Michelle Wie West has discovered something unusual for professional golfers
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The game of golf doesn’t really allow you to retire. It’s always tempting. Mine and yours, sure, but mostly the good ones.
Think of the Champions Tour, or the top majors, or the press conference Jack Nicklaus gave earlier this week in Ohio. If you’ve been good at golf, it will beckon you to come back. And it will do a lot for that return, too. The fact that St. Andrews hosting the Open once every five years is a tradition but it also doesn’t sound like a risk. Everyone deserves their last trip over the bridge, if you played in 2022, why not he couldn’t are you playing in 2027? Tiger Woods will test the theory.
Golf has a way of keeping its hands on the necks of its heroes as long as possible – and much longer than other sports. Some of that is interesting, like Fred Couples’ annual trip to Augusta National. But very few golf legends are comfortable waltzing into retirement and staying there, content. Check out Lexi Thompson, who has messed with the logic of that R word by sticking a “semi” in front of it. She wishes she was here this week, at the Riviera Country Club, playing the 20th US Women’s Open. But if it was so important, as he suggested on Instagram, then why did he bail on Final Qualifying? The way forward seems to be very wide during the first season of anyone, but it narrows rapidly towards the end. Dealing with that can be a struggle on both sides: ours and theirs.
This week’s retirement idea revolves around Michelle Wie West, now, officially, done done. Friday was his last day in real competition, a 4-over 75 for a 36-hole tally of seven overs. He missed a few, but he wasn’t expected to make it. His long game was warm enough to flirt over the weekend, but the putter was cold. When it was over, he signed his autographs, did his interviews, chatted with friends and spent, taking his time.
The reason why?
He was happy. He felt the emotions again. That seems to be the mystical tenseness golfers crave.
“It’s nice to just hit the shot under pressure,” he said after it was over. “You don’t feel the pressure – I don’t feel the pressure in my normal life. There’s nothing I do that re-creates this, so it was nice to hear it again.”
Wie West talked about retiring years ago, and making it as real as possible at Pebble Beach in 2023. He has competed just once since – last month at the Mizuho Americas Open, which he hosted in Jersey – but failed to break 80. In the years since Pebble, he has grown to a level of meaningful peace and sport that dominated – and at times of his life. He didn’t play at Lancaster in 2024, and not at Erin Hills in 2025. He was not interested; it didn’t have to be like that. But that 2014 US Open victory at Pinehurst gave her a decade of redemption, and she stretched it as best she could with a few years of maternity leave, arriving at the Riv as her final US Open. His father-in-law, NBA hall of famer Jerry West, was a member here and raised his children on the street. It was either here or there, and the family tried to make the most of it.
His parents, BJ and Bo, were there. So was the family’s nanny, and two of their three dogs. As the second round drew to a close, Wie West’s 6-year-old daughter, Makenna, was coaxed onto the green one last time for a kiss from the mother she had been waiting for. Makenna was there for a second and quickly asked if she could leave all the cameras and fans to see a friend. Mom shrugged. So it goes.
“The reason why he wanted to go to kindergarten was because he wanted to play with Brittany Lang’s child,” said Michelle. “That’s also crazy knowing that I’ve known Brittany Lang since I was 13, and now our kids are playing together and they’re best friends. It’s great. It’s great to see the time fly by, and I feel blessed.”
It’s fun to watch time go by. How many people can say that? Almost everyone says the opposite! One might think that LPGA pros would experience it more, since most of their careers are shortened (or affected) by motherhood. There was a pregnant woman on the field this week, playing because she loves to play. She doesn’t want pregnancy to completely change her life.
Wie West, however, couldn’t seem content with golf. And grind in this competition, let’s be clear. He cursed himself a few times, but mostly he drew it. He was undoubtedly the strongest player in the field, hitting almost half of them. Anyone with less competition will be riding an emotional see-saw after that. But there were no tears; all smiles.
The pro golf ecosystem is full of opportunities that keep everyone active. Sponsorship releases, broadcast roles and podcast hosts ask you to relive the past over and over again. Wie West will contribute here and there. He will be swinging the new McLaren clubs. She will play in the Women’s TGL in the winter. His game will never be perfect. It may not be much. But Makenna will love it, the same way Billy Horschel’s kids love it when their dad plays TGL.
In May, he will host some of the world’s best juniors and some of the world’s best pros – an event he created that allows him to be in the middle of it all for a few weeks a year, golf clubs left at home in the garage.
But before all that, she’ll be in LA for at least a few more days, watching the best women’s players in Curtis Cup action and dreaming of the chance to be their captain one day.
