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Michelle West Biography & Facts

Michelle Sung Wie West (; born October 11, 1989) is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. At age 10, she became the youngest player to qualify for a USGA amateur championship. Wie also became the youngest winner of the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links and the youngest to qualify for an LPGA Tour event. She turned professional shortly before her 16th birthday in 2005, accompanied by an enormous amount of publicity and endorsements. She won the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year in 2004 and her first and only major at the 2014 U.S. Women's Open. Early life, family and education Wie was born on October 11, 1989, in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is the only child of immigrant parents from South Korea who came to the United States in the 1980s. Her father, Byung-wook Wie, is a former professor of travel industry management at the University of Hawaii. Her mother, Bo, was South Korea's women's amateur golf champion in 1985, and competed in a Miss Korea beauty pageant. Her paternal grandfather, Sang-Kyu Wie, a resident of Jangheung, Jeollanam-do, was an emeritus professor at Seoul National University. When she was born, Wie was a dual citizen of South Korea (by jus sanguinis) and the United States (by jus soli). She renounced her South Korean citizenship in February 2013. Wie graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu in June 2007. On December 19, 2006, she announced that she would be attending Stanford University, where there are family ties. 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 was not eligible under NCAA rules to play for Stanford's golf team. During her first three years at Stanford, she attended only during the fall and winter quarters, running from late September through mid-March each year. She took leaves of absence during the rest of the year to play professional golf. Wie completed her studies at Stanford in March 2012 with a major in communications. She participated in the university's graduation ceremony in June 2012. Amateur career (2000–2005) Wie began playing golf at the age of four. In 2000, at the age of ten, she became the youngest player ever to qualify for the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship. Eight years later, Wie's mark was surpassed by fellow Hawaiian Allisen Corpuz, who qualified when she was five months younger than Wie had been when she set the record. Wie remained the youngest player to advance to match play in this tournament, until 2014 when Lucy Li surpassed her by one week. 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 Jennie K. Wilson Women's Invitations is 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. In 2002, she won the Hawaii State Open Women's Division by thirteen shots. She also became the youngest player to qualify for an LPGA event, the Takefuji Classic held in Wie's home state of Hawaii. While she went on to miss the cut, her record stood for five more years until it was broken in 2007 by 11-year-old Ariya Jutanugarn. At the 2003 Kraft Nabisco Championship, Wie became the youngest player to make an LPGA cut. She carded a 66 in the third 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 when she was still just 13, the youngest player ever to do so. Wie was given a sponsor's exemption to the 2004 Sony Open in Hawaii, becoming the fourth, and youngest, female to play a PGA Tour event. Her second round score of 68 was the lowest ever by a woman in a PGA Tour event, though she went on to miss the cut in the tournament. While missing the cut by 1 stroke she bettered the 36 hole score of 47 men including 4 major winners and matched the scores of 15 more men including 3 more major winners. At age 16, 2 years later she shot another round of 68 in the men's tour Sony open and bettered the 36 hole score of 18 men including 2 major winners and matched the score of 9 others including 1 major winner. She again played in the LPGA Kraft Nabisco Championship, finishing fourth. As part of the victorious U.S. team, she became the youngest woman ever to play in the Curtis Cup tournament. Wie started her 2005 season by accepting another sponsor's invitation to play on the PGA Tour at the Sony Open in Hawaii, where she again missed the cut. She played five more LPGA Tour events that year as well as a PGA Tour event, the John Deere Classic. It was her third outing at a PGA Tour event; she missed the cut by two strokes. She entered qualifying for the U.S. Amateur Public Links and became the first female golfer to qualify for a USGA national men's tournament, tying for first place in a 36-hole qualifier for the U.S. Amateur Public Links. Wie made the top 64 in the stroke play rounds to qualify for match play. She lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Clay Ogden. On October 5, 2005, a week before her 16th birthday, Wie announced that she was turning professional. She signed sponsorship contracts with Nike and Sony reportedly worth more than $10 million per year. Professional career Pre-LPGA membership (2005–08) When Wie turned professional, she was not a member of any professional tour. LPGA Tour membership age requirements require a golfer to be 18, although some players such as Morgan Pressel and Aree Song have successfully petitioned for an exemption to join at age 17. Wie chose not to request an exemption and was thus only allowed to participate in a limited number of LPGA Tour events when given a sponsor's exemption from 2005 until 2008. Wie played her first professional event in the 2005 LPGA Samsung World Championship, where she was disqualified from a fourth-place finish for signing an incorrect scorecard. A journalist, Michael Bamberger, reported a day after Wie had completed her round that she had illegally dropped the ball closer to the hole than its original lie. Wie would later go on to tally four top-5 finishes on the LPGA tour, including a second at the Evian Masters, a tie for third at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, and a tie for 5th at the LPGA Championship. In the initial Rolex World Golf Rankings in February 2006, Wie was placed third, behind Annika Sörenstam and Paula Creamer, but eventually dropped to 7th, partially due to a limited schedule. 2006 also involved several competitions against male competitors, starting with the PGA Tour Sony Open, where she again missed the cut, this time by four strokes. In May she became the first female medalist in a local qualifier for.... Discover the Michelle West popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Michelle West books.