Back To Basics

Whether Michelle Wie ever delivers on her vast potential remains to be seen. But she's at least revealing flashes of the player that first captivated the golf world

Michelle Wie's ball striking remains impressive, but she continues to be held back by her putting.

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By Bill Fields

Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images

May 15, 2009

CLIFTON, N.J. -- A man outside the scoring trailer at the LPGA's Sybase Classic late Friday afternoon had just gotten an autograph from one of the most recognizable names in golf. Her signature on the bill of his white cap was another matter. "That's 'Michelle Wie,' but you can't make it out," the fellow said, pointing at a rapidly-written scrawl in which one could at best make out a "M."

Wie's golf is better than her penmanship, but as for her putting at Upper Montclair CC during a second-round 69 that left her T-6, six strokes behind leader Brittany Lincicome, it was a push. And perhaps a pull or two, with some misread putts and Poa annua hops thrown in for good measure. Wie hit 16 greens in regulation but converted only three of nine putts from 10 feet or less. One of the misses was a two-footer for birdie on the par-5 fifth, her 14th hole.

"You're always like, 'If I made this, this and this, it would have been that much better,' '' Wie said, "but I still have two more days and I'm pleased with the way I'm hitting it. It's a little frustrating at times. You're rolling it good. You do the best you can. There's a lot of grass between the ball and the hole, so a lot can happen."

That was as philosophical as Wie got in a post-mortem that lasted slightly more than two minutes. She is, after all, only 19, but might be 29 in golf years, maybe older than that given that she was only 10 when she played in the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship.

I had seen Wie play lots of times on television but never in person until Friday. Following her around on a sun-splashed afternoon, I kept trying to square the swing I was eyeballing with the one I pass every day in the office, a 2005 photographic sequence of her swing by my colleague Dom Furore. The action in those pictures is so good you practically sense the rhythm that, back then, earned her the "Big Wiesy" nickname and earned Wie five top-five finishes in LPGA major championships before she turned 17, an unparalleled achievement.

"There is no doubt that at about age 15, nobody had ever seen a talent like that, male or female," said Hall of Famer Judy Rankin, who is at the tournament as an analyst for ESPN2. "As beautiful a golf swing as it was, it has evolved. She's worked on things to change it. At one point, it seemed to me it was tightened too much to where she lost all of her rhythm, and her change of direction was so quick. It seems to be a little bit different now, that there is a little rhythm to her swing. When I watch her on the practice tee, she looks to be pretty position-oriented. That is not what I would think would make the best player. But I've seen great players of all kinds -- I would not say it's not going to work. I think she's almost back where she needs to be. She still has all that talent inside of her."

All that talent played hide-and-seek Friday. Wie often was glorious tee to green. Her swing is more compact than in her wonder years, the tempo quicker. If the pace of her action resembled Ernie Els at her peak, it is more like Camilo Villegas' through the ball now -- a definite "hit" -- as she tries to work her way back.