IF it sounds absurd to launch a comeback at an age when most golfers haven't started yet, then it's a measure of the astonishing wave of hype which swelled and crashed around Michelle Wie that the teenager is effectively making a fresh beginning today at the 63rd US Women's Open in Minnesota.
After completing her first year as a student at Stanford University in California and recovering from the wrist injury which may, or may not, explain her fall from grace as a golfer in 2007, the 18-year-old at last seems ready to walk briskly among h
er peers before learning to run with the men.
Unlike Tiger Woods, who always matched words with deeds during his Amateur career, the publicity machine around Wie conveniently ignored the fact the only tournament of note she won before turning professional – when she collected some of the biggest sponsorship cheques ever paid to a rookie - was the US Public Links title five years ago.
The conviction Wie was destined to rule women's golf with the same bewitching spell which Tiger cast over the men's scene led the organisers of the women's game to offer her exemptions into events she would not otherwise have been eligible to play. At the McDonald's LPGA, for example, Wie was the first amateur to tee up in 2005 when she justified the sponsor's faith by finishing second.
In 2006, this charismatic six footer from Hawaii also stoked the fires of promise when she won more than $730,000 and finished in the top ten at three majors. What she didn't do, though, was win tournaments or a lot of friends on the LPGA.
Last year, a combination of pressure on the teenager to justify her star billing and a niggling wrist injury brought about a humbling descent down the world rankings. Wie's earnings from playing golf in
2007 were just over $23,000, which made her endorsement deals with Nike, Sony and Omega all the more jaw-dropping as she took home $12.5 million – almost double the $6.26m earned by Lorena Ochoa, the world No 1.
No longer the youngest or the most revered kid on the block – one of her playing partners today is 16 – Wie has started to re-build her career this season with a series of steady performances. While the light which shines on Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam, the favourites in Minnesota, has yet to fall on the American, Wie is at least starting to resemble a player again.
Apart from a decent performance on the Ladies European Tour in Germany and a top 30 finish at an LPGA event in New York, Wie demonstrated she was willing to re-build her career when she entered sectional qualifying for the US Women's Open and comfortably made it through.
At an age when she can now make her own decisions and distance herself from those in her camp who supervised her career from the summit to the depths in what seemed like the blink of an eye, Wie is ready to being again.
"I feel like I'm re-emerging as a new player, a new person," she insisted this week. "I'm not ever going to think about before I broke my wrist. That was then and this is now. I feel like from now on I'm only going to think about right now. I'm not going to think about that much into the future, as well. I'm just going to think about today. And staying in the present has helped me a lot with my focus - just becoming who I want to be and just taking it one step at a time.
"I realise I just want to be able to fulfil my full potential. I want to be as healthy as I can. I want to be as good a player as I can. I want to see how good I can get. I want to see how hard I can push and see how many tournaments I can win.
"The past is the past and it already happened. I could always say I shouldn't have played last year, but I did. And from that year I felt like I learned a lot. I felt like I learned a lot from my struggles, I learned a lot from my injuries. And I think from that I became a stronger person. I think that is going to help me a lot in the future."
David Leabetter, Wie's coach, apparently persuaded both the player and her family the time had come for the golfer to work her way up the ladder rather than relying on novelty. While it may be asking too much of someone who isn't a full-time golfer to challenge Ochoa and the rest for the title on Sunday, it's still important Wie shows she belongs at Interlachen.
The full article contains 816 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
