Michelle Wie Makes Her Own Lane in Golf

Michelle Wie Makes Her Own Lane in Golf

I sometimes lay awake at night being like, “What am I doing?” I think that’s everyone though, you know? I think at moments in our life, we’re exactly where we need to be and that sometimes we don’t feel like we’re doing anything right. And, you know, that’s something that, you know, I’ve struggled with in the past. It’s something that I’ve definitely had anxiety about. But, you know, I’ve definitely come to a lot more peace this year. I love Migos. My playlist jumps all over the place. It literally goes from like Moana soundtrack to Migos back to J Saline. I go all over the place. So, gym. [Music] This is This is where I can’t talk. [Music] So, I kind of separate my workouts. I do core first, legs, and then arms. I think Tiger really revolutionized how golfers train their bodies. the pre-tiger era you see the percentage of people that were working out were very little [Music] and then post tiger era I mean the people that aren’t working out now are very little you know he’s kind of made people realize that it’s a physical activity and you kind of need to be fit for it I was 10 years old and I qualified for the puppet links which is the youngest and it was kind of a big deal back in Hawaii I remember I changed schools. I was a new kid on the block. I looked very dorky. And then the governor decided to give me a day. They’re like, “Here, here’s a Michelle We trust me, that is the last thing you want to happen when you’re the new kid.” [Music] I grew up in front of the cameras and, you know, they definitely captured a lot of highs and a lot of lows, but it was definitely hard. I was a kid out there at that time. I was really living a dual life. You know, I was going to high school. I had my friends that didn’t play golf. And I went through a year where it was really tough for me because I didn’t have an escape. I felt like, you know, my whole life was golf now. And then I was just like, what am I going to do? I mean, I was the quote unquote golden girl for a very long time. And then all of a sudden, I didn’t play well. I fought through injuries and the media does beat you up. I’m tired of saying Michelle Wii is off to a bad start again. I sound like a broken record. I was very thankful that I had friends, you know, at my school that didn’t really care at all. They don’t even read the good stuff, so they didn’t even take notice of the bad stuff. So, it was nice to just be normal. Um, but it did hurt. I think after you experience your lowest point, I think you start to realize that it’s all not worth it if you’re not happy. Oh man, we’re going to get wet. It’s actually not going to be bad. At least it’s not cold rain. The puddle. [Music] I think my dad would have disowned me if I didn’t go to college. I mean, I think education is such an important part of my family. I love hitting drivers. I won’t lie. I love hitting drivers since I was a little kid. For me, I thought it was really unfair for athletes to have to choose between education and the sport. I just felt like if you do it right, you can do both. If someone have ever asked me what was the best decision you ever made, that was it. Going to Stanford and graduating from Stanford was the best 4 and 1/2 years of my life. A lot of people definitely thought it was a bad idea. And maybe from my golf career, it did, you know, step me back a little bit, but the life experiences that I got, you can’t get anywhere else. It was just so much fun just to be, you know, normal and to go out and play golf and then come back and be a normal student and, you know, kind of stress out with everyone else. Thankfully, Andrew Luck was a way bigger deal than I was, so everyone cared more about him than me. I love Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings is like one of my favorite books. Anthony at Coway. Um, he makes all these for me. This one’s my precious. And then Gandalf, I love the detail in his beard, the staff, and the sword. You shall not pass. And then I have 52. Um, it says, “One ring to rule them all.” Orlando Bloom should always be an elf. He’d look so good as an elf. Why? I used to play a lot of money games with my dad’s friends and it would be like kind of easy money, but I was like determined to save enough money to buy a car when I turned 16 that like everything, all my allowance, I didn’t spend any of it. I put it in this one envelope. And I actually like saved enough money to buy a car by the time I was 16. But then I you know I signed all these deals and then and then I kind of just like didn’t want to buy a car. So I still have that envelope. I think your happiness is the most important thing and that’s what you got to find. I think winning the US Open 3 years ago really, you know, did that for me. You know, I didn’t have to prove to anyone that, you know, I’m a major winner, that I could win a major. I don’t really have, you know, that to prove anymore. [Music] I think I’m just having a lot more fun. I think I’m just not freaking out as much. I think a lot of times I just get in my head. I feel like I’ve more embraced my my world being one now. I used to be like, “Ew, golf. I don’t want to watch golf. I don’t want anything to do with golf when I’m off the golf course.” Now it’s like I’ve embraced it. It’s my life. I love it. Amazing. There is no right path. It’s all going to get slightly messed up at the end no matter what you do. [Music]

The meteoric rise of child prodigies almost always comes with a fall, but what happens after that? For Michelle Wie, the last few years have meant building a fulfilling life and letting go of the pressure of being the “next big thing.” A refreshed outlook has resulted in her playing the best golf of her career with some of the limelight in the rear view. In this episode of Sitdowns, we caught up with the 27-year-old golf veteran to discuss the weirdest part of being famous at 13, listening to Migos on her off days, and her pride in being nerdy.

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