Michelle Sung Wie West began playing golf at just four years old. At age 10, she became the youngest player ever to qualify for a United States Golf Association (USGA) amateur championship. At 12, she set a record as the youngest player to play her way into the Takefuji Classic, a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) event, via a qualifying round. At 13, she won the Women's Amateur Public Links Championship, making her the youngest person ever, male or female, to win an adult USGA championship.
“When you see her hit a golf ball, there's nothing that prepares you for it. It's just the scariest thing you've ever seen,” Professional Golfer Fred Couples said of her at the time.
Then, just before her 16th birthday in 2005, she turned professional and was deluged with publicity and endorsements, including a $20 million four-year deal with Nike.
She maintains, however, that her celebrity status at that age was contained within the golfing community.
“When I left the course I was really a nobody. A lot of the time I felt like I was living a double life. I had to act a lot older than I was when I was surrounded by Hall of Famers and amazing players on Tour. But when I went back to school, I was still this little nerd,” she said on the “Henni and Hally Can’t Quit Golf” podcast in March of this year.
While she has had an extraordinary golfing career from a young age, it hasn’t been without its struggles. In 2007, a wrist injury from a fall sidelined her for several months. Unaware she had actually broken three broken, she returned to tournaments too early and played in agony throughout the year, even walking off the course during the 2007 LPGA Ginn Tribute.
The second half of 2008 proved much better and, in 2009, she played in a total of 80 professional events as either an amateur or a professional. Her career has continued to progress over the years, and, this past January, she competed in the opening season of LPGA events at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.