PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Michelle Wie West has no drawback admitting it: She has thought of her final walk-up to the 18th gap at Pebble Seashore — the ultimate considered one of her profession — loads. She has visualized it, dreamt about it, even idealized it.
“Gosh, I hope it is within the ultimate group with everybody watching,” Wie West mentioned Tuesday. “That will simply be so unbelievable.”
As a lot as she’s been in a position to, Wie West has written her personal ultimate script by deciding to make this yr’s U.S. Ladies’s Open at this historic venue her final aggressive match ever. And but she is aware of all too properly the unpredictability the game that has dominated her life during the last 18 years can carry.
It is why there isn’t any extra crafting of her exit she will be able to do as soon as the ball is within the air on Thursday. She’s made her choice — one she described as “arduous” — and is now having to come back to phrases with the finality that it brings.
“Once I was carried out with Pine Needles, I used to be like, oh, however I’ve Pebble subsequent yr,” Wie West mentioned of final yr’s U.S. Open, the place she first introduced her retirement plans. “There isn’t any Pebble subsequent yr.”
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Wie West didn’t specific remorse, however she did converse of needs and needs. She had all the time mentioned she would stop as soon as she had youngsters. She now has a toddler and hasn’t performed a real full LPGA Tour schedule since 2018, however the sport she’s performed her entire life nonetheless has a magnetism that speaks to her.
“I actually, actually wished to play longer. I actually wished to — particularly after having Makenna and her being a woman, I actually wished to play longer,” Wie West mentioned. “In a perfect world I want I used to be nonetheless out on Tour and enjoying. Sadly it is simply I needed to make a tough choice with my physique. It’s arduous. It’s arduous to be a mother out right here. You must make a number of sacrifices. I simply needed to make a tough medical choice and likewise a private choice.”
On Tuesday, Wie West performed a apply spherical with fellow Stanford golf alum Rose Zhang, her household and associates trailing behind, watching her each shot at Pebble Seashore as her husband Jonnie West caddied for her and her daughter watched the seals on Stillwater Cove beneath. The pairing and the setting have been befitting of a figurative passing of the torch between Wie West and Zhang, who portends to be the following face of the ladies’s sport. The 2 Stanford golf alums have grow to be shut as they move one another by, heading in numerous instructions of their careers.
“It is undoubtedly an emotional week for me,” she mentioned. “I simply realized every little thing I am doing, I am doing for the final time. The placing drills that I am doing, you’d greatest consider I am not going to do one other placing drill for the remainder of my life if I need not. So all that stuff I am doing for the final time, the final apply rounds, getting the road, writing in my yardage e-book.”
The melancholy that Wie West speaks of is not precisely seen as she performs. As a substitute, she is targeted on her sport, what the ball is doing, what sort of shot the opening is asking her to hit or how a lot that putt is breaking. However in a flash, she will be able to additionally get away of that and speak to a buddy, a media member, a relative as if she’s not in the midst of practising for the final match of her profession. For her, that is what having fun with the tip seems like.
“I have been doing a number of reflecting, and extremely blessed for the journey that I’ve and the household that I’ve constructed,” Wie West mentioned. “It is only a actually cool week to be right here.”
Her aggressive drive continues to be there, she mentioned. The truth is, it is each the hardest to duplicate outdoors of the course in different avenues of her life, but additionally the simplest to let go of in her on a regular basis routine.
“While you’re an expert athlete, the highs are so excessive, and the lows are so low,” Wie West mentioned. “Actually, for the previous yr, I have not felt the very best of highs, however I additionally have not felt the bottom of lows. It is unusual to have on a regular basis be considerably mundane. You go on the market and also you eat three meals, you handle your daughter, and at night time, you watch Netflix. It is simply on a regular basis is OK.”
Wie appears to have made not simply peace with the following stage of her life, however embraced it totally too. Whereas the golf equipment get stashed in “the darkest nook of my storage,” pickleball together with her husband will assist fill the adrenaline tank a bit. Her backyard at dwelling wants tending, she mentioned. Her daughter too. And so far as golf goes, she stays steadfast that she is going to stay round, serving to, advocating and doing no matter she will be able to to make sure the her legacy will transcend her ultimate putt.
“I proceed to wish to assist the Tour develop, feminine sports activities normally, and do every little thing in my energy to maintain empowering the ladies, closing the pay hole, whether or not it is in sports activities and out of sports activities,” Wie West mentioned. “I believe we now have to steer by instance, and I hope I will be part of that.”
