The Maturation of Michelle Wie

In the sagacious words of none other than long-time comic strip favorite Charlie Brown, "There is no heavier burden than great potential."

When you are a golfing prodigy anointed as "the next big thing" as a pre-teen, that can be a mighty lofty expectation to live up to.

And when your parents and handlers start turning this immense talent into a money machine before anything of significance has actually been accomplished, the red flags of disappointment start popping up all around.

Despite her extraordinary talent, Michelle Wie's bio is filled more with "firsts" and "youngest" rather than wins. Although she turned professional at the age of 15, in nearly a decade since she had mustered only three  LPGA tour wins and no major championships -- until this weekend.

At 24, Michelle Wie is now a LPGA Major Winner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wie may have been the youngest to qualify for the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship at age 10, and the youngest to make the cut at an LPGA tournament at age 13, and the youngest female to play a PGA tour event at age 14, shooting a 68, the lowest round ever for a female in a PGA event. But none of these "feel good moments" have anything to do with winning.

By turning Professional so young, she missed out on a big chunk of her amateur career, including the chance to play college golf.

In contrast, an even more hyped young golfer, one Tiger Woods, continued to play amateur events including two years of college golf at Stanford, before turning pro at 19. And during these extra amateur years, he clearly developed the skills and competitive fire which had him on track to becoming the greatest golfer of all time until personal issues and multiple injuries made his passing of Jack Nicklaus' Major Championship record of 18 victories less inevitable.    
    
So now at 24, with a Stanford degree to her credit, and a career-altering U.S. Open championship at the top of her resume, a more mature and more independent Wie may finally starting to conquer the burden of her great potential.