When Michelle Wie was in her early teens, the golf world began heaping its hopes on her shoulders. But her career did not quite live up to expectations, and the game has been slow to let her forget it. Now at the age of 21, and ahead of appearing at the Solheim Cup, she tells MALACHY CLERKINabout going back to college, the pressures of the sport, and why what she does is 'really nothing'
EVIAN-LES-BAINS IS miserable today, if miserable it can be. The exclusive little resort, hard by Lake Geneva – or Lac Léman, as they call it on the French side of the border – is, yes, the place where the bottled water comes from. Since the early 19th century, it has thrived on the back of the world-famous company built on the fruits of two local springs but this morning they could just as easily have left out a few dozen industrial vats to collect the rain and seen their stocks heartily replenished. Presumably the local health and safety bods would have something to say about it but you get the picture. It’s spilling down.
This is bad news for the Évian Masters. Women’s golf is hard enough to market at the best of times, and a sodden Tuesday morning in mid-July is far from one of those, even if the surrounding landscape could hardly be much more agreeable. This is one of the bigger tournaments on the circuit and from next year on, it will be known as the fifth major in women’s professional golf. A first prize of just short of €350,000 has brought the top players in the game here, including the 21-year-old Hawaiian who is still its biggest name.
It’s a while, though, since Michelle Wie was its brightest talent. In golfing terms, these days she’s pretty much just another player. She hasn’t won a tournament in a year and hasn’t been in contention for a victory since her very first tournament of the season back in February in Thailand. In fact, she’s barely hanging on to a top-20 spot in the LPGA money list for 2011.
This does and doesn’t matter. Her money-list ranking is more about prestige and her place in the golfing world than it is about hard currency. She is not now and will never be short of cash. So far this year, she has earned the dollar equivalent of just under €250,000 on the course and in her six years as a professional she has pocketed a shade over €1.4m in tournament play.
But this is chicken feed compared to what her various endorsements have raked in. As a face of (deep breath) Nike, McDonald’s, Kia Motors, Omega watches, Sime Darby (your guess is as good as mine), Zengyro (ditto) and others since left behind, she has banked in excess of €20m. She won’t turn 22 until October.
“My life never was really normal,” she says when we find a corner of the press tent in Évian to chat. No kidding it wasn’t. She was a child prodigy like nothing women’s sport had ever seen. She was winning tournaments in Hawaii at the age of 10. She qualified to play in her first LPGA Tour event at 12 and in 2003 became the youngest ever player to make the cut at an LPGA tournament. Later that year, while still only 13 years old, she became the youngest player ever (male or female) to win an official USGA-sanctioned adult tournament and made the cut in the US Women’s Open, again the youngest person ever to do so.
By 2004, she was famous worldwide after the Sony Open in Hawaii offered her an invitation to play alongside the men of the PGA Tour. She was only the fourth – and, at 14, obviously the youngest – female ever to play a PGA Tour event. The circus around her was enormous, all the more so when she said she wanted to play in the Masters eventually, the tournament held at the defiantly female-member-free Augusta National.
When she turned professional in 2005, a week before her 16th birthday, she signed endorsement contracts worth an immediate $10m (€7m). Her first act was to hand Bill Clinton a cheque for $500,000 (€354,000) of it to contribute to the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Fund.
So no, not a normal life at all. Six years down the road and things are altogether more humdrum now. She never became the megastar all the buzz and hype predicted she’d be. In the course of a solid but unspectacular professional career, she has won two tournaments – in Mexico in 2009 and in Canada last year. When she was sold as the next Tiger Woods, nobody thought that the day might come when such a title wouldn’t amount to very much. Given the current form of the two of them, it’s far from the greatest compliment you can hand down.
“You know, I love being out here,” she says when you broach the subject of her recent form. “Obviously I want to be the best player that I can be. I want to win majors. I want to win tournaments and I’m working very hard at that. Right now that’s my number-one goal, especially during the summer.” Thus speaks the product of a life that met a media coach before it met a driving instructor. She takes a little while to move beyond the fall-back buzzwords and stock phrases that pockmark the interview but we get there in the end. It can’t be easy growing up encircled by lenses and entreatied by mic-wielding grown-ups whose intents and agendas can’t make much sense to a teenager. It’s almost a wonder she’s got this far and can still politely sit through another round of questions about her life.
Because questions are all there are these days. About her form, about her parents, about her college life, about everything. The problem with not reaching the potential the world has set out for you is that the world wants to know why. Think about that. Think about having the weight of a whole sport on your shoulders, about being the chosen face of a multi-million dollar industry and not being able to live up to it. Now think about going through it all while you’re still a teenage girl.
