Michelle Sung Wie was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her parents are both natives of South Korea who went to the US in the 80s. Her father, Byung-wook Wie, is a former professor at the University of Hawaii. Her mother was South Korea's women's amateur golf champion in 1985.
Wie began playing golf at the age of four. In 2000, at age 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. At the 2003 Kraft Nabisco Championship she became the youngest player to make an LPGA cut, and shot 66 in the 3rd round, tying the amateur record for a women's major championship and qualifying her to play in the final group of the championship. In June 2003, Wie won the Women's Amateur Public Links tournament, becoming the youngest person ever, male or female, to win a USGA adult event. Later that summer, she made the cut at the US Women's Open, at age 13 the youngest player to do so.
At sixteen, Wie had an average drive of about 280 yards. She was named in a Time magazine article: "one of 100 people who shape our world." Wie turned professional on October 2005, a week before her 16th birthday with an enormous amount of hype and endorsements, signing sponsorship contracts with Nike and Sony reportedly worth more than 10 million dollars per year.
Last November, she won her first professional individual tournament, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico, an elite, 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.
Her influence in the golfing scene is huge, and it is said that she will attract more boys, girls and families to this sport that Tiger Woods in a near future. Meanwhile, one could see the bid crowds following her game in the LOI ’09 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
