Cherry Hills Village – Michelle Wie won’t get her driver’s license until October. She can’t wait to join her friends for some serious beach time back home in her native Hawaii. And she still laughs like the 15-year-old she is.
But when it comes to her plans to master the golf world, she is deadly serious. And her plan includes not just the LPGA, but the PGA, too.
She has been criticized for wanting to play both at such a young age. LPGA legend Nancy Lopez recently said Wie should concentrate on winning tournaments against players her own age before teeing it up with the big girls and boys.
Wie has heard the criticism, but the slender 6-footer who wears dangling earrings on the course won’t let the critics sway her.
“I think that the one characteristic that I have is I don’t really listen to anyone, and that I believe really strongly in what I do and that I’m not really afraid of anything,” Wie said Tuesday at a news conference after a practice round for the U.S. Women’s Open. “I don’t think, ‘What if I play bad, what if I do this.’ That’s one of the things that helps me to overcome a lot of things.”
Wie, who is an amateur, has missed two cuts on the PGA Tour, but will give it another try in two weeks at the John Deere Classic. Two weeks ago, she was the only player to break par all four rounds at Bulle Rock north of Baltimore, finishing three shots behind Annika Sorenstam in the LPGA Championship, the year’s second major. Then she went to Pittsburgh and was co-medalist at the U.S. Amateur Public Links qualifier, making her the first female to qualify for an adult USGA championship for men.
Her ultimate goal is to become the first female player to qualify for the Masters. Asked why the famed tournament in Augusta, Ga., ranks so high on her wish list, Wie laughed and said: “Well, as weird as it sounds, it was the first tournament I saw on TV. When I saw it, it just felt really special and it was such a really nice golf course. And the more I learn about it, the more I want to play it. Since it’s hard to get into, it makes me want to get into it more.”
Jill McGill, a Denver native and Cherry Creek High School graduate, has no problems with Wie’s lofty aspirations. In fact, she says more power to her.
“She’s proven that she can play with the best women golfers in the world, and if she feels as though her goal is to play against the men and play on the PGA Tour, who am I to say no?” McGill said. “I hope she does accomplish it because I think that she does nothing but good things, not only for the women, but also for the men.”
This week Wie’s concentration is on winning her LPGA event, and her already famous long game off the tee should help. She came close to driving the 346-yard par-4 first hole at Cherry Hills during her practice round, coming up about 15 yards short of the green Arnold Palmer famously drove en route to his 1960 U.S. Open victory.
But Wie said she can’t get away with a grip-it-and-rip-it strategy.
“This isn’t the widest golf course and the rough is pretty long, so you basically have to keep the ball in the short stuff,” she said.
Dozens of admirers gathered around the practice tee Monday and Tuesday to watch Wie launch her 300-yard drives. But when tournament play begins Thursday, she won’t be attacking the course on every hole.
“Since my main focus is keeping it in the fairways, I will hit drivers occasionally, but not as much as I want to,” she said.
Doing what she wants is Wie’s way. Still, she admitted there are a couple of people she still listens to.
“Well, I have to listen to my parents, or I don’t get my allowance,” she said.
Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-820-5459 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
