Maybe you heard the LPGA’s announcement Friday that it will waive the minimum age requirement so that 16-year-old Lexi Thompson can become a member of the tour in January, instead of waiting until age 18.

LPGA commissioner Mike Whan waved it like a bullfighter’s cape the day after Thompson filed the petition, so glad was the tour to have her to market.

What were hard to miss were the accompanying descriptions of her as a "phenom" and "prodigy," terms that seemed to have been invented for — if not become registered trademarks of — once-upon-a-time wunderkind Michelle Wie.

For the duration of Wie’s high school years, "phenom" might as well have been her middle name. For sure it made it into print and onto the air a lot more than her given one, "Seong mi."

So much so that you are almost inclined to look at Thompson as some sort of a usurper of the title until realizing that Wie left the teenage stage behind a while ago and will celebrate her 22nd birthday in 10 days.

The "phenom" tag disappeared about the time she registered for classes at Stanford, where, by the way, she is scheduled to graduate in five months. These days sometimes she is the oldest one in the group during an LPGA practice round and could be called “auntie” by some.

Can it really have been 71⁄2 years since she missed the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii by one stroke? Where, you wonder, has the time gone for the one we watched grow up with a driver in her hand?

Wherever it went, the production hasn’t quite caught up to the hype. Wie has two LPGA tournament titles to show for her 101 starts. Or, one more than Thompson — who won last month’s Navistar LPGA Classic — has in 19 starts.

Wie has made good money, almost $2.1 million in official LPGA earnings. But that amounts to earring money for Wie, whose endorsement deals did more than 10 times that before she cast her first presidential vote.

There is a cautionary tale here. It is about not getting too excited and too far out in front of where Thompson or, indeed, any young athlete is. Not taking their remarkable gifts and projecting too much in advance. That’s something we in the media have been as guilty of as anybody.

Wie was supposed to have been the next big thing in golf when she turned pro in advance of her 15th birthday. Someone who could not only make her mark on the women’s tour but had an urge and game to cross over to the men’s circuit. And the LPGA and various PGA events were only too happy to contort policies and toss exemptions her way to showcase that promise.

Wie still has the potential to be an LPGA headliner, if she dedicates herself to the pursuit of it after picking up her degree. Though you wonder if the fire and focus we saw in her in earlier years will still be there.

In the meantime, we wish Thompson, the youngest tournament winner in LPGA history, well. May she enjoy a successful and balanced life — minus much of the drama that surrounded Wie — before it is time for her to hand over the mantle of “phenom.”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.