If you get up early enough this week there is an astonishing sight on the Golf Channel. “Golf Central Live From The Players” features a host and trio of analysts — two from Hawaii.
“Pretty great,” says Punahou alum Michelle Wie West, born four years after TV discovered Kapalua’s Mark Rolfing on Maui in 1985.
“It’s amazing to me that two people so different but so alike could end up here together,” Rolfing said on the same phone call from Florida.
He has become one of the most respected voices in the game and now sits next to Wie West. She is Golf Channel’s youngest and first female contributing analyst on “Live From,” an Emmy-nominated golf news show.
The third analyst is Notah Begay III who, like Wie West, went to Stanford. His brother Clint golfed at the University of Hawaii Hilo.
Wie West earned her degree in communications. It took about two minutes on her opening show Tuesday to realize she has joyfully embraced her new career. Rolfing could see it coming, calling her a “golf fan first.”
“The biggest surprise, to be honest, is how much I like golf now,” Wie West agreed. “When I first started I took golf for granted and just thought it was cool. You don’t really appreciate it until you’re going through the lows. That’s where I really found my love for the game.
“At 30, I never thought I’d like golf this much. I’m enjoying broadcasting.”
Her first opportunity came last September when she was a guest analyst at Solheim Cup. It was the first Solheim she missed playing, with hand and wrist injuries taking away most of her last two LPGA seasons.
She loved the work and how it kept her involved in the game, and got great reviews. Rolfing characterizes this as “a great opportunity” for her and “almost like her playing against the men again.” He says she has been “totally engaged” from their 6:30 a.m. production meetings on.
“I just told her if she didn’t agree with me on TV to go ahead and disagree,” said Rolfing, who gets notes from Wie West during broadcasts. “I really have not had to give her any advice at all.
“She has a tremendous knack for it. It’s hard typically for people who don’t do TV to adjust to having people talk to you and talking to a large audience at the same time. Michelle has no trouble at all.”
Wie West won five times on the LPGA tour, including the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open. But her career has been relatively quiet after a raucous beginning.
Working with coach Casey Nakama, she was the youngest to qualify for a USGA championship at 10, youngest to qualify for an LPGA event at 12 and youngest to win a USGA championship at 13. That same year she tied for ninth at the LPGA’s first major.
In 2004, she missed making the cut at the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii by one shot. She turned pro and has been entertaining and extremely sociable since. Through it all Wie West has cherished her family, friends and Hawaii home and enjoyed the wild ride, something she makes abundantly clear on social media.
She married Jonnie West last August and their first child is due this summer. She will work the PGA Championship in May, but miss “Live From” at the U.S. and British opens before returning for Ryder Cup in September. She will also work for CBS during The Masters.
After a “really rough” first trimester she is now appreciating time off to heal, and explore a new career.
“Obviously there is adrenaline but it’s not the same as playing,” she said. “Once you have that feeling that you want to go out and beat other players you have to go and fulfill that. I see myself doing both. I’ve always been the type of person to try to do everything.
“Golf is not my whole life, it’s just part of me. I think broadcasting could be, too. Now I’m exploring that phase. I’m surprised at how intellectually stimulating it is.”
Rolfing is surprised at just how engaged and natural she is, even when dealing with complicated issues and a tour very different from the one she played as a child. To say nothing of dealing with the recent onslaught of kicks from her unborn child.
Wie West’s focus is to “relate golf to regular people.”
“There’s a little gap I see with people getting into the game,” she says. “I want to communicate in a way that’s relatable.
“I really want to explain what a player is thinking. Sometimes TV makes players look dumb, so I want to get in depth and explain why this is a hard golf shot.”
Rolfing has her back.
“She’ll find out the pressure will mount and that’s a good thing,” he says. “She loves to perform under pressure.”
