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Michelle Wie (Korean language|Korean:
위성미(é­�è�–美), Wie Sung-mi;
born October 11, 1989) is an United
States|American golfer.

==Early years==
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, of Korean descent, she
began playing the game of golf at the age of four.
In 2000, at the age of ten, she became the
youngest player to qualify for a United States
Golf Association|USGA amateur championship when
she made the field, and qualified for match play,
at the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links
Championship. In that event, the field is cut to
64 after two rounds of stroke play. Two years
later, she would be a semifinalist at the same
event, the youngest player to ever do so. She
attended Star of the Sea Elementary school
followed later by Punahou School.

==2002-2004: A star in the making== 
In 2002, Wie became the youngest player to qualify
for an LPGA event, the Takefuji Classic. In 2003,
she shot a 66 in a round at the Kraft Nabisco
Championship, tying the amateur record for a
women's majors|women's major championship. She
also won the Women's Amateur Public Links in 2003,
becoming the youngest person ever to win a USGA
event for adults. On January 15, 2004, Michelle
Wie became only the fourth woman, and the youngest
ever, to play in an event on the main U.S.-based
men's golf tour, the PGA TOUR, at the Sony Open at
Waialae Country Club near Diamond Head
(Hawaii)|Diamond Head in Hawaii. She shot rounds
of 72 and 68 to finish at even par, missing the
cut by one stroke. The same year she also became
the first amateur to receive a special exemption
to the U.S. Women's Open Championship (golf)|US
Women's Open, a decision which led to some
division in the women's golf community. The
invitation was based on her theoretical position
on the money list, which would have given her
automatic qualification had she been a
professional. She finished tied for 13th place in
the tournament.

Wie was named to the U.S. team for the 2004 Curtis
Cup, a team golf competition similar to the Ryder
Cup, in which amateur female players from the U.S.
and Great Britain compete. She became the youngest
woman ever to compete in the Curtis Cup as the
U.S. team went on to win. She also finished fourth
in the 2004 Kraft Nabisco Championship, finishing
four shots behind winner Grace Park (golfer)|Grace
Park. If she had played the 2004 season as a
professional, she would have earned over a quarter
of a million dollars from her tournament results
alone, but as an amateur she was not allowed to
earn money for playing. 

==2005: The next step==
Wie started her 2005 season on the LPGA Tour with
the best performance of her career, finishing
second at the SBS Open at Turtle Bay. That June
she placed second only to Annika Sörenstam,
current women's world number one player, at the
LPGA Championship, one of the women's majors. A
few days later, she became the first female golfer
to qualify for a USGA national men's tournament,
when she tied for first place in a 36-hole
qualifier for the U.S. Amateur Public Links. At
the U.S. Women's Open Championship (golf)|U.S.
Women's Open, she finished the third round in a
three-way tie for the lead, but faded to an 82 in
the final round. The week after, she played in the
John Deere Classic on her third attempt to make
the cut at a PGA Tour event, and missed the cut by
two strokes mainly due to a double-bogey and bogey
on successive holes late in the second round.

Immediately after the John Deere, Wie played in
the men's Public Links, making the top 64 in the
stroke play rounds to qualify for match play and
losing in the quarterfinals to the eventual
champion. The week after the Public Links, she
went to France to play in the Evian Masters, a
major on the Ladies European Tour and a regular
LPGA event. She finished in a tie for second with
Lorena Ochoa, behind 18-year-old rookie pro Paula
Creamer. The week after, she finished tied for
third at the Women's British Open, the fourth and
final major of the year, which also marked her
last tournament before returning to high school.

After the Women's British Open, she had played in
seven LPGA events in 2005. If she had been a
professional, her actual finishes would have given
her earnings of $663,178, which at that time of
the season would have placed her eighth on the
2005 money list.
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=21210
07

==The future==
The 6-foot (1.83 m) Wie, still only at the age of
15, has an average drive of about 280 yards, about
10 yards farther than Sörenstam's average and
only slightly behind the average on the PGA TOUR,
and regularly is able to hit drives of over 300
yards, modeling her swing after Ernie Els, who has
said of her, "Give her another couple years to get
stronger, she can play on the PGA TOUR." Her size
and use of Els as a model have led sports media to
call her The Big Wiesy, a play on Els' nickname of
The Big Easy. Fred Couples has also lauded her,
saying, "When you see her hit a golf ball ...
there's nothing that prepares you for it. It's
just the scariest thing you've ever seen." As to
Wie's potential impact to the sport, Arnold Palmer
stated in '03 that "she's probably going to
influence the golfing scene as much as Tiger
Woods|Tiger, or more. She's going to attract
people that even Tiger didn't attract, young
people, both boys and girls, and families."

==Results in LPGA majors==
{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1"
style="font-size: 95%; border: #aaa solid 1px;
border-collapse: collapse;"
|- bgcolor="#eeeeee"
! Tournament !! 2003 !! 2004 !! 2005 
|-
|Kraft Nabisco Championship
|align="center"|T9
|align="center"|4
|align="center"|T14

|-
|LPGA Championship
|align="center"|DNP
|align="center"|DNP
|align="center"|2

|-
|U.S. Women's Open Championship (golf)|U.S.
Women's Open
|align="center"|T39
|align="center"|T13
|align="center"|T23

|-
|Women's British Open
|align="center"|DNP
|align="center"|DNP
|align="center"|T3
|}

DNP = did not play

"T" indicates a tie for a place.

==External links==
*http://www.michelewei.com Michelle Wie able to
advance in men’s tourney
*http://www.michelewei.com Wie has already won
with the fans
*http://www.michelewei.com Hawaii newspaper
coverstory on Michelle
*http://www.michelewei.com Michelle Wie Bio,
Photos and Quotes
*http://www.michelewei.com  Michelle Wie at Golf
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