Michelle Wie West Returns to LPGA at Mizuho Americas Open, Says Comeback Is Far From the Full Picture

Michelle Wie West is giving herself two more chances to play like she knows she can. The 36-year-old five-time LPGA champion announced Tuesday that she will compete at next month’s Mizuho Americas Open in New Jersey on a sponsor invitation, adding a second stop to what she is quick to clarify is not a comeback.

“For me personally, knowing that this is not, like, a comeback by any means, it’s not, like, a beginning of something else,” Wie West said during media day for the event, which she also hosts. “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.”

Wie West stepped away from competitive golf at the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, where she drained a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole in what she described as an emotional but prepared farewell. She received a 10-year exemption into the U.S. Women’s Open for winning the 2014 edition at Pinehurst No. 2, and that exemption was extended by two years to account for maternity leave. That exemption brings her back to Riviera Country Club in June for this year’s edition.

The limited schedule is deliberate. Wie West has spent time since retiring rebuilding her body without the pressure of competitive golf, a luxury she says she never had during her playing career. She battled wrist injuries throughout her professional career, including surgeries in 2007 and 2018, and has spoken openly about the mental weight those battles carried.

“I felt like when I started, mental health wasn’t really talked about,” Wie West recalled. “What was talked about was having a champion mindset, being strong, being a warrior. That included never breaking. That included never resting. So in my mind, seeing that, I felt like to be a champion golfer, I had to have that mindset that never broke, never complained.”

Her perspective on vulnerability shifted over time. “I remember not telling the media really honest answers about my injuries, kind of hiding it, just because I didn’t want to feel weak,” she said. “Later on in my career, when I was going through more injuries, just being honest about it, it was kind of freeing because I felt like I didn’t have to put up a front during my hardest times.”

Wie West, who now has a young son named Jagger, will share her Riviera return with her daughter Makenna, who was an infant when her mother played her final competitive round at Pebble Beach. The anxiety of returning is there, she admits, but it is a welcome kind.

“The anxiety definitely is there,” Wie West said. “But it’s like a good form of anxiety, right? Like I’m super excited to put myself in that position. Just being able to talk about it, honestly, very candidly with my daughter as well too has been really great.”

For Wie West, the measure of success at Riviera will not be a leaderboard position. It will be a feeling. And then she plans to say goodbye one final time.