Michelle Wie West, who dreamt of playing the Masters, walked Augusta for first time at ANWA
AUGUSTA, Ga. – When Asterisk Talley holed out for eagle on the first hole of the Augusta National Women's Amateur on Saturday, Michelle Wie West was in the gallery. Two years ago, the LPGA star came to Augusta National for the first time but never made it past the clubhouse area and Berckmans Place. The final round of the ANWA marked her first time walking the golf course.
'I must have said it a million times,' said Wie West, 'but I was like 'Wow, so slopey! Wow, so elevated!'
Advertisement
'No. 10 was a lot more elevated than I thought. Two, I didn't realize, like the downhill lies that they have on 2 going in. You see people just casually stopping golf shots on that green.'
Michelle Wie reacts to a par saving putt on the third hole during the third round of the 60th U.S. Women's Open Championship at Cherry Hills Country Club on June 25, 2005 in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado.
As a hotshot amateur, Wie West once had a goal of competing in the Masters. She made it all the way to the quarterfinals of the men's 2005 U.S. Amateur Public Links, a now defunct USGA event that carried an exemption into the Masters field.
On Sunday, Wie West was out watching the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals in a sundress. The 35-year-old mother of two and LPGA tournament host couldn't recall the last time she hit a golf shot but said she gets emotional watching the kids compete.
Advertisement
'The amazing part about ANWA is that it's created a platform where now people in the golf industry, outside the golf industry are knowing these girls' names,' said Wie West. 'It's become a topic of discussion.'
A number of players in the ANWA field are weighing when to go pro and Wie West, who turned pro just before her 16th birthday, encouraged youngsters not to put too much pressure on the decision, noting that life is fluid.
'I would always say just try one year,' said Wie West. 'Try one year out of college. It's much easier going that way than the other way.'
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Michelle Wie West walked Augusta National for the first time at ANWA
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
26 minutes ago
- USA Today
Karrie Webb to make U.S. Senior Women's Open debut, likens her game to a box of chocolates
Seven-time major winner Karrie Webb says her game is like a box of chocolates: 'You never know what you're going to get.' 'It can be really impressive some days,' explained Webb, 'and some days it looks like I haven't played for a year.' The legendary Aussie makes her debut in the U.S. Senior Women's Open this week, one of six World Golf Hall of Fame members in the field. The 41-time LPGA winner turned 50 last December and will be among the favorites this week, despite the rust. Webb teed it up last month in the inaugural Greater Toledo Classic hosted by Stacy Lewis, an event that combined the Epson Tour with the Legends of the LPGA. 'Unfortunately, we had one round rained out,' said Webb during a pre-tournament press conference, 'but it did feel good to be back out there competing, feeling a bit of adrenaline. 'I think the longer you're aware from the game, you don't realize the stress level that you lived with and at for an extended period of years, and so when you get that adrenaline rush now, it's so unusual for your body to handle. It was good to feel that for a couple rounds.' Fellow Hall of Famer Juli Inkster, 65, played in Toledo and last week on the LPGA in Portland, where she nearly broke JoAnne Carner's record of oldest to make the cut, missing out on the weekend by a single stroke. 'What's different is I have never been the best ball striker or putter or whatever, but I was always a grinder,' said Inkster. 'It's just hard grinding for 18 holes now. Mentally it's just hard to stay in it because you don't do it. 'But I thought, I really played well the first day. The second day I didn't play as well. But there's not a lot of times I'm up at 5:30 for a 7:30 tee time now. Your body is different. So I think that was good for me to have an early time like that to kind of figure out what I need to do.' The 7th U.S. Senior Women's Open, which gets underway Aug. 21, is being held at San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista, California, and it's a return home for 2024 champion Leta Lindley, who played junior golf tournaments at the club. 