Capelle On Golf

2008 US Women’s Open

Michelle Wie earned her way into this week’s US Open at a 36-hole qualifier, then backed up this performance with a 24t last week at the Wegmans event on the LPGA Tour. After a miserable 2007 during which an injured wrist led to her worst season, she’s looking ahead to brighter times.

I feel like I’m re-emerging as a new player, a new person. I feel like I’m never, ever going to think about last year again. 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 now.

Good for her. Time to live in the moment. Still, she should not completely ignore her good years as golf’s leading phenom. She must have some powerfully strong and beneficial experiences to draw on when she was a contender in over a half dozen lady’s majors. Consider the following resume:

Michelle in the Majors
Age 13 - Her firs top ten in a major!
9t at the Kraft Nabisco – closing 76 leaves her 5 back
39t at the US Open
Age 14 – Her first top 4.
Kraft Nabisco – 4th - 4 back of Grace Park
US Open – 13t
Age 15 – Nearly wins a major at age 15.
Kraft Nabisco – 14t
LPGA – 2nd - 3 back of Annika Sorenstam
US Open – 23t – closing 82 leaves her 9 back
British Open – 3t – 6 back
Age 16 – three too fives at age 16!
Kraft Nabisco – 3t – missed a playoff by 1 shot
LPGA – 5t – 2 back of a playoff
US Open – 3t – misses playoff by 2 shots
British Open – 26t

The one knock on Michelle is that she did not learn the skill of winning in the amateur ranks, that her parents pushed her too fast into the big time. Sure, she’s got the talent, but can she close the deal against the best? It’s a legitimate question.

She’s only 18 though we’ve been following her for half a decade now, so she’s got all of the time in the world. But then again, Morgan Pressel, her arch rival in the press, won her first major last year at the Kraft Nabisco just before her nineteenth birthday. If Wie wants to beat Pressel’s precocious performance, she’s got to win this week or at the British Open in early August. Maybe this will motivate her to her best yet.

There are so many superstars on the ladies tour, still the three most compelling stories center on players who represent the past, present and future. Annika Sorenstam, who is playing in her last Open (we think) will soon be the past. Lorena Ochoa, the reigning #1 of ladies golf is the present.

And then we have Michelle Wie. She represents the future – but based on her past, she just might become the present. After all, for a player with enough talent to record six top fives in the majors from ages 14-16, anything’s possible.