A few radio hosts have asked about the timing of this book. Aren’t people sick of Michelle Wie? And then I’ll hear: Isn’t Wie too young to have a book written about her? My answers are: yes and yes. To some, Michelle Wie is old news, and to some, she is too young to have a completed story. So why now?
True, Wie’s career as a golfer is just beginning. She is 19 and already doing well as a rookie on the LPGA Tour, with more than $300,000 in earnings this year. She is five years younger than Annika Sorenstam was when the all-time greatest women’s golfer won her first LPGA tournament. Wie’s golf life could be — and hopefully will be — wildly successful. But her time as a child prodigy has recently ended. My book covers that fascinating, inspiring and turbulent time in her life.
In my last conversation with Michelle, last January, she spoke about coming to terms with the fact that she will no longer be the 14-year-old wonder so many still want her to be. Perhaps now she can write a thrilling new chapter of performance, but the chapter of promise and potential stirred thousands if not millions of people, and I believe that deserves its own book. Almost as soon as Wie turned pro, a chasm opened up between those onlookers who didn’t care how she scored as long as she had that beautiful swing, and those who wanted her to earn those millions immediately. That chasm caused great opportunities and great pressure for Wie. Now that she’s almost 20, and no longer likely to be the pioneer she once was, maybe that chasm can close again. The best golf, we all hope, is still to come. But the buzz that made her one of Time Magazine’s most influential people in the world is probably not coming back. My book examines that buzz: what created it, and what eroded it.
