Wie keeping busy with video series and as LPGA host
LOS ANGELES >> To ask Michelle Wie West what she is up to these days is not likely to yield a short answer.
When she is not chasing around 2-year-old daughter McKenna or learning to grow vegetables in her garden, the former U.S. Women's Open champion is keeping a steady presence in business and in golf, and they don't always intersect.
Her latest venture is a project with corporate partner PitchBook and Front Office Sports. It's called “Driven with Michelle Wie West,” a series of 12-minute videos in which she interviews athletes about their drive and how they choose to invest.
Her guests so far have featured two-time WNBA All-Star Chiney Ogwumike (they were at Stanford together) and beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings.
The first season was filmed in one day.
Wie West also is tournament host of the Mizuho Americas Open, a new LPGA Tour event in which 24 female juniors will compete in their own American Junior Golf Association
event while playing alongside a 120-player LPGA field.
Most telling is the venue, Liberty National across the Hudson River from New York City, a course that prefers to host only special events. It has held a FedEx Cup postseason event and a Presidents Cup.
WEST COAST MOVES >> The PGA Tour's arrival in Florida marks the unofficial road to the Masters, and two players come with a lot of momentum.
One of them is Jason Day, a former world No. 1. Day ended last year at No. 112 in the world. In his last four starts, he tied for 18th in The American Express, tied for seventh at Torrey Pines, finished fifth in Phoenix and tied for ninth at Riviera.
Now the Australian is up to No. 46, making him a lock for the Match Play next week as he tries to stay in the top 50 to get back to the Masters.
Keith Mitchell tied for fourth at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and then was in the final group at Riviera and wound up alone in fifth. He is at No. 44 in the world and, like Day, will try to stay in the top 50 to return to Augusta National.