Posted on 11/16/2009 9:17:31 AM PST by Zuben Elgenubi
Breakthrough comes at LPGA's Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico
The Michelle Wie era has, at long last, begun. After years of injury and controversy, too much hype and money and not enough birdies, Wie won her first pro tournament Sunday afternoon at the LPGA's Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Typical of Wie's highly melodramatic career, the win didn't come easily, as she survived a final round dogfight with a half-dozen of the game's biggest names, ultimately making five straight nerve-jangling pars and then a gorgeous birdie on the final hole to close out a two-stroke victory over Paula Creamer.
Along the way Wie displayed both her awesome talent and her enduring star power, reminding everyone what all the fuss was about in the first place. It was a deeply personal triumph, capping a period of tremendous maturation on and off the golf course.
Having spent her teens bouncing between tours and continents, Wie, 20, had finally found some stability this season as a full-fledged LPGA rookie. Even before her victory at the penultimate tournament of the year, it had been a successful campaign defined by solid results, new friendships and a starring role at the Solheim Cup, during which Wie was overcome by a fist-pumping passion that was utterly foreign for a player who has always worn an icy game face.
The only thing missing was an individual victory, a familiar story for a player who, until Sunday, had not won a tournament of any kind since the 2003 U.S. Publinks Amateur, when she was a 13-year-old with an impossibly perfect swing and an endless future. Back then no one could have imagined another victory would be such a long time coming. But Wie used the many blown chances and missed opportunities as a journey of self-discovery, and along the way the giggly, goofy tween phenom grew into a self-possessed young woman.
A few weeks before leaving for Mexico a reflective Wie told me in an exclusive interview, "I feel like I have talent. I know how to play this game. There's just one last huge hurdle to overcome. I've been trying my best to figure it out and I think what it comes down to is I needed to believe in myself a little more. So now when I play I'm putting myself out there more and really putting myself on the line. The stakes are higher for me but I'm okay with that. I'm so focused on winning and to get that victory I have to give it everything I have. There's no holding back anymore."
The exhilaration of having finally come through was apparent on Sunday when Wie did a charmingly dorky dance on the final green of the Guadalajara Country Club. As much she will treasure this victory, it means even more to her sport. It is poetic that Wie's breakthrough came at Ochoa's tournament; during the awards ceremony on Sunday the reigning world No. 1 simultaneously presented Wie with the trophy and passed the torch. Wie's conquest will resonate from Guadalajara to her native Honolulu to Madison Avenue and all the way to LPGA headquarters in Daytona Beach, Fla., where officials have spent this year furiously trying to keep the tour afloat as their niche sport has lost corporate support during the current economic downturn.
Wie's victory is all the more notable because it came in her first tournament in a month and a half as she has been devoting her focus to pursuing her communications degree at Stanford, where she in her third year. Wie is a full-time student during the fall and winter quarters, from late September to mid-March, and then takes an annual leave of absence as the LPGA schedule heats up. She has a 3.4 GPA and can often be found chilling in her dorm room with a large, eclectic group of friends.
Wie has thrived at Stanford among other high achievers because it has allowed her to "be a normal kid with a normal life," she says. Getting settled in on the LPGA was a little tougher because Wie had never embraced the tour while she spent years dabbling in competition against men (with mostly disastrous results.) By the end of 2008, after two years of substandard play due to a series of wrist injuries, the tournament invitations that once seemed like an entitlement were no longer forthcoming. So Wie swallowed her pride and went through the LPGA's qualifying tournament to secure her playing privileges. "I gained a lot of respect for myself by going through Q School," Wie says.
Her explosive play throughout the season — first on tour in birdie average (4.16 per round), sixth in driving distance (268.1 yards) — earned her a captain's pick to the Solheim Cup in late August, and it was a week that forever changed the trajectory of her career. Buoyed by a putting lesson from Champions tour oracle Dave Stockton, who convinced Wie to employ more feel and stop stressing about her mechanics, she summoned spectacular golf and a flag-waving fervor en route to going 3-0-1 and leading the U.S. to victory.
