Michelle Wie West: "I thought I was done with golf"

Michelle Wie West has long been a favourite player of mine, and along with every other golf fan I loved watching her make her LPGA debut at the Kia Classic.

Yes she didn't make the cut and yes she literally had to hit it out of a fountain at one point (we've all been in much worse situations I'm sure), but it was fantastic to see her back out there doing what she loves.

It's refreshing to see that she clearly no longer lives or dies according to the score on her card either.

In fact, the major-winner admitted in her pre-event interview that her daughter, who she welcomed last summer, has 'changed her perspective on everything'.

Michelle's inspiration

Before last week, Michelle last played on the LPGA Tour 21 months ago at the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Clearly suffering and in pain from her ongoing wrist injuries, it came as no surprise to anyone that she then took a break from Tour straight afterwards.

“I thought I was done, to be honest,” she said, speaking at Aviara last week.

“After KPMG in 2019 I thought I was done, especially when I found out I was pregnant later that year. I thought that cemented it. I thought there was no chance of coming back. And I told my husband that. He was like, ‘No, no, just think it through.’”

"But then we found out that Makenna was going to be a girl and that just changed my perspective on everything. It was crazy how just that one little fact changed everything."

Michelle has spoken before about how she'd love for her daughter to watch her win and grow up to be a strong woman herself. She has also been inspired by seeing Tiger and Charlie Woods playing together.

“When I found out I was having a girl I started to think, ‘You know, I kind of want to (play again). I want to show (my daughter) in real time that I can, that I play golf. It's one thing to have her watch YouTube videos. It's another thing to have her watch me with her own eyes. Seeing me go out there, work at it hard, and try to lead by example.

“That moment that Tiger had with Charlie (in the PNC Championship), that is the first thing that popped into my mind. That's been a huge motivation and that's been a new dream of mine.” 

I really, really hope we get to see a mother-daughter Wie West team at the PNC Championship in years to come, imagine...

Michelle will be competing in the first major of the year, the ANA Inspiration, from Thursday, April 1.

Check out the LPGA Tour website for more tournament updates www.lpga.com.