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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Amazing Wie
was unbelievableEIGHTEEN made you smile. Everyone did -- you couldn't help it. It just felt too good. Even Hilo's Kevin Hayashi -- Uncle Kevin -- who was 6 over and on the beach -- he was giggling. "I hope I don't hit nobody," he said, standing in the bunker. And when he let it fly it went forever. "Did you hear the smack on that thing?" one fan asked.
That's how good it felt.
And then Michelle Wie walked up 18 and the applause was everywhere. It rippled as she walked, warm, good. Amazing stuff. This must be what Nicklaus heard. This must be what it's like at Augusta on a Sunday afternoon.
When she put it on the green her brilliant smile filled the vast television screen that looms over that final hole. And when she sank her putt for birdie there were fist pumps, small ones, over and over, and then the Miss America wave. And then the hugs, heartfelt, all around.
And then the tears.
No, wait. That was me.
That's how good this felt.
Was there a guy who wrote she shouldn't have had this opportunity?
(Not quite. There was a guy who wrote she should have qualified for it. But none of that matters today.)
Fourteen-year-old Michelle Wie was a stroke shy of making the cut yesterday at the Sony Open in Hawaii. And yet somehow that didn't matter. Somehow, over 18 holes yesterday, by the time she sank that last putt she'd won the whole thing.
"This is unbelievable," Uncle Kevin said.
Everyone said this, yesterday, so let me put it in print: She was awesome.
She shot a 2-under 68. There were two 50-plus-foot putts. Birdies. Saves.
It was awesome.
Let's go to Uncle Kevin.
"This is unbelievable," he said.
My goodness, it was. She was doing the impossible. She was right there. With the pressure on, she went for it, and she delivered.
"I was very surprised," said Craig Bowden, the third playing partner. "I didn't expect her to play the way she played."
"I think I did good," Michelle said. "I struggled and I fought. I made a couple of really good putts. I made two birdies out of three holes (16 and 18) the last three holes. I think I did pretty good."
And the crowd loved it all.
She was even for the tournament. She thought she'd done it, thought she'd made the cut. "It usually makes it," she said. Everyone was congratulating her, and she thought that was why. It hadn't really hit her, what she'd done.
It didn't take long. She's a star now, and she knows it. Forget playing the course, she was even better at playing the room. She was doing lines. Riffing. She had material. She was scatting and be-bopping all over the place.
My favorite exchange:
Q: At your age, most kids are trying to get their license. What's your next big goal?
A: "Getting my license."
Teenagers.
At one point she was asked about school on Monday. "No," she said. Huge grin. "No school on Monday."
Come to think about it, that's what it was like yesterday, on 18. No school on Monday. That's how good it felt.
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Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com