Wondering about Wie

By Jaime Diaz
Photo Illustration By Michael Elins September 2007

A moment of truth came at the end of Michelle Wie's pre-tournament press conference at the U.S. Women's Open in late June, an awkwardly frustrating dance in which pointed questions had been asked and evasive, defiant, cutesy, halting, rehearsed, clichéd or nonsensical answers had been given. Intervening for the final question, moderator Rhonda Glenn of the U.S. Golf Association wondered how the 17-year-old Wie has dealt with "an extraordinary amount of pressure this year." Relieved and momentarily relaxed, Wie let her words tumble out in a breathy rush of adolescent stream-of-consciousness.

"I like to call back home, talk to my friends, talk to my girlfriends and my guy friends and just listen to their troubles for once and just talk about silly stuff, be stupid and just be goofy and just not think about anything, just not have a care in the world," Wie said in her younger-than-her-age voice. "And just to lie on my bed and just lay sprawled out and just do nothing is what I like to do, just be lazy and just talk on the phone for hours."

For syntax and theme it wasn't exactly Stanford material. But the easy flow and the obvious conviction were telling. Finally, Wie had said something genuine and real. And enlightening and sad. Because it's clear that the greatest female prodigy in the history of golf, the first woman whose stated mission is to compete against the best men, the global brand who is paid $12.5 million a year in endorsement contracts, indeed craves an extraordinary amount of escape. Although not as obvious, it's evident when she's straining to make her predicament sound wonderful.

"The worst feeling in life is when no one has any expectations of you, no one expects you to do great things," she said. "I'm just so grateful that everyone has expectations of me...I'm just having a lot of fun."

All a close listener could think was, No she isn't, and no she's not. What she really is is trapped and unhappy and alienated. What she really wants -- at least for a while -- is out.

At the moment, such a thesis is interpretive. Camp Wie is sealed tight, determined that no human frailty be revealed. Wie's parents, B.J. and Bo, stopped speaking for publication a long time ago. Her representatives confirm or deny in as few words as possible and issue only the most squeeze-dried statements. It's a thesis supported by observation and key conversations and common sense. Most of all, by her golf.

Since July 2006, two months after being ranked the No. 2 woman golfer in the world, Wie has experienced one of the biggest meltdowns ever by a teenage sports prodigy. With her withdrawal at the Women's Open, where she was 17 over through 27 holes before walking off the Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club with a physical therapist rubbing her left wrist, Wie hadn't broken par in a men's or women's event in 21 consecutive rounds. In her last five men's events, she has withdrawn (from the 2006 John Deere Classic, where she left the course in an ambulance because of heat exhaustion) and missed the cut by 14, 13, 17 and 14 strokes. Wie's wrists have become the default reason for her poor play, as well as a source of mystery. She suffers from tendinitis in the right one, and when it flared up late last year she went against a doctor's recommendation that she skip the Sony Open in Hawaii in January.

The left wrist has been the focus in 2007. In February, the Wie camp reported that she had fractured it three weeks earlier, when she fell jogging while visiting her cousins in California. The delay in supplying information and the lack of specificity added to the confusion and skepticism that often fuels reaction to events involving Wie.

"At first, I didn't think I broke it," Wie said at the Women's Open in her first public comments about the injury. "I didn't think I did anything to it. I was like, OK, just a little sore, it's a little swollen; oh, I can't move it anymore, what's going on? So I went to the doctor, took an MRI, took an X-­ray. They thought it was a bone bruise, but a couple of weeks later I found out, you know...it was very confusing...So I didn't really want to release anything."

After a four-month break during which she played two 18-hole rounds, Wie played in three LPGA events, withdrawing after 16 holes in the first, finishing last by 10 strokes in the second and withdrawing after 27 holes at Pine Needles. Her scores were so high, her control of the ball so erratic and her body language so cheerless that observers wondered why, if her wrist was causing her pain, she didn't stop playing and let it heal. Wie said she needed to play to regain strength in the joint. At Pine Needles, perhaps sensing that her premise was unconvincing, she jarringly added, "And come on, this is a U.S. freaking Open. I'm not going to miss it for anything."

But after she withdrew, Wie allowed, "I definitely have to re-evaluate, because I don't want this to happen again." It was as close as Wie -- or her camp -- ever comes to publicly admitting a mistake.

Some have speculated that Wie is playing to meet performance benchmarks in her contracts. But Cindy Davis of Nike said, "We never want any of our athletes to play injured, and we have placed no pressure or expectation on Michelle to play." Said Wie spokesman Jesse Derris: "She is not playing to satisfy contracts. She is playing to gain strength in her wrist."

Although they refrained from saying so publicly, many of Wie's peers believe her wrist has become an excuse for poor play. Skeptics note that she played at Pine Needles without a wrap on the wrist, and there was no visible swelling. More blunt was LPGA veteran Alena Sharp, Wie's fellow-competitor when she withdrew with two holes remaining in her first round at the Ginn Tribute -- only two bogeys away from shooting an 88 that would have made her ineligible to play LPGA events for the remainder of the year. "I think she withdrew because of the high score, definitely," said Sharp, who added that Wie never showed any signs during the round that her wrist hurt.