Michelle Wie - LPGA Star

Michelle Wie’s performance at the 2004 PGA Tour Sony Open must have convinced even the most sober analysts that she might just be capable of competing on the PGA Tour one day.

Playing a course she had played many times before, and in great conditions, Michelle Wie put together rounds of 72-68 for an even-par 140 at the Sony, missing the cut by just one shot. And she did it at the age of 14.

It’s not the first time Michelle Wie has suprised the golf world, however. She made her firstappearance in an LPGA major - the 2003 Kraft Nabisco Championship - at the age of 13. And she managed to play well enough to make the tournament’s final pairing, playing alongside Annika Sorenstam and eventual winner Patricia Meunier-Lebouc.

Michelle Wie became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links in 2003.

At the age of 13, Michelle Wie was already one of the longest hitters to appear on the LPGA Tour, knocking her drives 20-40 yards past most other players on tour. She regularly knocks the ball 300-plus yards, and her average distance with the driver for the 2003 Nabisco was in the 280s (or about 20 yards more than Sorenstam’s average). For the 2004 PGA Tour Sony, her average off the tee (including some 3-woods) was in the 270s, just below the field average.

Michelle Wie, already over 6-feet tall, was born in Honolulu on Oct. 11, 1989. An excellent student, her hobbies include reading, drawing and computers.

Michelle Wie began playing golf at the age of four. According to an Associated Press profile, Wie was winning nearly every junior event she entered by the age of 11. She told the AP that she plays golf for about four hours a day on weekdays and seven hours a day on weekends. In tournaments, her father served as her caddie through most of 2003, but the family hired a professional caddie for the PGA Sony Open.

Michelle Wie shot a 64, at the age of 10. Also she became the youngest player ever to qualify for a USGA amateur championship when she made the field for the USGA Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship.

Michelle Wie advanced to the semifinals of the same event in 2002, the youngest semifinalist ever in a USGA amateur championship.

At the 2002 LPGA Takefuji Classic, Wie became the youngest ever to Monday qualify for an LPGA Tour event. Her appearance in the 2003 Kraft Nabisco Championship included a round of 66, tying the record for low amateur round in an LPGA major.