- Michelle Wie West is set to step away from the
LPGA Tour. - Wie West is one of the most influential figures in the world of women's
golf , bringing eyes to the sport as she excelled from a young age.
Michelle Wie West is set to step away from the LPGA Tour, at least for the time being.
Speaking with Beth Ann Nichols at USA Today, Wie West said that after next week's U.S. Women's Open at Pine Needles, she would not be competing on a regular basis.
Wie West will keep next year's Women's Open at Pebble Beach on her schedule, but aside from that, she is ready to move onto her next chapter.
Wie West, 32, has been a fixture in the golf world for two decades, having announced herself as a potentially generational player when she was just a 10-year-old amateur.
At 14, Wie West made waves when she was invited to play at the PGA Tour's 2004 Sony Open in Hawaii. Competing alongside a field of men's professionals, Wie West carded a 68 in the second round — the lowest score ever recorded by a woman at a PGA Tour event. Despite missing the cut by one stroke, Michelle Wie became a household name.
As a professional, Wie West didn't rack up trophy after trophy, as many expected, but she did win five events over her years on the LPGA Tour, including one major at the 2014 U.S. Women's Open.
Between that major win and earning her college degree at Stanford while competing, Wie West said she's leaving the sport having done what she had set out to do.
"Because I accomplished both of those, I think I feel very happy in my decision now," Wie West told USA Today. "I think if I hadn't won the U.S. Open, I'd still be out there competing week to week trying to get that U.S. Open win."
Now a mother to 1-year-old daughter Makenna, Wie West said that the grind of playing week after week at a high level was taking its toll.
"At times, if I do play a lot of golf," Wie West told USA Today, "I'm just in bed. Or I can't lift [my daughter] up, and that scared me."
While Wie West won't be a fixture on the LPGA Tour any longer, she'll still be working with one of her longtime sponsors, Nike, joining the likes of Serena Williams, WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu, and Olympic sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce on the Nike Athlete Think Tank, aimed at helping the brand empower the next generation of women athletes.
Despite her announcement, though, Wie West isn't declaring her leave of absence from golf a full-scale retirement just yet.
"I'm definitely not ruling anything out," Wie West said of potential future appearances on the LPGA Tour.