Michelle Wie West really wanted to compete while she was pregnant with her first child, but the only golf she’s playing these days is for fun. She did get tested and fitted for new Mavrik clubs, putting a shorter and lighter set in the bag. But after playing 18 holes in a cart, Wie West noted, an hour-long nap is in order.
“I honestly do not know how these women play when pregnant,” said Wie West, who is working on the “Live From” set for Golf Channel at the Players this week. Wie is due to give birth to a baby girl this summer.
Wie West’s Golf Channel co-workers, longtime mentor Mark Rolfing and fellow Stanford alum Notah Begay, sang her praises on Wednesday in the lead-up to competition.
“I must say, I’ve seen her do a lot of things in her career,” said Rolfing, “starting from when she was 9 years old, I guess, out in Hawaii, and I saw her stop the driving range at the Sony Open because she was hitting drivers into the maintenance shed, and that was pretty impressive. But I don’t think anything she’s done in her entire career since I’ve known her has been more impressive than what she’s done the last few days here. It’s been remarkable. She made a couple of comments today that were just phenomenal comments, as an analyst, as a golf analyst, not just as an LPGA player or a phenom golfer.”
Wie West, 30, said that when she worked as an analyst during last year’s Solheim Cup, she worried that she might actually hate it. But the opposite happened. Wie West indicated that she’d like to do more TV in the future, but still plans to come back to the LPGA at some point after maternity leave.
“Well, we’ve seen a lot of analysts come in for the first time and fail,” said Begay. “I mean, it’s a lot harder than it looks, and for her to be able to come in and be settled and calm and composed and then project the types of thoughts that she’s projecting into the forum is remarkable, especially from the perspective that she sees the game, from her personal experiences.”
Wie West said motherhood is the best thing that’s ever happened to her and praised the LPGA’s new maternity policy, noting the increased freedom and time women have in deciding when to come back to the tour.
“All my sponsors have been so, so supportive, but it hasn’t always been that way,” said Wie West. “It’s because of women that have stood up and made a stand, and I’m really lucky, and hopefully I can make a stand on my own and make it better for the future.”
[opinary poll=”if-every-players-every-shot-were-availab-DodYTW” customer=”golfweek”]