Michelle Wie West’s return to golf made her appreciate something—these girls are good.
Her day didn’t go as planned on Thursday as she shot a 10-over 82 in the first round of the Mizuho Americas Open. Wie West, the host of the LPGA event at Mountain Ridge Country Club in New Jersey, was playing a competitive round for the first time in nearly three years.
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Wie West hit just seven of 14 fairways and 10 of 18 greens in regulation. She struggled with 37 putts and four-putted the 11th hole. The greens, to be fair, did seem tricky for many other players.
“I think if you look at my round today, I think the one takeaway that you can get from that is these girls out here are amazing,” she said. “They make these golf courses look a lot easier than they actually are. That pin position on 11 was terrible. It was hard. You would’ve thought they would’ve made some easier pins for me today, but nope.
“I just went out there and I stayed positive. My husband [Jonnie West] is such a good, positive energy for me. At the end of the day, I put things in perspective and I build upon it, and you have to learn from these kind of rounds. That’s just what golf is.”
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Jonnie is caddying for his wife this week. Wie West had a surprising wave of emotions before she teed off in the first round. The last time Wie West teed it up was at the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, where she missed the cut.
“I wasn’t nervous going in, and I get to the first tee and I’m like, ‘holy s-h-i-t.’ I now spell my curse words because I’m a mom,” Wie West said. “I was like, ‘wow. Hole all of a sudden looks so small.’ Got to a two-footer and I’m like, ‘I’m not going to hit the hole. No way.’
“Happy that I played today ahead of the U.S. Open. As much practice as you can do, as many money games as you can play, there is literally nothing in the world that compares to the first round of a tournament. I thought today was great experience. I felt like the back nine I made some good putts, hit some good shots, almost brought it back to single digits. I’m excited for tomorrow. Just going to try to go as low as possible and keep acquiring those feels.”
Wie West, who won the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open, will get back to working on her putting for the second round and the major next month at Riviera. She was tested on Thursday.
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“The greens are very tough as it is. I got so nervy out there. I think I was just shocked at how nervous I got,” Wie West said. “These girls are really good out here. I think it’s just such a great reminder for people watching on TV that these girls out here are dialed. They’re playing on these conditions week after week and as tough as these greens are, they’re handling it great. So for me today, the greens felt exponentially harder. It was nice having my husband on the bag. Saw a lot of friendly faces out there. As tough as it was, I took a lot of positives from it. Excited how the tournament has been run and a lot of positives.”
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