Interesting things to know about Michelle Wie West
Michelle Wie West broke onto the golf scene as a precocious 10-year-old phenom who looked prepared to take the game to new heights but her journey hasn’t been devoid of controversies and a nagging injury.
Wie West is now a professional golfer with multiple LPGA wins under her belt, a mother, and an entrepreneur with investments sprawling across different startups companies; so how did she get here?
It’ll be interesting to know that Wie West’s career has been trailed by many intrigues both on and off the course. Her prodigious talent exposed her to brutal public and media scrutinies right from her early age but she remained undaunted amidst all of these.
Wei West, through sheer hard work and determination was able to rise to the peak of her career.
Born in Honolulu, Hawai, on October 11, 1989, Wie West is the sole child of South Korean parents who emigrated to the U.S in the 80s.
While her father, Byung-wook, happens to be a former Professor of Travel and Industry Management at the University of Hawaii, it’s safe to state that Wie West inherited her golf talent from her mother who was South Korea’s women’s amateur golf champion in 1985.
Starting off on the course at age 4, she grew to become the youngest player ever to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship at age 10, a record that stood for eight years before fellow Hawaiian, Allisen Corpuz eclipsed it.
During her amateur days, Wie West achieved quite a lot of unprecedented feats on the course, some of which still stand till today. At age 11, she won the oldest and most prestigious women’s amateur tournament in Hawaii – The Jennie K. Wilson Women’s Invitations.
Wie West qualified for the Takefuji Classic, which made her the youngest player to qualify for an LPGA event as of 2002. Although she went on to miss the cut, her performance at the event was only bettered five years after by 11-year-old Ariya Jutanugarn.
In June 2003, she became the youngest person ever, male or female, to win a USGA adult event after her victory at the Women’s Amateur Public Links tournament. In the same year, Wie West also emerged the youngest player to make an LPGA cut.
She competed at the 2004 Sony Open in Hawaii, becoming the fourth and youngest female to play a PGA Tour event. The sponsor granted her an exemption which paved the way for her to slug it out with male golfers, a decision that attracted a lot of media furore.
Wie West exited the tournament with the lowest score ever by a woman in a PGA Tour event. However, her score of 68 was sufficient enough to beat 47 men, four of which are major winners while also matching the scores of 15 more men including three more major winners.
She went on to make more appearances at PGA Tours where she competed with seasoned professionals and majors winners.
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Wei West And Her Push For The LPGA Tour Membership H2
The LPGA Tour membership age requirements stipulate that a golfer must have attained 18 years before they’re admitted.
Therefore, when Wei West announced that she was stepping up to the professional cadre a week before her 16th birthday, the question was how would she be able to compete.
She refused to follow in the footsteps of Morgan Pressel and Aree Song who had successfully petitioned for an exemption to join the LPGA Tour at age 17 thus competed only when granted an exemption by a sponsor until she came of age in 2008.
Wei West finished 4th in her maiden LPGA Tour outing at the Samsung World Championship but was eventually disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. She went on to record four top-5 finishes on the LPGA tour, which include a second, a tie for third, and a tie for 5th at different tourneys.
In 2006, she took part in several competitions involving men, and became the first female medalist in a local qualifier for the men’s U.S. Open in May of that year.
Wei West also participated in the men’s tournament in South Korea where she became the second woman (after Se Ri Pak) to make the cut on the Asian Tour, this was in addition to several appearances on both the European and Asian tours.
A dip in form, injuries and flurry of disqualifications marred her 2007.
Wei West Bags Full LPGA Membership – And Wins H3
In December 2008, Wei West passed the LPGA Qualifying School which sealed her LPGA membership status.
Her first event as an LPGA member was the season-opening SBS Open at Turtle Bay where she finished second behind Angela Stanford, despite going into the final round of the tournament in pole position.
Wei West’s performance at the second major of 2009, the LPGA Championship, was even less inspiring. She finished tied for 23rd, but that was also her best finish in a major since 2006.
As the captain pick for the U.S. team in Solheim Cup Competition, Wei West led the squad to victory with her 3-01 performance, the best record on the American team.
Wie West’s first professional individual tournament win came on November 15, 2009, at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico, before finishing second in the Ladies European Tour season-ending Dubai Ladies Masters tournament in December of same year.
In 2010, she added a second career professional victory to her kitty by winning the CN Canadian Women’s Open held in Manitoba. She would later finish second in her next LPGA event two weeks later losing to Yani Tseng by one stroke at the 54-hole P&G NW Arkansas Championship
2014 saw Wei West win her third LPGA Tour event, which was also her first on the U.S. soil. Coming from four strokes behind Angela Stanford after 54 holes, she shot 67 to Stanford’s 73 to win by two strokes at the LPGA Lotte Championship.
