The Sure Thing
The Making and Unmaking of Golf Phenom Michelle Wie
Introduction
The Next Tiger Woods Is . . . a Ten- Year- Old Girl? In August 2000, I flew to Honolulu to report a story for ESPN The Magazine on the most popular sports figure in the Aloha State at the time, University of Hawaii head football coach June Jones. While I waited for Coach Jones in his office, the school’s sports information director, Lois Manin, started telling me about a local golfer who could drive a ball 300 yards.
I confess I was only half listening. People pitch ideas to magazine writers all the time, and someone who hit big, booming drives didn’t sound like a rare find in golf- crazy Hawaii.
But Manin persisted.
“She’s 10 years old.”
She?
Ten years old?
Manin scribbled a name on a blue Post- it note: B.J. Wie. She added a phone number. The girl’s name, Manin told me, was Michelle.
I returned to my hotel in Waikiki and forgot about it. The ...
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