Teams

Probably the most talked-about and publicised very young golfer since Tiger Woods' name first started appearing in newsprint. Michelle is the youngest player to be selected in the 72 year history of the Curtis Cup matches.

A ninth grade at Punahou School but a six footer, she demonstrated her extraordinary talent and a flair for big events at a tender age (13) when winning the US Women's Public Links title last summer and finishing tied ninth in the Nabisco event on the LGPA Tour. She was in the final pairing on the last day of the Nabisco.

By the start of this year, Michelle has already played in nine LGPA sanctioned events.

In the Public Links championship's 36 hole final, Michelle beat Virada Nirapathpongporn who would go on to win the US women's amateur title. Earlier this year Michelle failed by one shot to make the cut in the US PGA Tour's Sony Open in Honolulu. She did survive the cut in the 2003 US Women's Open.

At the age of 10, Michelle became the youngest ever to qualify for a USGA women's amateur tournament, the Public Links championship.

In May, after finishing tied 13th in her latest LPGA Tour appearance - the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill, Williamsburg in Virginia (level-par 284 with rounds of 72, 67, 73 and 72 over a 6,258 yd par 71 course). Michelle flew to Lisbon for the Laureus World Sports Awards. She received the World Newcomer of the Year award from Gary Player and said "I want to thank God for giving me the talent".

Just as Tiger Woods set the crowd figures soaring for the 1995 Walker Cup match at Royal Porthcawl, so the 14 year old Michelle Wie has done the same for this Curtis Cup at Formby.

Like Woods, Wie hits the ball forever, and again like him, those who follow her progress have the feeling they are seeing history in the making.

No-one knows whether Michelle, the youngest winner of America's US Public Link tournament last year, will achieve her ambition of dipping in and out of the men's PGA Tour and playing in the Masters.

Even as things stand at the moment, she is achieving what many had believed to be the impossible. What 14 year old boy could have done as she did in finishing a shot away from making the cut in the men's 2004 Sony Open in Hawaii?

A 72 and 68 saw her missing the cut by no more than a single shot, while she finished in front of such as Adam Scott, Scott Hoch and Matt Kuchar, all of them PGA Tour winners.

Though she gives an embarrassed giggle at the admission, Michelle says she has grown an inch in the last 12 months - from 6ft to 6ft 1in. Taller than Tiger. As for her game, she notes that it is altogether more mature.

In many eyes, including those of her head coach, David Leadbetter, her swing has much in common with that of Ernie Els, another Leadbetter pupil. They each have a hyper-extended left arm at the top of the backswing, which, says the coach, has a lot to do with the fact they are both tall, limber and double-jointed.

When it comes to length, Leadbetter puts Michelle in the same league as Ian Poulter.

In March, at the LGPA's Kraft Nabisco major at Palm Springs, where she finished fourth, Michelle was quick to refute the suggestion that she is obsessed with the game. "I'm not the kind of person who likes hitting balls 24 hours a day, seven days a week." she insisted. "I find that side of things a bit boring but it's what I have to do if I'm going to be a winner."

She added that her strongest suit is probably something which others cannot see - namely, the ability to detach herself from the game. "When I'm shopping, I'm only thinking of shopping ... When I'm going out with friends, I'm only thinking of having a good time. I'm not a golf, golf, golf kind of person and never will be" she stressed.

That said, she had a little addendum. "It's easy to take me away from the game but I love it so much that I always come back."

No-one is sure how long she will stay in the amateur ranks. Her father, "B J" Wie, a professor at the University of Hawaii but currently on a year's leave, has talked of how she might turn professional at 18. Michelle, on the other hand, wonders if she could go to Stanford University and play the LPGA Tour at the one time. A tall order.

Everyone admires Michelle's on-course focus. Yet, knowing as she does that no-one can concentrate flat-out over 18 holes, she makes a deliberate effort to wind down between shots. She moves about the course with a relaxed and easy elegance and the pace of her walk never changes.

Again, she is not one of those to pull out of a conversation with a playing companion the moment she has missed a six-footer.

"I really enjoy playing with Michelle" said Grace Park, when she played with the teenager en route to winning the Kraft Nabisco. "I have never played with her before and she is more than what you all know. She's incredible and such a sweet 14 year old."

Through Michelle's parents, her coach and her caddie will often have a big input on practice days, Michelle prefers to sort things out for herself when the gun goes. At Palm Springs, though she had as good a caddie as Bobby Verwey on the bag, she was reading her own lines. "I have more feel for what I'm doing if I read them myself." she explained.

She has also identified the best way to practise - at least for her. Instead of following most of the rest in having a quick lunch at the end of a round before heading for the practice ground, she returns to the hotel and watches television for a few hours. She then comes back to the club in the early evening when she is feeling fresh. "If you practice neared the time you are going to play the next day it has to help." she advised. "it stays in your brain".

Michelle may not be a Vijay Singh among workers, but she is thrice blessed in her powers of retention. Leadbetter says that neither he nor her regular coach, Gary Gilchrest, ever has to tell her anything more than once. "Unlike most girls of her age who don't want to know about technique, she does." said Leadbetter.

He recalled that time earlier this year when she was over-swinging and failing to get the club back to impact consistently. "We worked on threequarter shots with a flatter, rounder finish, and two weeks later, she had them mastered. It was amazing."

Those threequarter shots should server her well this weekend at Formby. As should the kind of running pitch she hit to the ninth green on the second day at Palm Springs, an exquisite shot she would later talk through for the benefit of the world's Press:

"I couldn't hit a pitching wedge up there and stop it, so I thought to myself, 'Why not hit a nine-iron 30yd short of the green and run it up?' It worked to perfection."

Leadbetter has a tip for those who find themselves competing against Michelle, be it this weekend or at any other time. "Don't," he warns, "get into watching her or you will be mesmerised."

There is another piece of advice which should perhaps be meted out to the Great Britain & Ireland players and fans alike.

Namely, that no-one should forget that there are seven other players in this United States team. And that every one of them, as indeed applies to the GB&I contingent, is a great champion.

One player certainly does not make a team invincible. Harking back to that Walker Cup match at Royal Porthcawl in 1995. Tiger Wood's presence in the United States line-up did not prevent Great Britain & Ireland winning 14-10.

By Lewine Mair
Daily Telegraph's No 1 golf writer