Michelle Wie tracked the ball into the cup and punctuated one of the biggest putts of the LPGA season to date with a fist pump befitting the 35-foot bomb.
But she couldn’t celebrate victory just yet.
That would come a few minutes later on a practice green, in a far quieter moment that early-March afternoon in Singapore.
When the final group fell short of Wie’s score of 17 under at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, she shared a tight hug with her mother, an embrace no doubt sweetened by the struggles bridging the four-year gap between victories.
“It’s such a special moment,” Wie recalled Tuesday. “I feel very lucky my parents were there to experience it with me. It’s always a really cool moment … and definitely a moment that I will cherish.”
Wie’s comeback from a five-shot deficit to earn her first win since claiming the 2014 Lotte Championship and U.S. Women’s Open titles was emblematic of the year-long resurgence for the Punahou graduate.
With eight top-10s last year and this season’s win, she rocketed from No. 118 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings last March to No. 13 heading into her return to Ko Olina Golf Club this week.
“It’s awesome — you just immediately go back into island mode and it’s just so nice to be at home,” Wie said.
“It’s just so nice to be at home in my own bed and with my closest friends. So I’m really excited to be here, being back at Ko Olina, seeing all the people and seeing the golf course again.”
Wie opens the seventh Lotte Championship today in a highlighted 7:44 a.m. grouping with defending champion and tournament record-holder Cristie Kerr and 2015 winner Sei Young Kim at Ko Olina’s 10th tee.
Wie, the fourth highest American in the world rankings, noted a couple of changes to the course (“They shaped a couple of fairways differently. They took out a couple of bunkers, added a couple of bunkers”), and her fortunes have hit an upswing since her last appearance at Ko Olina.
After tying for 39th in last year’s Lotte at 6 under, Wie placed in the top five in four of her next six starts, added two more top-10s by the end of the year and picked up a win in this season’s third event.
Wie has 13 rounds in the 60s this season, third-best on tour, finding a consistency that’s coincided with improved health and efficiency on the greens.
Wie eschewed her tabletop stance for a more conventional set-up early last year and enters the week 12th in putting average at 29.04, contributing to a scoring average of 69.70, fifth-best on tour.
“I went through a phase where I just really didn’t feel comfortable with (putting); the tabletop helped me get past that phase,” said Wie, who has a specially built Toulon putter in the bag this year. “Working closely together with Odyssey, that’s really helped as well, just having a lot of confidence in my putter.”
Her putter provided one of the tour’s signature moments so far this season, perhaps rivaled only by Pernilla Lindberg’s 30-footer to edge Inbee Park in a playoff at the ANA Inspiration, the season’s first major.
Wie fought through a bout of vertigo to play her final three rounds at 8 under and tie for 30th at ANA. She then spent part of her break in the ninth island — documenting her Las Vegas adventures with Danielle Kang and Allison Lee on social media — before heading back to Hawaii.
She’ll tee off today and Thursday (12:39 p.m.) alongside Kerr and Kim, who famously holed out for eagle to win the 2015 Lotte. Kerr claimed the $300,000 first prize last year at a record 20-under-par 268 and has four top-10s in six Lotte appearances.
They’re part of a field of 144 that includes four of the top five players in the world and 15 of the top 20.
“I think it’s definitely fun energy. Michelle and I are good friends and Solheim Cup partners, and it only becomes distracting when they decide to snap their cameras on our back swings,” Kerr said with a laugh when asked about playing with the hometown product. “Besides that, having fans and having a crowd is good for us and for women’s golf. It’s great to be able to have players, not only like Michelle, but all of us out here to be able to draw the crowds to tournaments.”
