13-year-old Wie set to play LPGA ShopRite Classic

She finished ninth in her first LPGA effort earlier this year.
By JOHNETTE HOWARD
NEWSDAY
The Yankees are on the road, the Mets' starting lineup will feature four minor-leaguers Thursday night, and the Knicks show no signs of pulling off a blockbuster move in Thursday's NBA draft, so why not do yourself a favor?
If you need a sports fix, hop on the freeway, catch a train at Penn Station, climb onto one of those cheap-o Atlantic City buses -- whatever it takes -- but get yourself to the ShopRite Classic in Northfield, N.J., which lies just a 15-minute car ride from the casinos, so you can say that you saw the next big thing in golf, the kid everyone is comparing to Tiger Woods.
Even if she is a girl.
Odd as it seems, 13-year-old Michelle Wie is not often called "The Next Annika Sorenstam," fabulous as Sorenstam is. Wie is usually called "The Next Tiger Woods." And that's mostly because she already drives the ball 300-plus yards, she's been beating tournament-tough women and men two or three times her age since she was 10, and outwardly, anyway, she seems downright Zen on the golf course, even if she is a kid who just got her braces off a couple months ago and won't start ninth grade till this fall.
"We'll kinda be the babies of high school," Wie said with a sigh in a phone conversation Tuesday.
Qualified for Open
Wie has already qualified for the U.S. Women's Open next month, winning a qualifier playoff to earn her spot. She finished ninth in her debut at the LPGA's first major of the year, the Nabisco Championship. She's been playing Hawaii's major men's tournaments since she was 10, and in the wake of Sorenstam's decision to test herself against PGA stars at the Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas, last month, Wie accepted invitations to play against men at a Canadian Tour event in August and a Nationwide Tour stop in September.
Then just this Sunday, Wie added more impetus to the Woods comparison by winning the Women's Amateur Public Links championships in Palm Coast, Fla. She outdueled 21-year-old former NCAA champion Virada Nirapathpongporn (try fitting that name on the leader board) to become the youngest winner in the 27-year history of the Publinx.
The victory also made Wie the youngest player, male or female, ever to win an adult USGA title.
"It's been a pretty good year," Wie said shyly.
Wie won the Publinx's 36-hole final despite falling 4 down after just eight holes, mounting a come-from-behind charge worthy of you-know-who.
Pivotal shot
The pivotal moment came at No. 6 of Wie's afternoon round when she hit into a fairway bunker. Her father and caddie, B.J. Wie, eyed the long yardage to the green and the water Michelle had to hit over, then wavered a split second over which club to hand her.
"He was like, 'Uh, uh ...' and I was like, 'I'm going for it,' " Michelle said.
It turned out to be one of those times when it's great to be 13 and fearless. Wie, who already stands 5-11, 150 pounds, took a roundhouse swing and sent the ball soaring out of the sand, straight at the flag, setting up a birdie putt.
If Wie keeps going like this, she could someday make all that wonder last month about Sorenstam's opening-round 71 at the Colonial seem quaint and silly. Wie long ago set her sights higher than merely holding her own against men. She wants to play both the LPGA and PGA tours when she turns pro. She wants to qualify for the Masters by winning one of the major men's amateur tournament titles that offers an automatic berth. And believe it or not, Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson -- the old crocodile himself -- hasn't quashed the idea.
"If we have (a woman) qualify for the Masters, we'll sure send her an invitation," Johnson has said.
Talent raises question
Wie's talent and composure raise a lot of interesting questions about the sport, like: What is it about getting older that often makes people golf worse?
Gary Gilchrist, Wie's coach, laughed and had a few guesses the last time we spoke. Gilchrist said what he finds similar about Woods, Wie and other prodigies is the way they utter a dream and "it's like it's almost spoken into existence, you know?"
"In my experience," Gilchrist said, "most kids who do something unbelievable usually have somebody in their lives who developed that special self-belief, that love of what they do. And it's as if that love somehow crosses out all their fear of failure. ... They don't get up there and think of everything that might go wrong. They just hit it."
That's not all. Tuesday, Wie said every time she's inclined to get nervous over a tournament shot, she also thinks of this: "How great I feel when I win."