Can Wie bring back days of plenty?

By Neville Leck Last updated: 17th November 2009

When Michelle Wie was foolishly trying to make a name for herself in men's golf, nobody was a greater critic of her and her money-hungry handlers than I.

No longer. Things are different now.

In the bad old days I was amazed, indeed angered, at the way her father and the others in her camp turned the hugely talented teenager into a floundering circus act by continuously throwing her into waters where even males of her age would have been clearly out of their depth among the hungry sharks of the toughest male tour on earth.

All this hype made her (or was it her family) rich beyond her/their dreams even before she had reached adulthood, but missing the cut week after week also wrecked her confidence and all to soon the teenaged sensation who had never had the chance to learn how to win had become a big fat loser who looked as if her fruitless career was about to end even before it had really begun - especially after she sustained wrist injuries in 2006.

At this stage the tall Hawaiian-reared Korean American was fortunate to have reached the stage where girls of her age were all going to college and she was lucky to be accepted by Stanford, the Northern Californian University which Tiger Woods proudly claims as his Alma Mater.

The change wasn't immediate. It took her time to lick her physical and mental wounds back to health. but gradually we began to see the big-hitting six-footer emerge once more as a potential major star of the future.

This year, she became a seriously strong contender who, for the first time, qualified to play on the LPGA Tour at its always tough Q-School. No more sponsors' invitations or the contempt that too often came with them.

She still wasn't winning though - until her first Solheim Cup, where, instead of being looked upon as the spoiled and pampered brat of women's golf, she actually found herself embraced by her peers and caught up in their team spirit.

Wie went on to win three and halved one of her four Cup matches and was hailed as the star of the American triumph over Europe.

So, from being a pariah, willowy Wie had suddenly become the great patriot - 'with a wicked sense of humour', according to her now supportive team-mates - and, as predicted, it changed the course of her life.

Her first win at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico on Saturday will surely have boosted her growing confidence even higher and whether or not she features in this week's season-closing LPGA Tour championship, the girl who was lost but is now found could well go on to do for the ailing LPGA Tour what Tiger Woods has done for its male equivalent, the PGA Tour.

Long before her victory, Wie, always a striking figure with a swing most of her rivals would die for, had already shown that she had the charisma to shake up the media and bring out the crowds so if she can go on from here and take up the slack left by Annika Sorenstam's retirement and Lorena Ochoa's recent slump, she is very likely get the embattled LPGA Tour cheering again.

Tiger has single-handedly raised the PGA Tour prize money by millions and has increased the interest of the general public to such an extent, it is always possible to know when he was playing by looking at television ratings.

When he plays and is in contention they soar. When he doesn't they plummet. Simple as that.

Wie clearly has what it takes to cast a similar spell over women's golf so along with the LPGA and its new commish, Michael Whan, a former marketing executive, let's hope her victory last week wasn't a flash in the pan and that the one time 14-year-old phenom has finally broken out of her cocoon and, like a beautiful butterfly, is about to spread her wings and return the LPGA Tour to its glory days when tournaments were a plenty and headlines even more plentiful.

Neville Leck