Michelle Wie is a very popular LPGA player. She really made her name as an amateur and was viewed as the golden girl who would help rejuvenate the struggling brand of women’s golf when she turned pro in 2005 (note: her LPGA Rookie year is 2009.) Fast forward to 2013 and Michelle Wie is still a popular player on the LPGA tour but she has not achieved the “greatness” bestowed on her as an Amateur.
In the press this week Michelle Wie spoke about all the hard work she had done during the off-season — working on every part of her game. Unfortunately at the Women’s Australian Open this week Wie missed the cut by 2 strokes or 1-over par. That might not seem bad but it is awful compared to the leader (after two rounds) at 15-under par. So Wie starts her 2013 year where she ended her 2012 season — missing cuts.
2012 really was a horrible year for Wie. She played 23 tournaments and missed the cut 10 times. We could state this in a positive way and say she made the cut (or played the weekend and earned money) 13 out of 23 times (or 56% of the time) but that is still awful.
Let’s look at some statistics for the last three years.
Michelle Wie has never been a great putter and in 2012 she had no confidence. She would stand over a putt for an eternity and still miss it. Wie has always been long off the tee (she is ranked 4 in overall driving distance) but being long does not matter when you look at Wie’s greens in regulation (GIR) and driving accuracy statistics which are poor. In general, the statistics I have looked at indicate that many of the top players have GIRs between 72% and 76%. The top players also have putting averages below 30 (the really great putter’s have averages between 25 to 27). Let’s look at Wei’s statistics against two other American stars.
One last comparison (for fun) — Michelle Wie was in the LPGA rookie class of 2009. Another member of the 2009 class, Jiyai Shin. Shin won the Women’s Australian Open this week beating Yani Tseng (#1 Ranked women golfer in the world) and Lydia Ko (#1 ranked amateur golfer in the world). Shin is also the current RICOH Women’s British Open Champion. In 2012, Shin played 18 LPGA tournaments and made the cut in all 18 events. In 2010, Shin was the #1 player in the world rankings for 16 weeks. Shin is a serious contender in 2013.
Will Michelle Wie ever achieve the success of, Jiyai Shin, her LPGA rookie year classmate? Will Wei regain some of the glory of her amateur career? Will she find the success so many people expected of her since turning pro? Only time will tell but it crossed my mind today that maybe time is running out for Wie to achieve “greatness.” Given Wie is only 23 years old that might seem like a ridiculous statement but the LPGA is full of young talented players so it is easy to jump to the conclusion that Wie may have missed her time to dominate. My hope for Wie is that she finds her game soon.
Golf Expectations 
Michelle Wie will never improve her golf game until she changes her attitude. She will not put the quality time in to get her game where it needs to be. She continues to stay with a swing coach that is probably one of the worst in the business, and hardly ever listens to her caddy’s advice. Guess what, she don’t have to, because her sponsors pay her more money that she can make playing the game, so she elects to just have fun on their money. She gets to travel the world, party hard, and could care less how well she plays, as long as she is having fun. Her popularity is fading fast as it should, and her sponsors should reward her appropriately by pulling her sponsorships away. Make her earn her money like everyone else or she can find a new career to mike for awhile. I use to be a strong supporter of her, but no longer. Just watch her round and you can see what I mean. I don’t know what her pregame routine is, but it looks like she is never ready to play until the 4th or 5th hole, and by then she is usually down sometimes as many as 4 strokes. She spends the rest of the day either taking risk to catch up are just continue to play like crap. I am one ticked off fan of the LPGA, because the LPGA deserves better than this!!!!
Chase, I agree with you 100%. I have been following Wie since 2005 and and play has been mediocre at best. The LPGA girls do not like her “entitlement attitude” and completely ignore her. I would not be surprised if 2013 is a worst year than 2012. When Michelle stated that she “worked very hard” during the off season, I really have my doubts. She is totally engrossed in many other things other than golf. Her twitter remarks are that of a 13 year old.
It’s not really that surprising when promising teenage golfers (or other athletes) don’t turn out to have the careers that are expected of them, but I think it’s particularly disappointing for Michelle Wie, because she really did seem to be the female version of Tiger Woods (Stanford etc) prior to turning pro, but just hasn’t performed consistently.
The major difference between Tiger and Wie, Tiger earned everything he got. Michelle Wie earned nothing. Every opportunity was given to her. She played well when she needed too. Now she doesn’t have to play well. I am not a Wie fan or a Tiger fan. Tiger learned how to compete because he had to. Michelle never had to learn how to get it done. She is the perfect example of what get when you GIVE people everything they want, you get mediocrity at best.
She is wild off the tee and can’t putt. She will never be any good. Period
She is a terrible putter which puts pressure on the rest of her game. Once she starts putting her game will come around. Get rid of Leadbetter, find a new coach and hire someone to work on her metal side of the game. She was bold and confident when she was younger. Possible that someone at age 23 be burnt out?
How in the world did she EVER get selected to play in the Solheim Cup? Somebody explain this poor USA Team choice.