Wie actually began her professional career like she was supposed to. In 2005 and 2006, she finished in the top five in five out of six consecutive majors. If anyone had doubted her bona fides before, few were wondering after that. Okay, maybe a discreet veil has been drawn over the big talk of her one day playing the Masters and Ryder Cup, but it only seemed a matter of time before she would become the dominant force in women’s golf. But life got in the way a little bit after that and she reacted the way a teenage girl just might.
She pouted and stropped and acted like a bit of a spoilt child. She dropped out of one tournament mid-round in 2007 when it looked like she might finish her round in more than 88 shots (the LPGA have a rule the excludes non-exempt players from the rest of the year if they shoot over 88). She cited a wrist injury but was seen practising less than 48 hours later at the site of the LPGA Championship.
No less a figure than the greatest ever female golfer Annika Sorenstam publicly chastised her over it, saying she lacked respect and class. That gave the rest of the golf world all the licence it needed to pile in. Wie’s parents were already pretty unpopular for the way they controlled every inch of their only child’s life and as the storm blew, everybody made sure it whipped up around their ears too. You’d have forgiven their 17-year-old daughter for resenting it all at that point, maybe even regretting the day she ever picked up a club.
“I never resented the talent I had,” she says. “I resented the fact that I fell and broke three bones in my wrist and the fact that I was so stubborn and that I wanted to play. I felt like at the time although I broke my bones, I didn’t let it break my mind. I didn’t let myself relax and heal as I should have. I was stubborn that way. I should have stopped.
“It was a tough time but I learned a lot from it, just like anyone learns things when they go through downs in their life. My career can’t always go up. There will always be little dips, that’s just inevitable. But hopefully the highs will be higher than the lows are low.”
But surely there were times when you’d have happily never swung a club again? “Oh yeah. There were definitely times when I didn’t want to play, where I was tired of the whole thing. But that really doesn’t last very long. The love for the game is so strong that even when it gets you down, you still want to keep doing it. You want to hit the next good shot.
“It’s funny – through that period, I actually got to like golf a lot more. Before, it was like, ‘I guess I have to play this game because I’m good at it.’ But once I hit that real low point, I really started to want it. Anyone who knew me through that time will tell you that’s where I really changed. It was a big turning point for me. I wanted it now. I wanted to be a big player. I wanted to show everyone, I guess.”
She enrolled at Stanford University that September, the first step towards injecting some semblance of normality into her life. It was her first time living away from her parents, the first time living a life that had nothing to do with golf. Next March, she will graduate with a degree in communications.
But even something as benign as studying kicked up a fuss. She has taken heat this summer from commentators and ex-players – Sorenstam most notably – for not committing as much to her golf as she should, and for concentrating too much on college life. Not for the first time, it looks as if the sport feels short-changed by her in some way. It doesn’t bother her, certainly not now when she’s so close to finishing.
“I never looked on myself as a normal girl. I got to the age where going through something like college was very necessary for me. As much as it might hurt my career for a little while, it was just something I had to do for me as a person. It was kind of like a selfish decision that I needed to make. I think it was important and I think, in the long run, I will look back on it and see that I did a good job.
“My friends at school really don’t have any idea what a par is or what a caddie is or anything like that. I’ve had friends pick up a tee and ask me what it is. It’s great to be not a golfer all the time. You’re surrounded by amazing, talented people. It’s not just straight-A students that get into Stanford, it’s kids who have set up their own companies and already made millions. I’ve met kids who’ve set up foundations and travelled countrywide. I met a girl who climbed Everest at 16. When I meet people like that, I realise that what I do is really nothing.”
Well, it might not be climbing Everest but it’s not nothing. Tomorrow night at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Oregon, Wie will be named in the US Solheim Cup team that will play at Killeen Castle, Co Meath on the fourth weekend of September. This is the women’s equivalent of the Ryder Cup, and Wie made her first appearance in the competition last time out in 2009.
We saw a different Michelle Wie than we were used to that week. The quiet, aloof, mistrusting figure that previously walked the fairways with her head down, morphed into a smiling, high-fiving team player. She also played out of her skin, going unbeaten in her four matches as the Americans beat Europe 16-12. And looked to have a dabba-do time along the way.
“It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life,” she says. “It was just such a fun time, especially with my first one being in America. We had all the fans behind us and everyone was unified in support of us. There was so much chanting and cheering.