She continued her impressive run in 2014 with another LPGA Tour event and first major championship, the US Women’s Open. Wei West also finished in second at the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship to wrap up a successful year.
Wei West, however, waited for four years to celebrate another LPGA Tour event as the HSBC Women’s World Championship gave her her fifth professional trophy to date.
Wei West’s marriage, husband, and return to golf after childbirth
For Wei West, life took a new turn one year on from her last LPGA Tour success. In March 2019, the golfer announced her engagement to Jonnie West, who is Director of Basketball Operations for the Golden State Warriors and is the son of NBA legend Jerry West.
They walked down the aisle on August 10, 2019, at a private home in Beverly Hills, California. Five months later, Wei West announced she was expecting a daughter and stated her interest to eventually return to competitive golf.
Wei West’s daughter arrived on June 19, 2020, and was named Makenna Kamalei Yoona West.
She went on maternity leave and sat out the rest of the year due to child care but returned to the course in 2021 where she teed it up in six events, making the cut in only her last two starts.
Wei West kicked off 2022 by signing with Excel Sports Management and revealed how the arrival of daughter Mackena has altered her game.
“I spent a long time not playing, and then kind of picked up the clubs again,” Wie West said, adding that “So it’s been a real grind, just kind of working on everything.”
The 19-month-old Mackena can now run around and this means Wei West “no longer can bring her out to the range with me because she will run around and I can’t hit balls. So, I probably go out there two, two and a half hours every day, or try to.”
Wei West And The Unending Controversies H2
Apart from sporting and commercial successes, another constant feature in Wei West’s amazing career is controversy. Right from her days as an amateur, the golfer has had a knack for swimming in the pool of controversy.
Using exemptions H3
Wei West came under severe criticisms from professional golfers, fans, and media juggernauts for getting exemptions to participate in PGA events. The critics were of the opinion that her inclusion in the men’s events denied more deserving professionals the opportunities to contest.
In addition, her refusal to enter LPGA Tour qualifying school after turning 18 meant that she needed exemptions from sponsors to participate in future women’s events on the PGA Tour.
By 2007, Wei West’s criticism over the use of exemptions in women’s events had gathered steam with fans and commentators calling for an end to such privilege.
One caddie, too many H3
Wie West’s father was her first caddie until 2004, and returned for the remainder of the 2007 season. After his first stint, the golfer had employed many caddies with some of them getting fired in some controversial circumstances.
Wei West’s caddie to the 2006 British Open, Greg Johnston, was relieved of his job over the phone by Wie’s then-agent Ross Berlin.
Johnson was later quoted to have said that he was “surprised and disappointed” at the sacking and at the fact that “no one named Wie gave me the news.”
Wei West would go on to employ several other professional caddies including David Clarke who was booted out after she missed the cut at the 2007 British Open.
Patrick Tarrant was her caddie for most of 2009. The on-loan caddie was working for then-injured PGA pro, Brett Wetterich. Tarrant would later recommend his friend Brendan Woolley for Wei West and he (Woolley ) continued in the role until December 2012.
She started the 2013 season with caddie Mark Wallington, who used to caddie another LPGA professional and European Solheim Cup player, Sophie Gustafson
Caddie Mark Wallington, who used to caddie another LPGA professional and European Solheim Cup player, Sophie Gustafson, was Wei West’s caddie for the first three months of 2013. She then employed Duncan French, who has continued caddying for her exclusively since.
Competing at men’s events H3
Although her appearances were usually accompanied by lots of publicity, Wei West could only manage one cut in a men’s tournament.
Her uninspiring performances at PGA Tours had left many golf critics with doubts over her ability to ever make the cut.
Wei’s last outing at a men’s professional tourney was at the 2008 Legends Reno-Tahoe Open where she recorded another underwhelming performance.
The nagging wrist injury H3
It all started in the first week of February 2007 when reports broke that Wei West had hurt her wrist while running. However, the public were fed with little information on the extent of the injury due to privacy concerns.
The injury lasted until May after an initial report from her public relations staff that she would only be away for four to six weeks.
In April 2008, Wei West made it known that she had broken three broken bones in her wrist, contrary to her agent’s March 2007 announcement that the wrist wasn’t broken.
In a 2009 article about Wei West’s wrist trouble, it was alleged that the original misinformation was a result of Wei and her family’s failure to “understand or accept the severity of the injury,” adding that she played the entire 2007 season with a great deal of pain requiring four to five painkillers per day.
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