Michelle Wie West Announces Return To Competitive Golf... Kind Of

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA - JULY 07: Michelle Wie West of the United States reacts after making her long putt for par on the 18th green during the second round of the 78th U.S. Women's Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links on July 07, 2023 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

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Michelle Wie West, former child prodigy, now 36 years old and retired for the last three years, announced that she will be making her return to competitive golf for two upcoming events.

Wie West, who retired after the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, made an announcement last month that she will be playing in the upcoming U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club in early June. This will be the final year that Wie West has an exemption into the U.S. Women’s Open. She received a 10-year exemption for her 2014 victory at Pinehurst No. 2, which was then extended two more years for maternity leave.

This past Tuesday, she announced that she will be playing in a second event as well, when she tees it up in the Mizuho Americas Open next month in New Jersey. Wie West is the host of the event and will be playing on a sponsors exemption.

Wie West said she has been trying to practice as much as possible at her home in Las Vegas while juggling motherhood. “I’ve been practicing really hard and working out every chance I get,” Wie West said. “Now I have two kids, so there’s a lot of juggling going around. I’m just trying to squeeze in as much as I can. Practice looks very different now then it did when I was playing full time and was single and had no kids. I’m learning to do it a lot smarter. To do it with more quality than quantity.”

She held firm that this is not a comeback attempt while speaking at a media event for the Mizuho Americas Open on Tuesday. “For me personally, knowing that this is not, like, a comeback by any means, it’s not, like, a beginning of something else,” she said. “Because I know it’s so finite, that I just really want to go out there and just two more times, play like how I know I can play, and how I feel like I can play.”