June26 Wie
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You want it to end well, but somehow it doesn’t seem like it will. Child sports prodigies are a lot like child actors in that everything they do is not so cute anymore once they start growing up.
Michelle Wie is growing up, and fast. Just a few weeks ago she was busily filling out a housing application for Stanford, where she plans to live this fall in a dorm with other kids her age.
Like her, they’re smart and gifted. Unlike her, they don’t have $10 million in the bank and golf fans scrutinizing their every move.
Lately those moves have been scrutinised more than ever as Wie’s game spirals downward on the same path as her confidence level. At the age of 17, she can’t find the fairway with her driver, and the idea of competing against the men seems laughable when she can’t even beat her own gender.
Wie made matters worse recently by antagonising the best female in the game. And many think she was playing games when she walked off the course during a horrible round recently with a wrist injury that seemed almost too convenient.
The novelty of being a long-hitting 13-year-old who could hold her own with the best in the world has worn off, and she has yet to add a trophy of any sort to the family home in Hawaii.
The women’s U.S. Open begins Thursday in North Carolina, where Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam and teen Morgan Pressel will be among the favorites for the most coveted prize in women’s golf. Wie will be there as well, but as more of an afterthought than anything else.
A good start on the path to recovery might be to leave her golf clubs at home when she heads to Stanford. Her parents could do her a big favor by letting her enjoy her freshman year living among others her age without worrying once about whether she can hit the fairway with her driver.
It doesn’t seem like five years has past since Wie first gained notoriety by qualifying for an LPGA event at the age of 12. But she’ll be 18 this fall, at which time she legally becomes an adult.
That’s one of the problems with child prodigies. They always grow up way too fast.