'I've been looking forward to this day for a long time,' said Lindley. The average age for the field of 120 is 57.06, and Lindley is among the five returning past champions, including Annika Sorenstam and Laura Davies. A post shared by United States Golf Association (@usga) This year marks the first time that 86-year-old Carner, an eight-time USGA champion who hit the first tee shot at the inaugural U.S. Senior Women's Open, won't be in the field. Carner told Golfweek earlier this week that her game had 'fallen apart' after the loss of about 30 yards off the tee. "I just got into some real bad habits," said Carner, a 43-time winner on the LPGA and two-time U.S. Women's Open champion. Trevor Marrs caddied for Carner at Brooklawn Country Club in 2021, and she brought him back each year. This week, Marrs is caddying for another LPGA and World Golf Hall of Famer – Hollis Stacy. This is the fourth USGA championship at San Diego Country Club San Diego native Mickey Wright won her fourth U.S. Women's Open title at home in 1964. Jill McGill, the 2022 U.S. Senior Women's Open champion, captured the 1993 U.S. Women's Amateur title at San Diego CC as well. McGill is one of nine players in the field this week who were in that 1993 Women's Amateur field, joined by Angela Buzminski, Eunice Cho, Stacy L. Slobodnik-Stoll, Abby Pearson, Wendy Ward, amateurs Brenda Corrie Kuehn and Ellen Port and defending champion Lindley. 'I definitely can see why Mickey Wright was classed as one of the best ball-strikers to ever play the game,' said Webb.'You're definitely going to have to be on tee to green all week, and then the greens are tricky, as well. Distance control, trying to leave it under the hole as best you can, is important.'
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
LIV Golf sets up interview then revokes reporter's credential after he refused to take it down
LIV Golf revoked the media credential of a local golf reporter in Michigan after he refused to take down a podcast interview that was set up by the league itself. Bill Hobson owns and operates Michigan Golf Live. His YouTube channel by the same name has just under 5,000 subscribers and its content is largely contained to courses, travel destinations and local golf happenings in the Great Lakes State. Podcaster asked for interview guest before LIV Michigan event As LIV Golf descended upon Michigan this week for its 2025 team championship event at The Cardinal at Saint John's resort in Plymouth, near Detroit, Hobson — who has long asserted publicly that he's 'never been a big fan' of LIV — saw a chance to learn more about the league and promote it for his listeners. So, when LIV Golf's media relations team asked if Hobson would like to conduct a podcast interview with Pat Perez, a former player who now works as a TV analyst for the league, Hobson jumped at the opportunity. 'LIV reached out and said, 'We're doing PR for the tournament, would you like to interview Pat?' And I was like, 'Yeah, sure, I've never talked to him, but I've always found him very intriguing and very interesting and he's part of their broadcast team now, so obviously he's been pretty well schooled in all of these things.' Hobson told Golfweek on Wednesday. What ensued was a saga Hobson couldn't have imagined would be caused by his podcast, one that is typically listened to by 'a few hundred, maybe a thousand people.' Discussion with Pat Perez touched on normal golf subjects Much of the roughly 30-minute phone interview centered around light-hearted topics. Hobson and Perez shared laughs as they chopped it up about the LIV Golf team championship, the festivities surrounding it, the league's plans beyond this season, and of course, "Happy Gilmore 2." But a question regarding the harder-hitting issues that have hung over LIV Golf like a cloud since its inception seemed to send the league's public relations department into a frenzy. 'Nothing was ever conveyed to me as, 'Hey, whatever you do, don't bring up these things,' because I wouldn't have done the interview with that sort of a restriction,' Hobson told Golfweek on Wednesday. During the episode, Hobson — confessing his skepticism about LIV Golf — asked Perez if he felt that the controversy surrounding the league had begun to die down as it wraps up its fourth season. Perez said he understood why some people may not like the fact that LIV split up the sport of golf and implemented a team format on a closed-circuit tour, but he asserted that if they come to experience it in person, they might change their mind. Hobson, in response, emphasized that he didn't take issue with the existence of a competitive league with a different format, but rather the source of its funding: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Perez offered his thoughts on the matter. 'A lot of people don't like the funding from the Saudis, but you know, they're involved in so many things in the United States and I think people do forget that,' Perez said during the podcast interview. 'This is not like some group that's not involved in the United States currency in some form or another, what they do or how they do it. You know, we sell tons, 100s of millions of dollars of weapons and ammunitions and stuff like that to the Saudis, so if it was such a big problem, why would the United States sell them all this artillery? Last time I checked, they bought $850 million worth of artillery from us, so if they're such a threat to the United States as far as terrorism and all that stuff, why the hell would you sell them all this equipment?' The two men moved on from the topic without so much as an argumentative comment, and the rest of the conversation remained cordial and friendly, as their relationship has since, according to Hobson, who said Perez could have declined to answer such a question and he would have honored it. 