CHANDLER, Ariz. ― It’s a full-circle moment for Michelle Wie West. Once a precocious 13-year-old navigating high-end competitive golf at such a young age, Wie West is now all in on being a mentor for the next wave.
The LPGA’s pay-it-forward focus blends perfectly with the way it works to honor its Founders in a new initiative called Ford Power Her Drive with Wie West is on board as a global ambassador. Already host of the Mizuho Americas Open tournament, this new venture gets Wie West in front of even more of the game’s rising talent.
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In a sit-down with Golfweek, Wie West recalled her earliest memories of being a mentee.
“Meg Mallon was a big one of mine. I called her my second mom on tour,” she said at the Gila River Resort at Wild Horse Pass, the sprawling entertainment complex just south of Phoenix that’s also home to the Cattail Course at Whirlwind Golf Club, host of the 2026 Ford Championship. “And then also Beth Daniel as well. Obviously just a have Daniel and Meg Mallon as tour moms it just made it so much better for me. I’ve played with Meg Mallon when I was 13 and since then she just helped me out so much, phone calls, text messages. ‘Hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about that?’ And I’ve been thinking about this deeper since the program.”
Michelle Wie West is a global ambassador for a new initiative called Ford Power Her Drive.
Power Her Drive launched with six LPGA rookies who make up the Class of 2026: Camille Boyd, Briana Chacon, Hailey Cooper, Laney Frye, Melanie Green and Yana Wilson.
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Wilson, making her third LPGA start at the Ford Championship, already has a relationship with Wie West, having gotten to know her after winning the inaugural junior edition of the Mizuho two years ago.
“Seeing her again is and being able to see her more is really special,” Wilson said. “We all got to ask her a question after our little meeting. I asked her kind of how life was being on tour as a rookie and she gave me some good advice saying don’t let golf take over your whole life. I kind of felt that in a way the last two events, so I’m really just trying to focus on that now after she gave me that advice.”
Cooper is another one of the rookies in the Power Her Drive class who’s in Chandler for the Ford Championship. She’s also learning to navigate the ins and outs of being a tour pro at the highest level. It’s a place that, not too long ago, she gave herself a hard deadline. Either make it to the big leagues by her late 20s or go find something else to do.
“Well, I made it. So that what’s kind of cool is now I’ve got to create like new goals,” she said. “It’s actually funny. I totally forgot about the deadline because it happened, right? I would love to be out here as long as I can.”
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Having mentors in the golf and corporate sponsorship space will no doubt ease the transition by providing guidance that might not have been so readily accessible to some.
“In addition to that confidence and that support network that we can provide, there’s another piece of it too because we see that as women’s sports in general is on a very much an upward trajectory,” said Ford Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Materazzo. “When we look at the athletes, they still sometimes struggle to have the right tools and the right resources, to know how to build a brand and how to secure sponsorships, which is an art form now in this day and age. And just overall networking, there’s so much that they can learn from other people, whether that’s in the sport or outside the sport. So that’s what we hope to surround them with.”
Ford plans to have a new crop of rookies each year in the program, which will likely make its biggest impact outside the ropes.
“I think another thing that I think is so important about mentorship is not only helping you out on the big decisions but also small decisions,” Wie West said. “Because I was mentored by Meg and Beth, I just heard so many stories from back in the day, right? And I think that’s what’s so amazing about our tour that was founded by 13 women.
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“We have the responsibility to keep sharing these stories and to keep passing along the torch of growing the game, growing the tour. Because if that stops, I think the growth of the tour also stops as well. And I think that’s a slow amazing that I got to connect with like the the older generations and then like their older generations because the stories were passed on and I hope to kind of do the same to the next generation.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Michelle Wie West headlines LPGA’s new Ford Power Her Drive campaign
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