Now Wie Will Drive for Dough

There is a certain inescapable timeline to golf. Bobby Jones studied the Scottish beginnings of the game, Jack Nicklaus studied Jones and Ben Hogan, Tiger Woods studied Nicklaus and Michelle Wie studied Woods.

So six days shy of her 16th birthday, facing a phalanx of cameras and wired for a teleconference that stretched from Honolulu to Los Angeles to New York, Wie announced Wednesday that she was turning pro, which means there should be plenty of time to decide whether her name belongs right there as part of golf’s evolutionary process.

At least she won’t have any money problems while the debate gets started. Wie wore a pink shirt with a white swoosh on it and sat in front of a backdrop with the logos of Nike and Sony, her new corporate sponsors who are so happy to be on her team that they’re both giving her a reported $5 million a year for the privilege.

Woods knows all about endorsements, to the tune of about $90 million a year, and he also knows enough about Wie to say that she can handle the life of a professional golfer, even if she is in her mid-teens.

“I wouldn’t see any reason why she can’t,” he said. “I can only compare to me. When I was 16, I wasn’t even thinking about turning pro, I was just hoping to get into college somewhere.

“Two totally different outlooks on your career. She has a talent and has been good enough to make a giant step. At 16, I was just excited to get my driver’s license.”

Right now, it looks as if Wie is comfortable in the driver’s seat. She hasn’t hit a ball as a pro and already is a multimillionaire.

Many probably will find it fashionable to question what Wie will lose as part of her youth now that she’s playing for money, but there doesn’t really seem to be any downside.

Wie didn’t say she would ask for an early entry onto the LPGA Tour, which means she probably will play the same number of tournaments -- eight -- that she did this year, so she isn’t going to be overworked. And with Sony on board, it’s a cinch that Wie will play the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in her hometown of Honolulu in January as a sponsor’s exemption.

If Wie had been a pro this year, she would have earned about $650,000, so she might as well get paid for playing, if pro golf is her career goal anyway.

But what makes Wie different, and worth $5 million a year for five years to Nike, is that she wants to play against men.

“That’s what would drive the ratings, that’s what would drive people to buy the Nike gear she’s wearing,” said Kurt Badenhausen, associate editor at Forbes.

And that’s why she’s making more off-the-course money than Annika Sorenstam, a 63-time tournament winner and Hall of Fame player, whose endorsement income is estimated at about $5 million a year.

Sorenstam turns 35 Sunday, two days before Wie turns 16. If there is an inequity in endorsement income compared to results, ask LeBron James about making $90 million right out of high school.

At least Wie is staying in high school. She is in the 11th grade and obviously very good at math. The new moneymaker started giving some of it away Wednesday at her coming-out party, when she pledged to donate $500,000 to the Hurricane Katrina relief fund.

As part of her deal with Nike, Wie can earn even more than her $5-million base, through incentives based on performance.

This year, she performed at a high level, including a runner-up to Sorenstam at the LPGA Championship and a tie for third at the British Open. She has made the cut at her last 16 LPGA tournaments, but is probably better known for missing the cut at the Sony Open when she was 14 -- even though she shot 68 in the second round.

Wie is accustomed to doing age-inappropriate behavior. When she was 11, she won Hawaii’s most prestigious women’s amateur tournament, the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational. At 12, she was the youngest Monday qualifier for an LPGA Tour event. And when she was 13, she was the youngest player to win an adult USGA event, the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship.

So Wie has long held a starring role. When she chose to be represented by the William Morris Agency, known more for handling Hollywood talent than athletes, Wie offered a clue as to where she sees herself in the long run.

Meanwhile, the short-term questions will start being answered next week, when Wie makes her debut as a professional at the 18-player, $850,000 Samsung Championship, an LPGA event at Bighorn Golf Club.

She might not be old enough to drive a car to Palm Desert before Tuesday, but now there’s nothing to stop her from cashing a paycheck. That’s her personal golf evolution.