Michelle Wie Faces A Long Stretch Of Doubt

Seems like we’ve been watching Michelle Wie forever.

She’s been a women’s golf icon for 17 years.  She was a prodigy with mountains of hype.  She’s the only child of South Korean parents who emigrated to Hawaii and sadly for Michelle, she had a father who made most Helicopter Parents look disinterested.

Michelle played in the USGA Public Links at age 10 and from that point on, her father kept stoking the hype-machine, declaring that one day she’d play with and beat the men.

Wie turned pro at the tender age of 16 but also attended and graduated from Stanford with a degree in communications.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when Wie tried to come back too soon from a wrist injury.  After rounds of 84-82 at the Women’s PGA Championship, she announced that she will take the rest of this year off in an attempt to get healthy.

Truth be known,  Michelle is closing in on the end of her career and she knows it.

And that proposition will make these next six months very difficult for the player who once was the ultimate child prodigy.

In her LPGA career, she has just five wins — one of those a major, the 2014 U.S. Open.  To say her career has been, well, lackluster, is an understatement.

Don’t feel sorry for Wie — she’s reaped the benefits of the hype-world.  She signed a huge contract with Nike and Sony back in 2005, reported to be worth $25 million.  Wie is set financially in her life, if nothing else.

Right now she’s doing the right thing.  She’s taking enough time to give her body a chance to heal.  But there’s always an uncertainty with wrist injuries.

She’ll have a lot of time to think and contemplate.

At worst, she will most likely get a broadcast job when she calls it quits — and that may be her best calling.