Michelle Wie is a female teenage American born in Honolulu,
Hawaii, the only child of Korean parents.
Her father is B.J. (Byung Wook) Wie, a 44-year old professor at the University
of Hawaii who came to America
in the 1980s to study transportation science at the University
of Pennsylvania. Her mother, Bo
(born Hyun Kyong Soon), 39 years old, was a real estate agent and a former
amateur golf champion in South Korea.
A junior at the private Punahou School
in Honolulu, Michelle became the
youngest in history to become a professional golfer when she turned 16 years
old on October 11, 2005.
Michelle Wie holds promise as the female version of Tiger Woods, who
energized the golf world when he turned professional at the age of 20 in 1996.
What She Has Done
Michelle started playing golf when she was four. At the age of 10, she
became the youngest player to qualify in a United States Golf Association
(USGA) amateur championship event at the USGA Women's Amateur Public Links
Championship.
At age 11, she won the Hawaii State Women’s Stroke Play Championship, the
event's youngest winner. That same year, she won the Jennie K. Wilson
Invitational, the most prestigious women's amateur tournament in Hawaii;
again, she was the event's youngest winner. Before her 11th year was over, she
reached the third round of match play in the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links
Championship, the youngest to do so.
A year later, when she was 12, she became the youngest player ever to
qualify for a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tournament, the LPGA
Takefuji Classic. She also won the Women's Division of the Hawaii State Open by
13 strokes that same year, and reached the semifinals of the U.S. Women's
Amateur Public Links Championship, the youngest semifinalist in the event's
history.
At the age of 13, she tried to join a professional men golf tournament, the
2003 Professional Golf Assocation Tour (PGA Tour) Sony Open, where she shot a
73, finishing 47th out of 97. She played from the men's tees and all other
competitors were men. She also played in the Hawaii Pearl Open, a pro
tournament that includes players from the Japan Tour, and placed 43rd. Michelle
was the only female in the field.
That same year, she finished in a fourth-place tie at the Hawaii State
Amateur Stroke Play Championship as one of only three women in the field, and
played in her first LPGA major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. She became the
youngest player to make an LPGA cut, played in the final group on the last day,
and finished in 9th place.
The experience helped her win the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links
Championship at age 13, the youngest-ever winner of the event.
In August of 2003, still only 13 years old, she joined her first
professional men’s event in the U.S.
mainland, but missed the cut by five strokes. She also missed the cut at
another men’s tournament the following month. In September, she tied for 28th
place at another LPGA event, the Safeway Classic.
In 2004, she finished 4th in the year’s first LPGA Major tournament, the
Kraft Nabisco Championship. In June, at the age of 14, she helped the U.S.
defeat Great Britain
and Ireland in
the Curtis Cup, an international amateur golf tournament.
Her best showings in 2005 were a second place finish at the season-opening
LPGA tournament SBS Open at Turtle Bay
and another second place finish at the LPGA Championship. She was also the
first and youngest female to reach the quarterfinal at the U.S. Men’s Amateur
Public Links Championship, where she defeated three top male amateur golfers
before losing to the eventual champion.