Lake Merced. Kenna tracks every ball.
Wie West called her 2014 U.S. Women’s Open victory at Pinehurst “life-changing” and remembers every second of the day.
“I feel I carried myself differently from that moment forward,” she said, “because of that self-validation.”
The floodgates never opened after that first major title. An LPGA victory in Singapore is all that has followed, bringing her career victory total to five. Still, she remains the only household name on the LPGA in America.
She’s not the same person she was back then, of course. Couldn’t be, really, after getting married and giving birth and putting family above all else.
The shift began two years ago, she said, after she stepped away from the tour due to injury. Wie West fell on her left wrist while running backwards at age 16, fracturing three bones. Three years later, while practicing down in Florida, she rested her right hand on the top her golf bag and a club smashed down on it, resulting in a bone contusion.
Physically, it’s been a great battle ever since.
This most recent break from the tour helped Wie West see the game and her role in a different light. She ran for a Player Director position on the LPGA board, coming on at a crucial time as the tour hired its next commissioner.
“Now,” she said, “I have the mental and emotional capacity to see things from a broader perspective.”
“I knew what I wanted to say,” said Wie West, “but I just couldn’t get it out. (Jonnie) told me, you have such a great opportunity to say something that really matters right now.”
In the past, Wie West admits, she would’ve probably stayed quiet.
Justin Thomas introduced the couple, and they quickly realized that they had many mutual friends. The pair connected shortly before Wie West went on a girls’ trip to the Bahamas and she couldn’t stop talking about him. She soon flew to San Francisco to see him on her way to up Portland.
Friend Jeehae Lee, a former LPGA player and Yale grad who is now CEO of Sportsbox AI, spent a brief time as Wie West’s manager and saw the couple interact in those early days in her San Francisco living room.
“The first time they met in person they seemed so comfortable with each other,” said Lee. “It wasn’t being too polite or hiding behind something. They were just comfortable being themselves, which I felt was such a good sign. … They really are each other’s go-tos.”
Walking outside the Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors, Wie West marveled at the amount of money that’s poured into men’s professional sport. She was shocked the first time she went to a PGA Tour event.
When people argue that LPGA purses are lower because of lower viewership, it’s an unfair comparison, she said, because of how much is invested.
“The men’s sports create a better product just on the number of cameras alone,” she said. “Our game looks slower, our players look slower when in fact, we’re not slower at all. It’s because we don’t have the ability to switch back and forth, so you end up watching the players’ entire routine, which people now don’t have the attention span for that.”
Wie West dabbled in on-camera work when she was away from the tour, giving her even more insight into the discrepancies between the men’s and women’s game. Back-to-back U.S. Opens at Pinehurst in 2014 were eye-opening in that regard as well.
Wie West noted that in player meetings, LPGA commissioner Mike Whan consistently drilled into their heads that just because they’re playing for a $1 million first-place prize now, nothing is guaranteed – “you need to do the work.”
She finds her father-in-law’s hardware at Prime 44 West, a steakhouse at the Greenbrier that honors the West Virginia native, inspiring but not as much as his stories from the past. She was shocked to learn that when Jerry West first joined the league, everyone in the NBA had a second job. Courtside tickets at Lakers games went for $7.50.
“Looking back at our 13 founders and knowing what they did,” said Wie West, “that’s not that long ago either.”
Wie West never pictured herself playing the LPGA as a mom. Having a daughter changed that. Everything she does now is with an eye toward building a world that’s better for Kenna.
Living in the Bay Area, Lee says, gives Wie West even more of a platform to take on social issues. Traveling the world with the towering star gave Lee a unique perspective on her fame.
“It’s one thing to be in Toledo, Ohio, with her,” said Lee, “versus Singapore or Seoul, South Korea.”
So many stares in Tokyo, with fans asking for autographs or pictures on the streets, at airports and in hotel lobbies. Even at a recent USGA video shoot at one of Wie West’s local favorites, Dumpling Time, near the Chase arena, a couple from Hawaii asked to take a photograph.