Having discovered the missing ingredient in her game — passion — it was inevitable she would break through. A month after the Solheim Cup, Wie finished second in the Navistar LPGA Classic despite being hobbled by a badly sprained ankle. It was her second runner-up finish of the year and sixth of her career, but this one felt different — on Twitter, Wie's friend and fellow player Paige MacKenzie hailed her limp as "gangsta swagger."
She brought that confidence to Guadalajara, and years of practice and preparation and want and desire were distilled into four nearly flawless rounds of golf. Golf, as we know it, will never be the same.
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My God, can’t these people just get over hype? They hyped this woman for years, and while talented she never put it all together, now after 7 years she gets one victory and they are hyping her all over again.
Poor gal, I wonder if it would have taken 7 years had they not hyped the hell out of this poor girl over that time. If no one knew her name, I wonder if she’d have had a W long before now.
I have nothing against this woman at all, but the hype the media created around her was rediculous, and here after one win they are doing it again. Let the woman play, once she’s proven herself THEN you can hype her all you want.
Good for Michelle. The media hyped her up so fast, and she kept buckling under the pressure of this made-up hype.
She finally wins, so hopefully these idiots will actually REPORT on her instead of hounding her and let her play.
I get so disgusted at these TV intellectuals and how they constantly prop up and tewar down athletes for their own ratings.
| Tee times are listed in local times for the tournament site. |
| Position | Player | Today | Thru | To Par | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Total | Winnings | |||||||||
| 1 | Michelle Wie | -3 | F | -13 | 70 | 66 | 70 | 69 | 275 | $220,000 | |||||||||
| 2 | Paula Creamer | -2 | F | -11 | 67 | 69 | 71 | 70 | 277 | $113,794 | |||||||||
| T3 | Morgan Pressel | -5 | F | -10 | 72 | 68 | 71 | 67 | 278 | $65,936 | |||||||||
| T3 | Jiyai Shin | -1 | F | -10 | 67 | 66 | 74 | 71 | 278 | $65,936 | |||||||||
| T3 | Cristie Kerr | E | F | -10 | 69 | 70 | 67 | 72 | 278 | $65,936 | |||||||||
| T6 | Lorena Ochoa | -3 | F | -7 | 71 | 69 | 72 | 69 | 281 | $38,627 | |||||||||
| T6 | Song-Hee Kim | +2 | F | -7 | 65 | 72 | 70 | 74 | 281 | $38,627 | |||||||||
| T8 | Mariajo Uribe | -2 | F | -5 | 67 | 72 | 74 | 70 | 283 | $24,900 | |||||||||
| T8 | Catriona Matthew | -1 | F | -5 | 68 | 75 | 69 | 71 | 283 | $24,900 | |||||||||
| T8 | M.J. Hur | -1 | F | -5 | 70 | 70 | 72 | 71 | 283 | $24,900 | |||||||||
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| T8 | Brittany Lang | E | F | -5 | 69 | 70 | 72 | 72 | 283 | $24,900 | |||||||||
| T8 | In-Kyung Kim | +1 | F | -5 | 71 | 74 | 65 | 73 | 283 | $24,900 | |||||||||
| T8 | Yani Tseng | +2 | F | -5 | 72 | 68 | 69 | 74 | 283 | $24,900 | |||||||||
| T14 | Brittany Lincicome | E | F | -4 | 69 | 70 | 73 | 72 | 284 | $18,628 | |||||||||
| T14 | Anna Nordqvist | -1 | F | -4 | 73 | 69 | 71 | 71 | 284 | $18,628 | |||||||||
| T16 | Ai Miyazato | E | F | -3 | 71 | 72 | 70 | 72 | 285 | $16,240 | |||||||||
| T16 | Suzann Pettersen | +2 | F | -3 | 72 | 67 | 72 | 74 | 285 | $16,240 | |||||||||
| T16 | Sun Young Yoo | +1 | F | -3 | 73 | 72 | 67 | 73 | 285 | $16,240 | |||||||||
| T19 | Na Yeon Choi | -2 | F | -1 | 74 | 71 | 72 | 70 | 287 | $14,579 | |||||||||
| T19 | Kristy McPherson | +4 | F | -1 | 71 | 69 | 71 | 76 | 287 | $14,579 | |||||||||
| 21 | Karrie Webb | +1 | F | E | 73 | 72 | 70 | 73 | 288 | $13,831 | |||||||||
