13-year-old Korean American Golfer Michell Wie Takes on Men

A 13-year-old Korean American girl has thrown the gauntlet to the professional men`s senior golf championships. She is Michel Wie, or Wie Sung-mi in Korean, a 7th grader (2nd year in middle school) in Funafus School in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Michel`s father Wie Byung-wook, a tourism and management professor at Hawaii University confirmed in a telephone interview on Feb. 6, ˝Michel will compete in Canada PGA Tour Bay Mills Open set for August 22 in Brimely, Michigan.˝

She is, in fact, invited to two championships, Bay Mills Open and Greater Vancouver Classic set for July 31, but it remains uncertain for now whether she will join the GVC due to the overlapping schedule with US Amateur Championship.

While people paying keen attention as to whether Anika Sorenstam (Sweden) and Seri Park (Korea) will be able to participate in U.S. PGA Tour, Michel is now challenging the men`s world, heralding a match between different sexes.

Called `Female Tiger Woods in Hawaii,` the 1.82m-high 70kg-weighing strong-built golfer is known for her powerful driver shot. She recently set a record of 375 yard tee shot.

After advancing to the amateur men`s Manoa Cup match play field in 2001, she passed the preliminary round for U.S. LPGA Tour Dakefuji Classic in February last year and became the youngest player who ever joined the final round.

Last month, she competed in U.S. PGA Tour Sony Open but failed to be qualified for the final round, ranking 47th out of 96 competitors with one over par. At that time, however, top-ranking professional golfers like Biji Sing said that she was phenomenal and had good chances to become a great golf player.

Having started playing golf at four, she has trained only for two or three hours a day. Yet, with endurance and challenging spirit, she now has trouble finding competitors of about her age. She likes South African Ernie Els most, who is known for soft swings.

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com