“Honestly, I just remember feeling somewhat overwhelmed and protective,” Lee said of the moments when it was difficult to get through crowds. “I was somewhat of a bodyguard at some points.”
Lately, it’s been hectic for different reasons.
Michelle Wie West and Kira K. Dixon as seen during a USGA video shoot at Dumpling Time in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, April 27, 2021. (Copyright USGA/Jed Jacobsohn)
Wie West wakes up Kenna around 7 a.m. (unless Kenna wakes her up first). They hang out. When Kenna takes a nap, Wie West works out. They hang out some more. During the second nap, Wie West eats lunch and cleans the house. When Kenna wakes up, she takes her to Lake Merced to play six holes or to Stanford to practice.
Then it’s back to feed her dinner, give her a bath, put her to bed and make dinner for the adults. She’s been into making sushi lately and has a supplier deliver fresh fish to the house.
Wie West recently hosted a taco night. She had two different fillings, Lee noted: Korean barbecue beef and shrimp. Nothing on Wie West’s table comes out of a jar. She even makes her own salsa.
“She loves having people over, and she is so domesticated,” said Lee. “She will just whip up something amazing in the kitchen without having to go grocery shopping that day. I raid her pantry and fridge like nobody’s business.”
Wie West’s parents have been staying with them lately to help. Five weeks out from the USWO, she felt that she needed to dedicate more time to practice.
To do that though, she also has to work through the guilt.
Juli Inkster, LPGA Hall of Famer and mother of two, said it took a long time to learn how to balance motherhood with what it takes to win at the highest level.
“When you leave them for a week,” said said, “you’re thinking ‘Oh my God, are they going to remember me when I get back?’ ”
Laura Baugh played the tour as a single mother of seven, traveling in a van. She breastfed them all and even home-schooled.
“You’ll never have enough time to be the mom you want,” she said, “and you’ll never have enough time to be the great putter than you want to be. You will never be enough in your eyes … you do the best you can.”
Michelle Wie celebrates with her mother Bo on the 18th green after her two-stroke victory at the 69th U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, Course No. 2 on June 22, 2014 in Pinehurst, North Carolina. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
Wie West hasn’t competed on the LPGA since the LA Open in late April, dropping out of the LPGA match play event in Las Vegas due to family commitments.
Regardless of how much Wie West plays in the future, Lee knows that her friend will continue to move the needle in different ways, using her vast network in and out of golf to bring about change.
“She can use that platform to take issues head on,” said Lee, “to speak boldly about topics that people are too afraid to speak out about. … She can bring money, she can bring attention, influencers – both in and out of golf – in a way that very few other athletes can.”
One day, Wie West hopes Kenna looks back on the current pay gap between the genders in golf the same way she views that $7.50 court-side Lakers ticket – absolutely wild.
Perhaps Wie West’s greatest legacy is yet to come.
Michelle Wie West will compete in the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play on a sponsor invite, which adds a little more intrigue to the event.
Before one shot is even struck, the new Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play event has already generated buzz. Fans have been hungry for this format. The women’s tour hasn’t had a match-play event on its schedule since 2017 when Lorena Ochoa hosted a tournament in Mexico City that wasn’t even televised.
This one will be televised – live for five days on Golf Channel starting next Wednesday – and the venue, Shadow Creek, certainly draws some interest. The Tom Fazio design hosted The Match: Tiger vs. Phil in 2018 and the PGA Tour’s CJ CUP, won by Jason Kokrak last October.
Now add sponsor invites to the intrigue. Michelle Wie West and Alison Lee, both part of MGM’s Golf Ambassador program, have been offered spots in the 64-player field.
This will give Wie West another opportunity to get tournament-ready before her hometown U.S. Women’s Open at Olympic Club. Wie West has made three starts on the LPGA since returning to the tour after maternity leave, her last coming in late April at the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open. She has missed the cut in all three tournaments.
Other marquee names in the field include World No. 1 Jin Young Ko, Inbee Park, Patty Tavatanakit, Ariya Jutanugarn, Danielle Kang, Sei Young Kim, Stacy Lewis, Sophia Popov and Brooke Henderson.