'There's literally nothing in this [podcast] except two guys who sound like they're sitting over for a pizza having a talk,' Hobson told Golfweek. 'I try to conduct myself with professionalism, which I think you could probably get some evidence for simply by seeing the text messages that Pat Perez and I have exchanged since all of this just blew up, because he's fine, and I can't quite figure out why the explosiveness and why LIV decided to take a complete non-story and turn it into one.' Soon after interview, LIV Golf officials asked for edits About 10 minutes after wrapping up the interview, Hobson began receiving calls from LIV Golf officials who sounded panicked. 'It's the strangest scenario that I've been a part of, ever,' Hobson said. 'In the 26 years of my show, certainly I've never seen anything like it. We're pretty bland. [Michigan Golf Live] features courses and destinations. We do some event coverage, but you won't find anybody who would say that I have some sort of clickbait, ambush, sneak-up-on-you approach to anything.' LIV officials seemed to think otherwise. They asked Hobson to take out the question regarding Saudi Arabia and another about former LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman. Hobson kindly declined. As a result, he received several more phone calls from escalating levels of LIV officials over the following 48 hours. 'I told them, 'Those were perfectly fine questions and he answered them fine,'' Hobson said. 'They said, 'No, he didn't answer them fine. He was out of his lane and he shouldn't have gone there. I said, 'Well, you understand that's not on me. 'I had not agreed to any limitations or, you know, 'I won't go there' categories. They may have made those up in their own minds, but I would invite or defy them to come up with some sort of screenshot that says, 'No, no, right here, he said he wouldn't do that.' There isn't any such thing. And I wouldn't have done the interview with that.' LIV Golf officials revoked Hobson's credential Ultimately, Hobson's refusal to delete or edit the episode featuring Perez led to the league revoking his media credential to cover LIV Golf Michigan on Tuesday. Hobson said LIV Golf instead offered him spectator tickets to 'come and enjoy the event.' 'It's largely unprecedented to revoke an already-granted credential,' Hobson said. 'You know, I'm accustomed to not getting approved. Augusta's got that down to a rhythm for me. That's pretty much automatic. But I've covered, I don't know, 120 tour events and Ryder Cups and majors and I've just never even been remotely close to scratching the surface of what's happened here.' Hobson found the move even more baffling, considering he interviewed LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil on live radio just a month ago. The interview came to be while Hobson was filling in as a host on WJR-AM in Detroit, which was emanating from The Cardinal at Saint John's as O'Neil prepared to serve as a keynote speaker at a Detroit Economic Club meeting. 'I had [O'Neil] on live with me for like 15 minutes,' Hobson said. 'I asked him the hard questions, and of course, he was fine, he answered them fine. So, I cannot quite figure out how the same guy who had the CEO on a month and a half prior could be a mystery to anybody in their PR team.' While he's made it clear that he's not the league's biggest supporter, Hobson wanted to give it a chance as it stopped in his home state of Michigan for its final event of the 2025 season. "Our world is not primarily coverage of professional tours, but I do a little bit of commentary here and there and so yes, anybody who has followed us at all would know that I'm not pro-LIV," he said. "I said when the event was announced in Michigan that I need to go to this. I need to cover it so that I can actually have some credibility, because people are like 'Hey, you have to go to an event and you'll see that it's so much fun.' That's why I applied for the credential. I was actually expecting to be denied, but I got approved in very short order.' 'I'm not Adam Carolla or Joe Rogan' Hobson planned to attend LIV Golf Michigan as a member of the media and put his personal opinions aside to provide proper coverage of the event. 'I did all of this with the intent of helping spread the word about the tournament so more people would attend. I put a link to purchase tickets in the podcast notes. I encouraged people to come out and see it for themselves and see the beautiful Cardinal golf course for themselves,' Hobson said in a YouTube video posted Tuesday explaining his situation with LIV. Instead, the story has become one of 'paranoia' on the part of LIV, according to Hobson, who says this serves as a classic example of making a mountain out of a molehill. "I'm not Adam Carolla or Joe Rogan. There are not 10 million people listening to my podcast. [I told LIV], 'My podcast neither causes cancer nor cures cancer, but you're acting like it does both. Just let it go. You'll be okay.'" Golfweek reached out to LIV Golf, and league officials declined to comment.
