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She still moves the needle. Even though it has been more than a year since Michelle Wie hit a shot in competition, and a good bit longer than that since she contended, having battled injuries and gone through medical tape like a UFC fighter, the 30-year-old still generates more buzz and elicits more questions than almost any woman in the game. Fully 17 years after bursting onto the scene (an almost impossible period of time to imagine given her age) Michelle is still the “it girl” of the LPGA, the one fans turn up to see.
She goes by Michelle West now, or Michelle Wie West depending on who’s asking. Last August, she tied the knot with Jonnie West, director of basketball operations for the Golden State Warriors and a member of the royalist of royal hoops families. Michelle’s father-in-law is Jerry West, a basketball legend worthy of a YouTube search for those too young to remember. Her brother-in-law Ryan also is an executive with the Los Angeles Clippers. Michelle and Jonnie married at a private home in Beverly Hills among a small Who’s Who of golf, basketball and celebrity.
This past June, West became a mom, welcoming daughter Makenna Kamalei Yoona West. And within a couple of weeks, mom was out hitting wedges with Makenna in a bassinet nearby.
She swears she’s going to play again, if for no other reason than to show her daughter what it’s like.
“I just want that experience of Makenna watching me play and hopefully watching me come down the stretch to win a golf tournament,” West said last week. “That would just mean everything to me because I want her to grow up and be a strong woman and all the things that I value and hopefully whatever she values. But I think being a good role model to my daughter is really important and showcasing being a strong athlete, being a woman athlete, being on the LPGA Tour, and having her see it in person is very different from her seeing it on YouTube or in news articles. That's something Tiger (Woods) got to experience at the Masters with his son (and daughter) watching it live.
“So that’s definitely something I aspire to do,” she said. “That’s the reason I want to come back and play. I guess my perspective has kind of shifted.”
Her world no longer revolves around her own image, her own game, her own life.
Before returning to competitions, she will do more television work, sitting in a studio for Golf Channel to provide analysis of various men’s majors. She’s quite good at it, which comes as a surprise to some who have found West to be stilted, distant and clichéd in interviews through the years. But that is unfair. West is bright, bordering on genius, and savvy by nature with an instinct for presentation. Whether it’s walking a red carpet, sitting courtside with her beau, or engaging the red light on a camera like a long-lost friend, West has a natural charisma. She turns heads. People stop, look and listen when she’s around.
Now, she has something else; something special. Like many before her – Annika Sörenstam, Stacy Lewis and Suzann Pettersen to name a few – motherhood has softened the edges and opened up West. She is more engaging: closer, less prone to pauses as she ponders her list of rehearsed responses. Her world no longer revolves around her own image, her own game, her own life.
It’s one of the reasons she reached out to Pat Hurst and asked to be an assistant captain for the United States’ Solheim Cup team, a position that was announced last week.
“As soon as I heard the news (that Hurst would captain the U.S. squad in 2021 at Inverness Club) I immediately texted Pat, being like, if you haven’t picked your assistant captains yet, I just would love to be considered,” West said. “She was my ‘pod mom’ twice, and she was so amazing. She made me feel comfortable, and that’s what I aspire to be. I feel extremely honored when I actually got that phone call when she picked me as an assistant captain. I was just ecstatic.”
Then she made it clear that this is not about her.
“I hope I can achieve as much as Pat did as assistant captain,” West said. “I'm just here to assist her. I just want to help her as much as possible. I know how much work goes into it. With 12 players on a team, you can't be everywhere at once so wherever she needs me, whatever she needs me to do, I just want to make her week easier, her year easier, and to assist with the team so we can come home with the trophy.”
Things West has said in the past have come off as rote, canned and borderline insulting – “I just really had fun out there,” after a miserable round being a prime example. But not this time. She is genuine about serving, mothering whatever pod of players Hurst assigns to her.
That’s Michelle West, not Michelle Wie. It’s new. It’s mature. And it brings smiles to the faces of those who have known her for all these years.
Top photo: Jonnie West and Michelle Wie West
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