Michelle Wie started playing golf at the age of 4. Even at that young age she was able to hit the ball 100 yards off the tee, a sign of things to come. By the time she was 10, she was making huge noise in Hawaii. At that age she made her first try at qualifying for the PGA tour event held there. While she did not come close to qualifying, shooting an 84, it was still an amazing achievement. That year, 2000, she also became the youngest girl to ever qualify for a USGA event, in this case the US Women's Public Links Championship.
By the time she was 12, Wie had grown to nearly six feet in height, and was frequently blasting drives in excess of 300 yards. The PGA pros that got a look at her were astonished; Tom Lehman gave her the nickname 'The Big Wiesy', because, like Ernie Els (aka the Big Easy), her swing was smooth and powerful. In January of 2002, she made history again by qualifying for the LPGA's Takefuji Classic, the youngest to ever do so. Though she missed the cut, it was a good learning experience for her.
In 2003, she tried again to qualify for the Sony Open. This time she shot a 73 and finished 47th out of 96 players. This got her so much notoriety that she was offered a plethora of LPGA sponsor exemptions throughout the season.
This, combined with an amazing 9th place finish at the Nabisco Championship a few weeks later, propelled Michelle into the media spotlight; she is arguably the best known of all the players on this site, though she is still (probably) years away from turning pro!
Michelle ended up playing many LPGA events throughout the year, making the cut in all but one of them. She also played two men's events, though she did not come close to making the cut in either one. Unfortunately, she played relatively few amateur and girl's events, but did manage to win one of them, the prestigious Women's Public Links Championship (again the youngest ever to do so). This was her first significant national level title.
In 2004, the PGA's Sony Open finally decided to give her a sponsor's exemption into the event. She made it count, shooting 72-68 to miss the cut by only a single stroke, garnering yet again more headlines. A few months after that, she put herself into contention at the first LPGA Major of the year, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, eventually finishing 4th, and she also had a good finish at the US Women's Open later that year.
2005 was another great year for Wie. Although she did not do so well at her second attempt at the Sony Open, later in the year she was given another PGA exemption into the John Deere field. With just a few holes to go in round 2, she was several shots below the cut, and looked assured of making it. But then she made a couple of key mistakes, and once again just missed the cut. She had another chance against the men a few months later, at the Men's Public Links, where she shocked everyone by making it to the quarterfinals before being eliminated. Had she won that, she would have qualified for a trip to the Masters.
Meanwhile, she posted her best finishes ever on the LPGA tour. She finished second at the first event of the year, in Hawaii, and at the second Major of the year, the LPGA Championship, she not only became the first non-LPGA member to be allowed to play, she finished by herself in second place behind Annika Sorenstam. She was tied for the lead at the US Women's Open going into the final day, but did not do very well on Sunday, and finished tied for third at the British Open. It seems only a matter of time before she wins, and wins often.
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