Sep 13, 2006 5 min read

Dear Mr. Principal,

Would you please excuse our daughter from class for the next two weeks? She has pressing matters in Switzerland, before jetting off to Farmington, Pa. (Trust us, it’s on the map) … She promises to keep up with her schoolwork, but may play a few rounds of golf as well.

Thank You,

Michelle Wie’s Parents P.S. Can we do something about the school cafeteria? Mr. Hardy has given us the number of a great caterer!

By Dave Stofcheck

Herald-Standard

The final bell had yet to ring on the semester’s first day of school, and here was 16-year-old Michelle Wie, trying to convince her teachers at Punahou High School in Honolulu she already needed a vacation.

“You usually have to turn in a slip a week before you leave on your trip, and I come to the first day of school, and that’s when you first meet your teachers,” Wie said. “I was like, OK, can you sign my green slip so I can miss two weeks of school?”

Wie didn’t get a free pass on her homework, but she did get the time off. Beginning Thursday in the first round of the 84 Lumber Classic, she will try to make the cut in a PGA Tour event, and in the process, snap an 0-for-5 streak, dating back to her first attempt at the 2004 Sony Open.

No female has survived the second-round cut since Babe Zaharias did so in 1945.

One of the most talented teenagers in golf, Wie forged a friendship with the Hardy family four years ago. She turned down an invitation to play in the 84 Lumber Classic when she was 13, but has since played in three Sony Opens and two John Deere Classics.

Wie has come close – she missed the cut in her first Sony Open by just one stroke – but has yet to play well enough to hang around for the weekend.

Not that she’s losing much sleep over it.

“I never get discouraged,” Wie said. “It’s not like it’s a really easy thing to do to make a cut on the PGA Tour. If you think about it, every week half the field is gone after the cut. I mean, the cut isn’t like out of 144 players, 100 make it; only like 70 and ties make it.

“It’s a really hard thing to do, and I feel like it’s just really fun for me to play in these kinds of events, especially coming to this event where I know the people that run it and I know the golf course.”

Wie’s presence at the 84 Lumber Classic should lead to increased attendance – at least Thursday and Friday – as well as extra media coverage.

It also gives Wie’s supporters and critics another chance to debate whether or not she should be playing in men’s events.

“I think it’s a bigger deal for everyone else,” Wie said. “Obviously, I would love to make the cut. I would love to make the top 20. But I’m not really going to rush it. I realize it’s not the easiest thing in the world for a 16-year-old girl to make the cut.

“I have to get stronger. I know where I have to get better, and it’s going to happen. I know it’s in me, but I’m just going to play hole by hole and not think about making the cut.”

Until she turns 18, Wie’s participation in LPGA events is limited. This has influenced her decision to play in more men’s events as well.

“I think a lot of people think I have to master the LPGA before I can get to the PGA,” Wie said. “But my feeling is a little bit different. I’m playing the maximum number of LPGA tournaments that I can, and I’m trying to win a lot of tournaments there. But it’s just so different out here that I feel like I have to play in PGA Tour events to get better at PGA Tour events.

“I have to go through it and work on it and learn from it. That’s the way that I learn how to do it on the LPGA, as well, and I just think that I have to go through the same progress here. I know it’s not going to come overnight; it’s just a long learning process.”

Wie was part of the Omega European Masters field last week, a men’s tournament, but shot two miserable rounds (78-79) and finished dead last. In four of her last five rounds where she has competed against men, Wie has shot 77 or higher.

Mystic Rock’s length – at 7,511 yards, it’s one of the Tour’s longer courses – should provide Wie an additional challenge.

“I’m approaching it like it’s the longest golf course I’ve ever played,” Wie said. “It’s not like I’m going to shoot a crazy low number out here. The greens are firm and I’m going to have long irons in. It’s just going to be really interesting for me this week to see how I can handle a really long golf course.

“I’m just going to be very patient out there because I know I’ll miss some greens. But there are a couple of short holes out there. We’ll have wedges and 9-irons and 8-irons into the green, so I think it’s a very good mixture out here. Even though it’s a long golf course, there are still a couple of birdie holes out there.”