| T22 | Juli Inkster | -3 | F | +1 | 71 | 75 | 74 | 69 | 289 | $13,084 | |||||||||
| T22 | Candie Kung | +2 | F | +1 | 73 | 69 | 73 | 74 | 289 | $13,084 | |||||||||
| T24 | Laura Davies | E | F | +2 | 76 | 69 | 73 | 72 | 290 | $11,682 | |||||||||
| T24 | Sophie Gustafson | +1 | F | +2 | 75 | 69 | 73 | 73 | 290 | $11,682 | |||||||||
| T24 | Hee-Won Han | +1 | F | +2 | 71 | 76 | 70 | 73 | 290 | $11,682 | |||||||||
| T24 | Ji Young Oh | +1 | F | +2 | 74 | 72 | 71 | 73 | 290 | $11,682 | |||||||||
| T28 | Eun-Hee Ji | +1 | F | +3 | 68 | 74 | 76 | 73 | 291 | $9,984 | |||||||||
| T28 | Katherine Hull | +2 | F | +3 | 70 | 73 | 74 | 74 | 291 | $9,984 | |||||||||
| T28 | Sophia Sheridan | +1 | F | +3 | 72 | 73 | 73 | 73 | 291 | $9,984 | |||||||||
| T28 | Seon Hwa Lee | +2 | F | +3 | 71 | 73 | 73 | 74 | 291 | $9,984 | |||||||||
| 32 | Se Ri Pak | +1 | F | +7 | 75 | 73 | 74 | 73 | 295 | $9,034 | |||||||||
| 33 | Angela Stanford | E | F | +9 | 73 | 75 | 77 | 72 | 297 | $8,660 | |||||||||
| 34 | Lindsey Wright | +9 | F | +10 | 75 | 74 | 68 | 81 | 298 | $8,286 | |||||||||
| 35 | Hee Young Park | +6 | F | +17 | 79 | 70 | 78 | 78 | 305 | $7,975 | |||||||||
| Players Withdrawn | |||||||||||||||||||
| Natalie Gulbis | +2 | 74 | 74 | ||||||||||||||||
Good for her, good for the game...finally!
Now she can marry me!!
HA! This will show all those critics who complained when Wie won the Nobel Prize for Golf 7 years ago! See? We knew she had potential!
I beg to humbly differ with you, HJ. Michelle has been unfairly bashed by the left to the point of misogyny, similar to the events around Sarah Palin and Carrie Prejean. They just can't stand a good looking woman who is successful. I'm sincerely glad to see Michelle win and welcome the deserving accolades she has had since her first career win.
She was a real tiger yesterday and resolutely finished the tournament with exceptional play.
Finally!!! ...at the old age of 20.
Isn’t this the gal that finished 84th of 88 players in a men’s tourney? Where’s the greatness in that?
I assume you aren’t serious...
The old broad finally won one, eh?
I don’t know what Press you were watching, they have been uber hyping this gal for years... I never saw her attacked by anyone.. it was always “she’s the female Tiger”.. even though she hadn’t won anything...
They insane hype around her was rediculous, and I’m sad to see them starting all over with it.
Did you listen to the "expert" commentators during the Golf Channel broadcast? On the par-5 eighteenth, Michelle was in the bunker in two. The announcers were gabbing, gabbing, gabbing. "She's thirty yards from the pin, she should use a lob-wedge from the trap." "No a pitching wedge or she'll hit it thin." And on and on.
Sorry to say Dottie Pepper was in on this second-guessing (I for one am glad she's ending her assignment at TGC). Michelle just simply thumped a sand-wedge to a foot of the cup for a tap in birdie.
The announcers were just taken aback that Wie would hit such a career shot under that sort of pressure.
Then the bozo comes up to Michelle within ten seconds of dropping the putt to ask the most stupid questions in the history of broadcasting ("Did Christie Kerr give you assistance out on the course today?", which of course is largely illegal).
ridiculous, and don’t call me Shirley...
She reserves pink balls for Sundays, you know.
Here. You'll enjoy THIS LINK.
One win does not an era make...... this is just the way the media justifies all the wasted hype she has been receiving over the past couple years by saying "see, we told you she was great..."
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