Pressure off, Wie feels free to shine
On the fourth tee box late Tuesday morning, Michelle Wie, driver in hand, stood poised to strike.
Decked out in extra-high red, white and blue socks, with similarly colored extensions woven into her hair, the 27-year-old prodigy-turned reclamation project-turned rediscovered star was in her element.
It’s Solheim Cup week, the contest she looks forward to the most every two years.
She pulled the club back almost halfway — and suddenly stopped. She sent a piercing gaze into the direction of playing partner Danielle Kang.
“Stop!” Wie exclaimed. What was wrong?
A half-second passed before Wie broke into an unbridled grin and giggle. “I can’t have you staring at me!”
Exhale.
Gone (for now) is the hardluck, soul-searching Wie who has drawn captivation and consternation in equal measure. Here (for good, she hopes) is the easygoing, self-confident Wie who commands an interview room with poise and is easily identifiable as one of the USA’s leaders in this weekend’s clash against Europe at Des Moines Golf and Country Club.
One of the most recognizable names in women’s golf for nearly a generation, Wie has had her share of bad luck with injuries.
In the last decade, she has encountered injuries to her back, wrist, fingers, neck, hips and ankles. Even when she won the U.S. Women’s Open in 2014, she was essentially a walking advertise- ment for kinesiology tape.
After a dip in play, Wie has refocused. With seven top-six finishes this season, she’s reaping her patriotic reward.
“I started this year with a whole new mentality, and I made a pact for myself that I was going to make the team. I was going to claw my way up there,” said Wie, who qualified for the Solheim Cup with the seventh of eight automatic spots. “I’m extremely proud of myself.
“With the Solheim, it’s always nice to enter the week with confidence, just because there’s so much riding on it. There’s so many nerves, that knowing that you have been playing well definitely calms my nerves a little bit.”
Finding herself in practice groupings with Angel Yin, Lizette Salas and Kang has helped put her mind at ease. Whether on the course cracking jokes or completely taking over Wednesday afternoon’s news conference, Wie has her hands full keeping Yin and Kang in line.
She hasn’t always been successful in managing her “pod,” which is the U.S. team’s term for those four-golfer cliques.
“I try to give them advice, but they don’t listen to me anyway,” Wie shrugged. “I’m like, ‘Hey, listen! This is what you have to do.’ And they’re like ... ”
Wie then made a couple uncontrollable motions with her hands. Kang and Yin laughed.
“We do do that,” Kang said but not sheepishly.
“I try to have pod meetings and be productive,” Wie shot back. “And it’s just like, ‘Nope.’ ”
The candor is another sign of a golfer finally comfortable letting her personality loose. Wie hinted she had previously tried to suppress her desire to go bonkers with her patriotic fashion statements at the Solheim Cup, but she needed to be herself.
“I think both sides — it’s different from a normal LPGA event. It’s more excitement. There’s more intensity. And I’m just trying to embrace it. I’m just trying to have fun.
“Life is too short to try and suppress your emotions and your feelings, and you’ve just really got to enjoy every second of it.”
Such a sentiment doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore. U.S. Solheim Cup captain Juli Inkster has taken notice.
“She’s a big part of this team. One, because she’s a really good team player. She plays for the team, loves playing for the USA,” Inkster said this month. “You’ve got to look where she came from. She worked her butt off.”
And so the poise is back. The passion is apparent, too.
“I think this year, more so than any other year, it’s more special to me, just because of what I had to do to get here,” Wie said.
“I clawed my way up here. I made my way on to the team. And for me this year, it’s just so much more special because it’s already a victory for me just to be here.”