“I think it was very important to play well. It was a big thing for me. It wasn’t important in the overall context because, you know, it doesn’t matter who gets the points as long as we win but I really wanted to play well. Everyone helped me and talked me through what to expect. They said, ‘You’re gonna want to play fast, you’re gonna want to swing really hard and move on but you’ve got to take a minute and slow it down.’ They helped me to know what to expect.”
And this time around? “Well, when you go into Solheim Cup, there’s not a match you can win easily. Everything has to be fought for, everything has to be earned. That’s what makes it so exciting. I’m really looking forward to it. I know it’s going to be a bit colder over in Ireland than we’re used to.” At which point, she takes a look out at the Évian-les-Bains downpour.
“But hey, at least it won’t be raining this bad, right?” Ahem. The Irish Times decides this would be a good time to make its excuses and leave.
Junior Solheim Cup
There has never been an Irish Solheim Cup player and there won’t be this year either. With a fair wind, however, we shouldn’t be all that many years away from such an event, as the meteoric rise of the Maguire twins from Cavan continues. Lisa and Leona Maguire will be heading up the European challenge at the Junior Solheim event in Knightsbridge, Co Meath in the days leading up to the main event.
Based along similar lines as the senior tournament, it is open to the best amateur players on either side of the Atlantic between the ages of 12 and 18. The 16-year-old pair from Ballyconnell are ranked first and second in Europe, with Leona only just ahead of Lisa, and the rest of Europe trailing in their wake. Leona was best amateur at the Irish Open earlier this month and Lisa is the reigning European Amateur Champion.
THE SOLHEIM CUP
From September 23rd to 25th, Killeen Castle in Co Meath will play host to the 12th Solheim Cup, the biennial team golf competition between the female professionals of Europe and the US. It was first held in Lake Nona, Florida in 1990, with the Americans winning comfortably. Although Europe struck back next time out in Dalmahoy near Edinburgh in 1992, Team US have had the upper hand ever since. The overall standings so far read USA 8 Europe 3.
This is the first time the competition has been held in Ireland. The format calls for three days of matchplay golf between two teams of 12 players a piece, similar to the Ryder Cup. They play team golf for the first two days and then Sunday will see them split up into 12 singles matches.
The teams for the 2011 Solheim Cup will be announced over the coming week. American captain Rosie Jones will name her team tomorrow night and the European team will be named on Monday week by their captain, Alison Nicholas.
Ones to watch at the Solheim Cup
TEAM US
Cristie Kerr
Ranked number two in the world, Kerr has been a professional for 16 years during which she has earned more than $13m on tour. She has won 18 tournaments including two majors, and was the first American to make it to the top of the world rankings. She once appeared on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice TV show. This will be her sixth Solheim Cup appearance.
Paula Creamer
Creamer became the youngest winner of a multiple-round LPGA tournament in 2005 when she won the Sybase Classic in 2005, a week before she graduated from high school.
She has since become one of the best players in the game, winning 10 tournaments as a professional including last year’s US Open, her first major. She is nicknamed the Pink Panther because, well, she always wears pink. This will be her fourth Solheim Cup appearance.
Christina Kim
Another star from an early age, Kim was the youngest female golfer to earn $1m in 2004 at just 20 years old. Calling her an extrovert would be putting it mildly. She played very well – and very loudly – during Team US’s Solheim win last time out, whipping the Illinois crowd into a fervour at every opportunity. Her form has been poor of late and if she makes the team, it will only be by the skin of her teeth. It will be fun to watch if she gets here, though.
TEAM EUROPE
Suzann Pettersen
Pettersen is a Norwegian golfer who won the Ladies Irish Open a couple of weeks ago at Killeen Castle, the very course to which she will be returning for the Solheim Cup. It was actually her second Irish Open, having won at Portmarnock Links in 2008. She is the winner of 13 tournaments worldwide – including the 2007 LPGA Championship, her only major – and this will be her sixth Solheim Cup. She holds the Killeen Castle course record of 63.
Laura Davies
Davies is one of the greatest golfers of all-time, male or female. She has won 81 professional tournaments worldwide including four majors, with close to $15m in on-course earnings. She won the European order of merit seven times and became the first ever non-European to top the American money list as well. A huge soccer fan, she was once fined for watching England play Spain on a portable TV during the final round of a tournament. She still went on to win. She has played in every Solheim Cup.
Melissa Reid
The rising star of women’s golf in England, Reid leads the European Solheim Cup standings after hitting a rich vein of form in these past two seasons. Reid only turned pro in 2007, won the Dutch Open in June and was third in the Irish Open earlier this month. That was her 16th top-10 finish in the past two years. A Derby County supporter, this will be her first Solheim Cup.
