She gave up soccer at the age of six and turned her back on tennis and baseball because they involved too much running. Whatever those sports may have lost, golf has already benefited richly with Honolulu schoolgirl Michelle Wie having established herself as one of the biggest attractions in the game.
There is a great deal more to come from the 15-year-old who announced her long-anticipated decision to turn professional at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Honolulu yesterday. "I'm turning pro as of today," said a smiling Wie, who was due to attend classes at Punahou High School within an hour of the news conference. "I'm very excited and I want to try to become the best golfer in the world.
She is believed to have signed endorsement deals worth $10 million per year, making her golf's richest female and one of the highest paid athletes in women's sport. Swedish world number one Annika Sorenstam, winner of nine career majors, earns around $6 million a year in endorsements.
The game's most trumpeted teenager since Tiger Woods, Wie has left seasoned observers gasping at her length off the tee and her ability to conjure something special when under pressure. Although yet to win a title at the highest level, she has come desperately close on the LPGA Tour and has produced four top-10 finishes in eight major starts.
The statuesque American, who stunned the sporting world in January last year when she narrowly failed to become the first female to make the cut in a men's PGA Tour event at the Hawaiian Open, took up golf aged four. "I did play other sports, in fact I tried everything," she said. "I played soccer, baseball, tennis and swimming but didn't really like them enough to stick with them . . . I have to be good at something and I chose golf when I was about seven-years-old."
The six-foot Wie, who in 2003 became the youngest winner of the US women's amateur public links championship, regularly powers her drives beyond 300 yards.
When Wie missed the 2004 Hawaiian Open cut by a shot after firing a second-round 68 and making birdie at two of the last three holes, a third of the field failed to match her driving distance.
Three-times major winner Ernie Els described her swing as the best of any women golfer he had seen while world number one Woods was also excited. "I wish her all the luck in the world," said Woods, who was surprised to discover Wie was slightly taller than him after the pair walked a few holes together. For Wie, meeting Woods for the first time was an enriching experience.
"In my younger years, at six or seven, I learned my golf mostly from Tiger Woods," she said. "My dad watched him and I had pictures of Tiger up on the wall and I followed his swing.
"Eventually I want to divide my time between the LPGA and the PGA Tours, and my number one ambition is to play in the Masters at Augusta National," she said. " . . . (for now) finishing school is definitely a top priority."
When she had her third tilt at the PGA Tour at the John Deere Classic in Illinois in July, she attracted record crowds before she missed the cut by two shots after dropping three strokes in the last four holes.
In Asia, she is certain to be a much bigger draw and the galleries are sure to flock to the Casio World Open from November 24th-27th when she will become the second female to take on the men on Japan's JGTO Tour.
Wie plans to stay on at Punahou High School for two more years while combining a limited playing schedule in pro golf. After her last two years at school, she intends to go on to college.
