Michelle Wie West Shot 18 Over in Her LPGA Return. It Had a Bigger Meaning, Though.

WEST CALDWELL, N.J. — The sun began to pierce through the clouds. Finally, a glimmer of warmth for the fans who weathered the blustery, spring conditions at Mountain Ridge Country Club Friday.

Perhaps that was their reward for sticking around. Then, Michelle Wie West gave them another.

The 36-year-old, making her first LPGA start since 2023 at the Mizuho Americas Open, which she hosts, stepped up to the tee box to hit her final drive of the day. As the fans looking on blocked the descending sun with their hands, Wie West outdrove her playing partners, Lilia Vu and Yana Wilson, still possessing some of the power from her heyday, before plopping her approach roughly 10 feet above the hole.

Then, she tapped her ball and watched it trickle downhill into the cup.

Birdie.

Moments after, Wie West gave her caddie, also her husband, a hug, with an exasperated yet relieved look on her face.

With that final birdie, she had carded a second-round 80, following an opening 82, missing the cut at 18 over par. She sat T115 on the leaderboard.

“It was a tough week,” Wie West told Sports Illustrated after her round. “I worked really hard and it’s always never a fun time when you don't shoot well, but it felt good to kind of get the rust off a little bit, get back into it.”

This week wasn’t about the result, though.

“Today was just really about just picking up good feels,” the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open champion said, “which, I think, there were some moments.”

Wie West carded seven bogeys on her front nine and added three more on the back, albeit with two birdies. And she had no doubles Friday after three on Day 1. Progress?

But this was all just a warm-up for next month’s U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club, which she will play.

And though she has made hundreds of starts in her career, there are still be lessons to take from this experience, one that resembled a U.S. Women’s Open-esque test.

“I just got really uncomfortable on the greens,” the five-time winner said, “but again, I think I kind of worked it through. I kind of was working through some of my old mechanisms that I was using to deal with nerves and again, like, just you can’t practice that until you’re actually in it, so that in itself was good practice.”

Some might ask: What practice does Wie West need? Plus, why was she so nervous? She’s already one of the most heralded golfers ever. And regardless of how she fared this week, it won’t impact how her career is viewed.

That was evident after her closing birdie. As she walked off the green, several fans—both young and old—still asked for autographs and photos. She accepted every request—even taking one fan’s phone to snap the selfie herself.

“It means so much,” she said of the reception from the gallery. “I think a lot of times as golfers, we get so caught up in our score and we base our feels on that.

“And at the end of the day, it’s just about who you affect and who you can make a better day.”

It was just a day prior that Wie West said her round took her to a “very dark” place. But by the end of her week inside the ropes, the sun shined—and, for a moment, so did she.

In turn, those who awaited her finish had their day brightened, too.

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