Wie’s Parents Learn as They Go Along

They had been a nice, homespun snowballing story until they got to the U.S. Women’s Open this year.

Until then, 13-year-old golf prodigy Michelle Wie and her father, B.J., who worked as her caddie, and her mom, Bo, who taught her husband the game after they married and moved to Hawaii, were the second biggest curiosity in golf behind how Annika Sorenstam would play against the men.

But the thing about being a golf phenom -- one who’s already been called the female version of Tiger Woods -- is sooner or later, everyone has advice, everyone has an opinion.

Jealousies sprout. Resentment bubbles up.

A 16-year-old rival at a tournament earlier this year tells a reporter, “I want to kick Wie’s butt” and her father gripes that Wie gets too much coverage.

Not everyone is necessarily charmed by your precocious story.

Your playing partner in this year’s Open has just closed her round with a double bogey, she’s famously short tempered anyway, she’s been scuffling through a lousy year, and she decides the scoring tent is a good place to give you a dressing down on the etiquette mistakes you and your father made during the round.

“Would Danielle Ammaccapane talk like that to someone else, someone who was 40 years old?” USGA Executive Director David Fay told Golf World magazine. “Probably not, because she might have gotten a fist in the mouth.”

Kind of makes you wonder who the 13-year-old really is, doesn’t it?

But B.J. Wie, who quit caddying for Michelle one round later in favor of her swing coach, Gary Gilchrist, smiled a small smile this week and said, “I’ve learned a lot.”

B.J. and his wife were sitting out a rain and lightning delay in the clubhouse at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn., during the second day of stroke-play qualifying at the U.S. Girls Junior Amateur when they discussed her future.

Michelle, who tied for the first-day lead with a 2-under-par 69, had finished only two holes of her second round before play was stopped. But already, a gallery of 300 people trailed her every move.

She would eventually make it to the quarterfinals of match play of the tournament Friday, but she would be upset and not have a chance to play defending champion In-Bee Park of Eustis, Fla.

Parenting any child is hard enough. But what happens when you’re the devoted parents of such a prodigy? How do you walk the tightrope between developing her enormous gift and still allowing her to be a kid?

Wie’s fame, and the stories of how she cracks drives 300 yards and finished ninth at the Kraft Nabisco Championships, the first LPGA major of the year, have all preceded her here.

But the better Michelle plays, the more everything surrounding her increases exponentially.

The hype. The praise. The pressure to turn pro.

Already, she stands 6-foot tall and gets recognized on the street.

“There is no blueprint, there is no benchmark I can use,” B.J. said. “There is no sample to look at. Tiger is a boy.

“In the end, all we can do is keep doing what we’ve been doing: playing a mix of professional and USGA tournaments....

“Make sure that she keeps getting better. And she is. That’s the big thing. But it has been a little overwhelming at times -- the media, the exposure, the interest.”

He forgot to mention “hype.”

PGA Tour Vice President Duke Butler has predicted Michelle will be “one of the top 10 athletes of our lifetime.”

Fred Couples, just one of many PGA or LPGA stars who have weighed in on Michelle’s game, has said: “You hear everything there is to be heard. But when you see her swing, when you see her hit a golf ball, there’s nothing that prepares you for it.”

Until this year, however, Wie hadn’t had the tournament results to back up all the talk. She’s played like she had something to prove.

The Wies had heard the criticism that Michelle didn’t have a right to get an exemption into the Nabisco.

But Michelle made all the complainers look silly by starting the final day tied for third.

Weeks later, Michelle went out and became the youngest person to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship, rallying from 4 down in her final round of match play. It was her first big win.

But with every breakthrough Michelle makes, the more the Wies have had to adjust on the fly. They don’t want to put a false ceiling on her talent.

But as B.J., a transportation professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said: “I have my concerns. Too many hours in golf, that can lead to burnout.”

B.J. said he is already planning fewer tournaments and less travel for Michelle next year.

He’s already cut back on her practice time. Wie and her parents will tour New York City after this tournament ends.

“I read something where Davis Love III said golf should be a part of life, not the whole thing in her life,” B.J. said.

“I don’t want her to think golf is the only thing she can do.”