As somebody who has hammered Michelle Wie with criticism over the past couple of years, let
me be the first to say, "Welcome back, Wie."
Did you see that U.S. Solheim Cup captain Beth Daniel made Wie,
who is still only 19, as one of her two captain’s picks for the upcoming match
against Europe?
(The other pick was eight-time Cup veteran Juli Inkster.)
And did you see and hear young Wie
when they handed her the microphone at the press conference?
"I am so honored and so
thrilled," she said. "I'm just so excited to be wearing this jacket and this
hat and to be representing my country; it's such a thrill for me. I'm just so
honored and so thankful that Beth picked me and I'll do my best not to let her
down."
She was
so...poised, so...grown-up, so...likeable.
Gone was
the sullen attitude Wie had shown in recent years, replaced
by a new reality-based view of herself and the world around her. Can it be only a year or so ago that Wie was careening from one bad
decision to another?
Nothing
she did seemed to be wise or right back then: playing injured, firing caddies
or agents, making yet another ill-advised and failed attempt to play against
the me in a PGA
Tour event. It was beginning
to look like the erstwhile promising young phenom
from Hawaii was going to implode or, more likely, simply fade into
well-deserved obscurity.
But
something happened once she got to Stanford. Maybe it was because she was a little older, a little wiser
– or maybe she discovered life not being under the thumb of her
domineering parents. Wie
began to blossom, or blossom once again. You never see or hear about her
parents these days. She seems to
have taken control of her own young life and, frankly, her life and career
appear to be on an upward trajectory.
Now, having earned her way onto the LPGA tour
via Q-school, Wie is a rookie in good standing. She still hasn’t won a tournament since
the U.S.
Women’s Amateur Public Links, when she was 13, but victory will come sooner
rather than later. So far this
year, she has five top 10 finishes in 13 tournaments and ranks 17th
on the LPGA
money list.
If she didn’t earn one of the 10 Solheim Cup spots
on points, it was only because she ran out of time. Wie was 13th on the points list, an
impressive feat considering she did that in only one year. Everybody ahead of her earned their
points over two years; if they had gone by only this year’s points, Wie
would have ranked 6th and made the team on her own for the Cup, set
for Aug.
21-23 at Rich
Harvest Farms outside Chicago.
The bottom line is that the Michelle Wie we all rooted for several years ago looks like
she’s back. Good. Here’s hoping she does well in the Solheim Cup, gains
a ton of confidence and truly sets her young career on the fast track once
again.
