Monday, May 21, 2001
11-year-old Remember the name: Michelle Wie. You'll be hearing a lot more of her.
wins Jennie K.
Michelle Wie dominates
By Grady Timmons
the state's most prominent
amateur women's golf tournament
Special to the Star-BulletinYesterday she became the youngest winner in the history of the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational, the most prestigious event in women's amateur golf in Hawaii.
Wie posted a final 76-220 at the Mid-Pacific Country Club to best defending champion Bobbi Kokx (73-229) by nine shots.
In the process, she served notice that women's amateur golf in the islands has a new face, and a rather young one at that. Wie is 11 years old and in the sixth grade at Punahou School.
This year Jennie K. officials allowed golfers younger than 16 to compete for the first time, if they had a single-digit handicap. The decision paid off for Wie and her fellow 11-year-old Punahou classmate, Stephanie Kono, who finished eighth overall at 80-241.
Wie's victory was no fluke, and she is no ordinary 11-year-old. She led from the first round and dominated the tournament. At 5 feet, 9 inches tall, she was one of the field's biggest players -- and easily the most powerful.
Playing in the final group yesterday, she consistently outdrove her opponents by 40 to 50 yards. Her father and caddie, B.J. Wie, a professor of transportation at the University of Hawaii, said his daughter averages about 270 off the tee, and with a breeze can power the ball 300 yards or longer.
Wie said his daughter has been playing golf since she was four years old.
"At first, we introduced her to both tennis and golf and then let her decide which sport she wanted to pursue," he said. "She was good at tennis, too, but by the time she was six, she knew she wanted to become a golfer."
Wie said he and his wife, Bo, knew they had a prodigious talent on their hands the first time Michelle swung a club.
"We were at a neighborhood park in Hawaii Kai, and I had my video camera out," he recalled. "I teed the ball up and she swatted it a good 100 yards."
Last year at age 10, Michelle qualified for the Women's National Public Links Championship. This past January, her father entered her in the qualifier for the Sony Open in Hawaii, the men's PGA Tour event held at the Waialae Country Club. She shot an 82 on the 7,200-yard course.
Two weeks ago, she went to Phoenix for the U.S. Women's Open qualifier. Playing with two LPGA Tour members, she posted a 76 but failed to qualify.
Her father said she outdrove her two LPGA playing partners all day but didn't have the kind of distance control with her short irons that the pros exhibit.
That was Michelle Wie's biggest problem yesterday, too. She repeatedly left approach shots short of the green. At the 17th, she made her only serious mistake of the tournament, firing a 7-iron approach shot out-of-bounds from a fairway bunker.
"I knew it was a risky shot," the father said. "But she had a big lead, so I didn't say anything. It was a good learning experience."
A little over a year ago, Wie put his daughter under the guidance of Olomana teaching and touring pro Casey Nakama, who has been working with her on her wedge play and the mental aspects of the game.
Wie practices 3-4 hours a day during the week, and 7-8 hours a day on weekends.