Sport-Blog.com

Michelle Wie still has yet to win a single tournament on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour, or actually to win any golf tournament of note thus far in her short career. But then again, she has yet to even turn pro.

But over the last two weeks the 15 year old golf phenom has now established herself as the game's next potential star, a hype that may be difficult to live up to but one that is now continuing unabated.

The youngster first made serious waves last week at the John Deere Classic, a men's PGA Tour event. The female golfer had received a sponsor's exemption to play in the tournament and she made the most of her opportunity. Twenty-seven holes into the tournament she was four under par and set to be the first female golfer to make a cut on the men's tour since 1945.

But a hiccup on the back nine Friday cost her the bigger opportunity. A double bogey and then another bogey dropped her back to one under and despite the major fanfare, just below the cut line.

That near miss however brought the 15 year-old Hawaiian right to the eve of the US Amateur Public Links Golf Tourney and her next major statement as a golfer. Wie had already become the first woman to ever qualify for a men's USGA event when she made it into the Public Links field by tying for the top spot at a player qualifier weeks before.

Following up her near miss at the John Deere, this time Wie made the all important cut. She proceeded to make further history by shooting rounds of 76 and 72 over the first two days of the tourney, scores good enough to make the final 64 players and with it the opportunity to compete in match play.

Having managed that feat, one had to wonder how she would do matched up against the men in head to head match play. Well, Wie promptly showed everyone that the hoopla surrounding the high school junior was every bit deserved. She proceeded to dispatch her opponents in the first three matches to make it to the final eight of the tournament.

Clay Ogden, a junior at Brigham Young University in Utah, ended the run for Wie with a thorough thumping, winning 5-and-4 in semifinals. In true form, Wie expressed real disappointment with losing, even if she had made it to the final eight, and she vowed she had learned a great deal from the experience.

Had Wie been able to win the men's Amateur Public Links she just might have become the first woman to get an invitation to ever play at Augusta at the Masters. Every year since 1989 the winner of the prestigious US Amateur had been invited to Augusta National and the opportunity to play the storied course.

The loss ended her quest to play in the Masters, at least for now, but the fine showing only added more fuel to the hype and the belief that this young lady has the potential to become one of the greatest woman golfers ever, even if she still has not won a single tournament of note thus far and has yet to even turn pro.

Alas, the hype about her potential might one day be her undoing. But for right now, her story is one to pay attention to. Certainly the male golfers of the world began paying attention after Wie's incredible performance the past couple of weeks.