This win was a long time coming for Wie.
Michelle Wie halted a four-year winless skid by rebounding from four shots back to win the LPGA Lotte Championship on Saturday, and she tweeted a photo of herself with the trophy she won in her home state and on her home course.
#LPGAWinnerSelfie with @themichellewie@LPGALOTTEpic.twitter.com/ywJk7zz8My
— LPGA (@LPGA) April 20, 2014The former child prodigy overtook 54-hole leader Angela Stanford to post a final-round 5-under 67 and finish at 14-under to best her final-round playing partner by four shots. For Wie, her third win on the LPGA Tour and her first on U.S. soil, was a "dream come true."
OMG!!!!!! #dreamcometrue
— Michelle Wie (@themichellewie) April 20, 2014The popular Stanford grad was clearly having a ball at Ko Olina Golf Club in Oahu as she smacked stinger after stinger to the fairway and rolled birdie after birdie into the cup. The pure joy with which she played on Saturday was infectious and deserving of the champagne bash that Solheim Cup teammates Christina Kim and Cristie Kerr threw for her on the 18th green after she tapped in for her sole bogey of the day to go with six birdies.
"I was kind of thinking what I was going to do after I made the putt," Wie told reporters. "Was I going to jump up and down? I made the putt and I just froze. I completely just froze. I couldn't move my body. I was about to cry and -- my friends out here are just amazing. I feel so much support from them. We support each other through hard times and good times."
Wie’s story takes her from a much-hyped phenom whose results -- critics said -- failed to match up to her abilities, to two-time tour winner who still sparked criticism for not winning more, to happy and well-adjusted young woman. Her path is well-documented, but she now appears to be writing the next chapter in the story of a career that began when she burst onto the golf scene as a pre-teen.
"In her mind, she may be proving that this season, it’s not over," Golf Channel analyst Judy Rankin remarked about the perception that Wie, at the ripe old age of 24, was done as a golfer. "It just didn’t happen when she was a teenager."
After playing poorly last season, Wie got off to a blistering start in 2014 that included seven cuts made in seven starts, a runner-up finish at the Kraft Nabisco Championship two weeks ago, and two additional top-10s, all of which seemed to indicate that victory was just a matter of time. The Lotte Championship win -- her first in 79 events -- lifted her from 23rd in the world rankings to 13th.
Wie’s first W since he 2010 Canadian Women’s Open also marked her first come-from-behind victory. She got off to a sizzling start on Saturday, making three birdies in her first six holes. Her 15-foot birdie putt on the par-4 sixth to Stanford’s bogey cut the lead to just one shot.
Stanford’s second bogey of the day was on the par-3 eighth, as Wie made par. It dropped Stanford into a three-way tie with the eventual winner and Hyo Joo Kim (the last of which was playing on a sponsor’s exemption and in the last threesome). Wie took the lead for good at the par-3 12th, her birdie putt eliciting a fist pump.
Wie acknowledged she was jittery before taking the field, though a pre-game pep talk with former tour players and U.S. Solheim Cup captains Meg Mallon and Beth Daniels helped settle her down.
"I was out there, I was nervous, but I had a really good talk with Meg and Beth before I went out my last round at Kraft," Wie said. "I told them, ‘I'm so nervous,’ and they [said], ‘Every time you feel nervous, just enjoy it.’
"I think I really felt that today," she added. "Every time I felt nervous out there, I was looking around and I was like there was really no other place I would rather be. So I just had a blast out there today."