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Lydia Ko talks about the moving TV commercial she voiced that brought her to tears
It wasn't a retirement video. That day will come eventually, of course, but Lydia Ko told her longest-running sponsor, Rolex, that it would be cool one day to have a collage of the highs and lows of her career. Rolex delivered, and the commercial debuted earlier this summer during the Amundi Evian Championship. Ko went to a recording studio to voice a script she said brought her to tears. "I was able to kind of fill in the gaps in between and the emotions I felt," said Ko of her involvement. "As much as sometimes you get caught up in what's going on right now, but when I see my career like that as a whole, it just -- I think I am the player I am today because of all those moments, and probably the lows ... are probably more significant than the highs." Ko met with the media on Wednesday ahead of this week's CPKC Women's Open in Ontario. Her first victory on the LPGA came at the age of 15 at the 2012 CN Canadian Women's Open, two weeks after she'd won the U.S. Women's Amateur. She'd win the Canadian Women's Open again the next year at 16. Now a member of the LPGA Hall of Fame with 23 LPGA titles, including three majors as well as an Olympic gold medal, Ko's remarkable career is a testament to her mental strength – overcoming the lows – as much as her talent. Rolex scripted the ad as a letter from Ko to her 15-year-old self. "Dear 15-year-old Lydia, so much is about to happen. Wonderful things and hard things. You will learn and grow as a person from all of them. You will lose track of all the firsts and the youngest evers you set. Never take a single day, a single moment for granted. "The truest axiom of golf is this ... no matter how you are playing, it will change. Just as quickly as the game can slip away, with hard work and self-belief, it can come back. "The decisions you make are yours – own them." Ko said that when recording, she repeated the same line anywhere from five to 10 times, trying to convey the right emotions. Some of what she experienced reading that letter, she said, are feelings she had yet to express to her own team. "It was definitely really cool seeing the 6, 7-year-old me skipping down the fairways in New Zealand to hoisting the AIG Women's Open trophy at St. Andrews," said Ko. "It's a pretty surreal career I've had so far. I think because all of those moments, I'm able to enjoy being on tour a little bit more these days." The sports world has watched Ko grow up on a global stage, winning LPGA events long before she could even drive. When asked about that kicker line of owning her decisions, Ko praised the evolving team she's had around her from the start to help guide her career, but insisted that she's always had a say. More: 5 things to know about Lydia Ko's record-breaking road to the LPGA Hall of Fame "If I decided to end my relationship with a caddie or with a coach or decided to play this event or that, I think I was still always the biggest influence," said Ko. "When you were so young, people think you're under the influence of your parents and that's true. I think to some extent like they're trying to do that because they think that's the best for you. "But I think even from a young age I was – I made most of the decisions myself. But I think now as I get older, I'm able to take more ownership of that. I believe that all of the decisions I made, whether it was good or bad, whether the results were good or bad, I've no regrets in making them. All of those little pieces make that final masterpiece. If one piece is different, then I don't know if I would be the same person or if my career would be the same."
