Wie Ready for Close-Up

Strong winds blew rain Wednesday and Waialae Country Club got pelted, but the real storm hits today when 14-year-old Michelle Wie becomes the first teenage girl to play in a PGA Tour event.

Wie, a high school freshman, expects to stay fairly calm as play begins in the Sony Open.

“I don’t think I’m going to be that nervous, but I just have to prepare myself,” she said. “I know I’ve worked really hard.”

There are 144 players in the field for the $4.8-million event, which is being staged for the 39th time -- the first with a ninth-grade girl playing. Wie accepted a sponsor’s invitation and instantly created a groundbreaking moment in golf.

The youngest winner of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championships last year at 13, Wie finished in the top 10 of the Nabisco Championship, the LPGA’s first major of the year. At 12, Wie was the youngest qualifier for an LPGA event, the Takefuji Classic. She also won the Hawaii Open Women’s Division by 13 shots over LPGA pro Cindy Rarick.

How well Wie does today and Friday is a topic of great speculation among her peers for the week. Ernie Els, the defending champion, believes windy conditions would help her.

“If the wind really blows, even par is a good score, and I think she can do that around here,” Els said.

Wie has spent the better part of two months trying to get her game into shape to make the cut. That could be a difficult assignment, but Wie has taken on a few of those lately.

Wie’s idol, Tiger Woods, suggested that she would be better served to learn to win regularly at the junior level. Davis Love III said Wie might be trying to carry too heavy a load.

“At 40,” Love said, “you sit back and think ‘When I was 15, I wanted to be 25. When I was 25, I wanted to be 14.’ It’s hard to get that perspective when you’re 14. You always want to be older than you are and do things that older people do. When you’re older, you always say, ‘Why was I in such a hurry to get older? Why was I in such a hurry to do things that were beyond me?’

“She’s got an awful lot of challenges ahead of her in college golf, high school golf, the LPGA. She’s biting off an awful lot, I think, trying to play. She’s been everywhere.”

Love said it is unfair to compare a woman’s game with a PGA Tour pro’s game because the men have the advantage of distance. He admitted, though, that length isn’t a problem for Wie, who is capable of 300-yard drives.

“Distance is not her problem,” Love said. “Age is probably her problem. It’s hard enough to compete after you’ve been through amateur golf and college golf, all that.”

Wie doesn’t see any problem with anything she is doing. She also doesn’t worry about any criticism, however mild.

“There’s always opposition,” she said. “There’s always a good side to it and a bad side to it. Nothing can be all positive. That’s the nature of sports. I guess life isn’t fun when there aren’t people fighting against each other. Kind of amazing.”

Wie probably took some pressure off herself after she played a practice round Tuesday with Els, something she said might have been more exciting than the tournament would prove to be. She has heard many times that the path she is following is a long one, and Wie already knows the direction to take. She said she would finish high school; then she hopes to attend Stanford for four years, turn pro and play the LPGA Tour and the PGA Tour.

“I have a really short focus, and I get bored pretty easy,” Wie said.

“If I only played one tour, I think I’d get sick of it pretty fast. But mixed together, I think that would be pretty good.”

*

This Week

PGA TOUR

Sony Open

* When: Today-Sunday.

* Where: Waialae Country Club (7,060 yards, par 70), Honolulu.

* Purse: $4.8 million. Winner’s share: $864,000.

* TV: ESPN (Today, 3:30-6 p.m.; Friday, 4-6:30 p.m.; Saturday, 4-7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 4:30-7 p.m.).

* Last year: Ernie Els completed a two-week Hawaiian sweep, holing a 55-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a playoff with Aaron Baddeley.