Often times an athlete will become a sentimental favorite after a long career. Players like Charles Barkley or Dan Marino are recognized for their extended periods of greatness without a title and become almost tragic figures in their final acts.
Often times an athlete will become a sentimental favorite after a long career. Players like Charles Barkley or Dan Marino are recognized for their extended periods of greatness without a title and become almost tragic figures in their final acts.
Michelle Wie won’t have to worry about being in that category any longer after winning the U.S. Women’s Open on Sunday. She’s been in the spotlight for 14 years, a professional for almost 10 and the question of unrealized potential has been asked constantly. But after long last, the Punahou product can breathe easily knowing that her legacy is secure and she won’t appear on a BuzzFeed page lazily listing the greatest athletes to never win a title.
And yes, that opening was meant to be hyperbolic and ridiculous. Because, after all, Wie is only 24 years old.
In a way, the great golfers and tennis players have more individual pressure on them than any other athletes. That’s partly because they don’t have teammates to rely on, but also because each year brings with it four or five opportunities to be immortalized. When we look back on Marino’s career, only so much can be placed on the quarterback’s shoulders for why the Dolphins didn’t win a Super Bowl. They only played in one and never had a super strong team around the Hall of Fame passer.
But an elite tennis player or a top-level golfer has a chance to play in every major. This ages athletes of those sports beyond the norm. A great basketball player not winning an NBA title by 24 is never a story. It’s expected. But Wie’s journey from young prodigy to established pro had seen her play in 36 major championships prior to last week’s Open. Those represented 36 opportunities to become one of the greats, to step up both her physical and mental games to a level that is forever remembered.
And while all those unrealized chances become ingrained in our consciousness, they remove the true personality of the individual. Wie is 24 and probably still not fully grasping the scope of her ability or potential, but she may be approaching an era of dominance. Already this year, Wie had won the LPGA Lotte Championship, just the third win of her career, and finished runner-up at the first
major of the 2014 season, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. She and U.S. Open runner-up Stacy Lewis are ranked first and second in scoring average, top-10 finishes and money won for the year.
Despite some rental car agencies still deeming her too young to rent one of their vehicles, Wie seems like a veteran, part of the old guard still trying to keep up with the young guns. She turned professional at just 15, so we’ve had close to a decade to pick apart her game, to pick apart her personality and to wait. To wait for any of the four (now five) LPGA major championships to list her name atop the leaderboard once the Sunday sunset puttered out.
That wait is now over, but it’s probably an even more exciting wait to see what the next stage of Wie’s career has in store.