Notables who didn’t sign up include: Nelly and Jessica Korda, Lexi Thompson and Lydia Ko.
There’s a spot left open for the winner of this week’s Pure Silk Championship. Should that player already be in the field, the first alternate is Ayako Uehara.
The field will be divided into 16 groups of four players with three days of round-robin matches deciding the final 16-player bracket. From there, a series of single-elimination matches will determine Sunday’s championship match.
In the coming weeks, athletes from across the professional sports landscape will be wearing an LPGA-logoed cotton-candy hoodie designed by Michelle Wie West.
In the coming days and weeks, athletes from across the professional sports landscape will be wearing an LPGA-logoed cotton-candy hoodie designed by Michelle Wie West. The #HoodieforGolf – already worn by Golden State Warriors players Damion Lee and Kent Bazemore– has sold out twice so far, and Wie West said that many of her famous friends are still waiting to get theirs in the mail.
The initial buzz and visibility is exactly what Wie West had in mind when she first brought the hoodie idea to Roberta Bowman, the LPGA’s chief brand and communications officer.
“We’re often hidden,” said Wie West. “We’re often left out; we’re often not covered. It’s been so fun to see our logo, our tour be on the forefront of many media outlets, on many people’s Instagram pages.”
courtesy LPGA
Wie West, who is in the field for this week’s Hugel-Air Premia LA Open at Wilshire, remains the most well-known player on the LPGA even though she hasn’t won a tournament since 2018. The new mom returned to the tour in March with a different set of priorities and a big-picture perspective of her responsibility to the tour.
In the past, she never considered running for a spot on the LPGA’s board of directors because she was “1,000 percent hyper-focused on winning only.”
Time away from the game, however, helped her to see things differently. She credited LPGA Hall of Fame players Meg Mallon and Beth Daniel for continually emphasizing to younger generations the importance of leaving the tour in a better place – the LPGA Founder way.
“The work doesn’t stop here,” said Wie West.
The hoodie isn’t just about sparking conversations surrounding the 70-year-old tour. It’s also designed to help make the sport more diverse. Proceeds from the limited-edition hoodie benefit the LPGA Renee Powell Fund and the Clearview Legacy Foundation. Powell, 74, became the second Black player to compete on the LPGA in 1967. Her father, Bill, built Clearview Golf Club in East Canton, Ohio, in 1946. It remains the only golf course in the country built, owned and operated by an African-American.
“Renee has spent her entire life trying to increase the participation of girls of color,” said Wie West, “which is something that is super important to me as well.”
Inspired by the WNBA’s #OrangeHoodie movement, which last year ESPN reported garnered 16.4K mentions on Twitter with over 623 million potential impressions thanks to the likes of LeBron James, Trae Young, Ja Morant, Victor Oladipo and Lil Wayne sporting the sweatshirt, Wie West said she has had impactful conversations with fellow Stanford grad Nneka Ogwumike, a former No. 1 draft pick who plays for the Los Angeles Sparks and serves as president of the WNBA Players Association.
“(Nneka) spearheaded a lot of initiatives for the WNBA,” said Wie West, “so really I look up to her. … I think we’re coming up with some cool ideas together.”
Wie West makes her third start of the 2021 season at Wilshire after two missed cuts. She’s been in Los Angeles for some time now visiting her in-laws. (Husband Jonnie West is the son of NBA legend Jerry West.)
Skipping last week’s tour event in her native Hawaii was a tough decision, Wie West said. She didn’t feel comfortable taking McKenna on the five-hour plane ride and couldn’t bring herself to go on to the Lotte Championship without her.
The first two events back were a struggle mentally, she said, feeling like she was 50 percent there for every aspect of life.
“It sucked feeling that way,” she said. “I felt like being on the golf course all I wanted to do was be with her, so I was 50 percent there, and when I was back home I was so tired from my round that I felt like I was about 50 percent with her. It was a rough two weeks when I was out there.
“But I had some time at home and just really changing the way I look at things, and it’s definitely been an adjustment, and I’m still adjusting, but it feels great to be out here. I’m getting more and more comfortable being out here away from her.”
