When video surfaced of Michelle Wie celebrating her 2014 U.S. Women’s Open victory by chugging beer from the revered trophy and twerking to the music at a raucous victory party, some folks expressed quick disapproval.

Never mind that she was 24 at the time, because for many people it was difficult to reconcile that the pre-teen who had taken golf by storm was no longer the precocious youngster in braces.

The announcement via her Instagram account Sunday that the now 29-year-old Wie is engaged to marry Golden State Warriors director of basketball operations Jonnie West is but the latest and fitting social media reminder that she has grown up in public to an extent rarely experienced by other athletes.

The posting pictured the 30-year-old West, a former West Virginia basketball player and the son of NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West, on one knee presumably proposing to her on what were identified as the Lyon Street Steps in San Francisco.

With the photo, Wie wrote, “My person for life!!!!!!!!”

Wie burst into the headlines and golfing consciousness as a 10-year-old prodigy who played her way into the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links. By age 12, she had become such a curiosity that PGA touring pro Tom Lehman nicknamed her the “Big Wiesy” for the way she swung a golf club in a Sony Open Pro-Am that recalled Ernie Els.

Suddenly, the spotlight and social media buzz were an inseparable part of her gallery, regular companions as she embarked on a trailblazing quest to compete against both men and women.

LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan likes to say Wie grew up in front of people’s iPhones. Except that her debut as a pro predates the device, and when they were introduced she had already earned enough through endorsements in her rookie season that she could have bought them by the tens of thousands.

Wie won the Women’s Amateur Public Links at age 13, the youngest winner — female or male — of a USGA event in history. A year later she came up one short of making the cut at the otherwise all-men’s field at Sony, where she referred to playing partners twice her age as “uncle.”

There would be raging controversies, head-scratching setbacks and exulting triumphs. The expectations and hype that she would go on to dominate women’s golf the way Tiger Woods once did for men never came to pass, of course.

Though, despite a long list of injuries (including hand surgery in October that forced her to withdraw from a tournament this month), she has fashioned a solid career by winning five LPGA events while appearing on U.S. Solheim Cup and Curtis Cup squads and remains one of the biggest draws on tour.

Along the way she managed to step away from her myriad handlers long enough be a college student and carve out something of a nearly “normal” life. If not a remarkable one for a touring pro by earning a Stanford degree.

Wie and West were apparently introduced by golfer Justin Thomas, who plays rounds with several Warriors and regularly practices with Wie in Florida, where both have residences. The New York Post reported that Thomas had posted on Instagram, “Can definitely say this set up went as well as possible! Happy for you two love birds.”

To which Wie replied, “You should start a matchmaking business.”

In January, Wie posted on Instagram that she had been dating West and adding an emoji heart. Last month she posted a photo with the notation, “Can’t wait to spend 999 more Valentine Days with you.”

Surely testament to even the most determined holdouts that Wie, who was once golf’s enduring prodigy, has grown up.

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