Last Thursday, The Cavalier Daily featured 14-year-old prodigy Gregory Smith and his life as a Doogie Howser-like phenom, who is currently enrolled here at the University as a graduate student in mathematics. While Smith is learning the theories of Pythagoras and Plato, it was another 14-year-old who caught my eye.
Although teen superstars are nothing new to the world of sports, Michelle Wie came within eyelashes of making history this past weekend. Wie, a ninth-grader from Honolulu, Hawaii, became the third female in the last nine months to compete against men in a PGA Tour event. Faring better than her predecessors, Wie finished even par after two rounds and missed the cut by one stroke at the Sony Open. (By comparison, Suzy Wahley missed the cut in the Hartford Open by 13 strokes and Annika Sorenstam missed the cut at The Colonial by four shots.)
With her performance in her home state of Hawaii, Wie -- who doesn't even have an LPGA tour card -- came within one stroke of becoming not only the first woman in nearly 60 years to make the cut in a PGA Tour event, but also finished a single shot shy of being the youngest person, male or female, to ever make a PGA Tour cut.
Whereas Sorenstam spent weeks in the spotlight leading up to her first tee shot last May, the heat of the camera lens and pressure of the intense media scrutiny Sorenstam dealt with was not nearly as present for Wie this weekend. With most sports enthusiasts consumed by the NFL playoffs or NCAA basketball and the news media focused on the Iowa Caucuses and the Spirit's adventures on Mars, Wie slipped to the back pages of the newspapers.
Nevertheless, Wie's accomplishment should not go unnoticed. While Sorenstam opened the eyes of many fans and players (excluding those of Vijay Singh) by disproving a notion based on past perceptions -- namely that a woman could not play with the big boys -- Wie represents the future of cross-gender athletic accomplishment. Wie is now walking on the ground Sorenstam first broke.
Unlike Sorenstam, Wie can hit the ball as far as the top male pros, frequently driving the ball upward of 300 yards. During the second round of the Sony Open this weekend, Wie uncorked a 311-yard drive on the par four 16th hole that led to one of her two birdies on the final three holes. While Sorenstam was forced to hit many mid-irons into the greens at Colonial, Wie frequently pulled a 7- or 8-iron out of her bag on approach shots.
Surprisingly, Wie's short game -- the area she struggles with most consistently -- was a strong suit for the pubescent teen on Thursday and Friday. Thanks to tips from famous instructor David Leadbetter and tour superstar Ernie Els (who won the Sony Open, by the way), Wie's work around the green was commendable and, at times, superb.
If she can handle the stress of the spotlight, Wie's mental and physical games should only continue to improve. As she becomes more consistent and confident, the sky seems to be the limit for this 6'1" teenager.
While most cohorts her age are worrying about pimples, driver's licenses or, in the case of Smith, advanced calculus and trigonometry, Wie seems poised to make history.
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