Michelle Wie

[Rusty]

Full name: Michelle Sung Wie
Born: October 11, 1989 (age 21) Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
Height: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Nationality: United States
Residence: Champions Gate, Florida, U.S.
Turned professional: 2005
Career: College Stanford University
Current tours: LPGA Tour (joined 2009)
Professional wins: 2

Best results in LPGA Major Championships
Kraft Nabisco C'ship T3: 2006
LPGA Championship 2nd: 2005
U.S. Women's Open T3: 2006
Women's British Open T3: 2005

History
Wie was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her parents are both natives of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) who came to the United States in the 1980s. Her father, Byung-wook Wie, is a former professor of transportation management at the University of Hawaii. Her mother was South Korea's women's amateur golf champion in 1985. Her paternal grandfather, a native of Jangheung, Jeollanam-do, was an emeritus professor at Seoul National University.

Schooling
Wie graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii in June 2007. On December 19, 2006, she announced that she would be attending Stanford University where there are family ties, as her paternal grandfather was a visiting professor and an aunt and uncle are both graduates. She enrolled in September 2007 as a freshman but as a professional golfer, Wie is not eligible under NCAA rules to play for Stanford's golf team.. During her first two years at Stanford she attended only during the fall and winter quarters, taking a leave of absence to play professional golf during the spring and summer quarters.

Amateur career
Wie began playing golf at the age of four and eleven years later declared that "The first time I grabbed a golf club, I knew that I'd do it for the rest of my life." In the summer of 2000, at the age of ten, she became the youngest player ever to qualify for the Women's U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship a record that stood for eight years until broken by a fellow Hawaiian, Allisen Corpuz, who was five months younger than Wie. In 2001, at the age of 11, she won both the Hawaii State Women’s Stroke Play Championship and the Jennie K. Wilson Women’s Invitational, the oldest and most prestigious women’s amateur tournament in Hawaii. She also advanced into match play at the Women's U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship and shot a personal-best 64 from the 5,400-yard tees at the Olomana Golf Links course in Hawaii.

2002 saw her win the Hawaii State Open Women's Division by thirteen shots over LPGA player Cindy Rarick and become, at age 12, the youngest player to qualify for an LPGA event, the Takefuji Classic where she missed the cut. This record stood until 2007 when it was broken by 11-year-old Ariya Jutanugarn. At the 2003 Kraft Nabisco Championship she became the youngest player to make an LPGA cut, shot 66 in the 3rd round, tying the amateur record for a women's major championship and played in the final group with Annika Sörenstam and eventual winner, Patricia Meunier-Lebouc. A few months later, Wie won the Women's Amateur Public Links tournament, becoming the youngest person ever, male or female, to win a USGA adult event and made the cut at the US Women's Open, the youngest player to do so.

LPGA membership 2009
After passing LPGA Qualifying School in December 2008, Wie declared that she still planned to play in tournaments against men. However for the second consecutive year, she did not receive a sponsor exemption to play in the Sony Open in Hawaii where she had played four years in a row from 2004 through 2007. Her first tournament as an LPGA member was the season-opening SBS Open at Turtle Bay where she shot 66, 70 to move into a tie with Angela Stanford going into the final round of the tournament. Wie held a three-stroke lead with eight holes remaining, but ended up losing to Stanford by three strokes.

It was reported in early March, 2009, that Wie had left the William Morris Agency, the Hollywood talent agency that had represented her since she turned pro in 2005, and would be signing with sports agency.

In Wie's next two tournaments, the J Golf Phoenix LPGA International and the Kraft Nabisco Championship, she struggled to make the cut, finishing on the cut line after the second round both times. She finished tied for 57th and 67th respectively in the two events. In the Kraft Nabisco, a major on the LPGA Tour, she shot a score of 81 in both the second and third rounds.

The day after the end of the LPGA Championship, Wie participated in a sectional qualifying tournament for the 2009 U.S. Women's Open to be held during the first week in July. She joined 110 players at the Rockville, Maryland site, one of several sites around the country set up for qualifying purposes on that day. Wie missed qualifying after shooting rounds of 70 and 74.

In August, at Rich Harvest Farms golf course in Sugar Grove, Illinois, Wie was a captain's pick for the United States team in Solheim Cup competition. She finished the tournament with a 3-0-1 performance in four matches.

On November 15, 2009, Wie won her first professional individual tournament, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico, a limited field event on the LPGA Tour, posting a score of thirteen under par 275 for a two-stroke margin over fellow American Paula Creamer, and besting Jiyai Shin, Christie Kerr and Morgan Pressel by two strokes. It was Wie's 81st professional tournament and her 66th LPGA Tour event. She then finished second in the Ladies European Tour season-ending Dubai Ladies Masters tournament on December 9–12, 2009, shooting a 15-under-par 273, which put her three shots behind winner In Kyung Kim.

On August 29, 2010, she posted a three-shot win over a full field at the CN Canadian Women's Open, held at St. Charles Country Club in Winnipeg, Manitoba, for her second career professional victory. In her next LPGA event, she finished second in the 54-hole P&G NW Arkansas Championship two weeks later, shooting 201 (-12) but losing to Yani Tseng by one stroke after giving up an overnight three-stroke lead.


Professional wins (2)
LPGA Tour (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	15 Nov 2009	Lorena Ochoa Invitational	-13 (70-66-70-69=275)	2 strokes	Paula Creamer
2	29 Aug 2010	CN Canadian Women's Open	-12 (65-69-72-70=276)	3 strokes	Kristy McPherson Suzann Pettersen Jee Young Lee Jiyai Shin

LPGA Tour career summary

Year	Tournaments played	Cuts made	Wins	2nd	3rd	Top 10s	Best finish	Earnings ($)	Money list rank	Scoring average	Scoring rank
2002	3	0	0	0	0	0	MC	n/a	n/a	75.67	n/a
2003	7	6	0	0	0	1	T9	n/a	n/a	73.00	n/a
2004	7	7	0	0	0	2	4	n/a	n/a	71.00	n/a
2005	8	8	0	3	1	4	2	n/a	n/a	70.76	n/a
2006	8	8	0	1	3	6	T2	730,921	n/a	70.78	n/a
2007	7	4	0	0	0	0	19	23,024	n/a	76.68	n/a
2008	7	5	0	0	0	0	T12	62,763	n/a	72.15	n/a
2009	19	17	1	2	2	8	1	918,659	14	70.57	9
2010	19	17	1	1	1	5	1	888,017	9	71.34	20

Solheim Cup Record

Year	Total Matches	Total W-L-H	Singles W-L-H	Foursomes W-L-H	Fourballs W-L-H	Points Won	Points %
Career	4	3-0-1	1-0-0	1-0-0	1-0-1	3.5	87.5%
2009	4	3-0-1	1-0-0 def H. Alfredsson 1 up	1-0-0 won w/ C. Kerr 1 up	1-0-1 halved w/ M. Pressel, won w/ C. Kim 5&4	3.5	87.5%