NOW MICHELLE WIE IS GOING TO
STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN AUTUMN

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

So what is the name of the game Michelle Wie is playing?
She turned professional earlier this year but seemed more interested in playing in men’s tournaments than the LPGA Tour – and that policy has been a disaster!
Now the 17-year-old, who is still a pupil at Punahou School in Honolulu, says she has been accepted by Stanford University, California – the same college that had Tiger Woods and Mhairi McKay as students – and will enrol in the autumn.
“No one really believed me," Wie said from Orlando, Fla., where she is working with swing coach David Leadbetter. "It was one of my dreams to get into Stanford , and I want to go through with it. I definitely want to go there and really try to graduate."
Michele has been mixing school and tour golf since she played three LPGA Tour events at age 12. She turned professional in October 2005 and earned close to $20 million this year from endorsements, earnings and appearance money overseas.
Professional golfers are surely not allowed to play on the American college circuit so what’s Michele going to do for competitive golf while she’s at university – take time off every now and again to go away and play in an LPGA or a men’s tournament somewhere in the world that will allow her into its field?
Told that Tiger Woods lasted only two years at Stanford before he turned pro, she said, "Hopefully, I'll last a little longer."
Her father, B.J. Wie, is a professor at the University of Hawaii.
+Michelle’s next tournament will be the Sony Open in Honolulu on January 11. Now is that a men’s or women’s event?