Michelle Wie West at the US Women’s Open last year.
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Michelle Wie admits it was “old school.”
But she is also envious.
“I wish I had the science and technology that kids have access to now.” Wie West said.
The 2014 US Women’s Open winner was speaking on the latest episode of On the Road with Iona – and we’re here to say that a full YouTube video is well worth your time, as host Iona Stephen covers in detail a lot of land. Most importantly, however, Stephen asked about repentant counsel.
In response, Wie West, who retired from competitive golf after last year’s US Opensaid she didn’t have one thing – but she said she would like to change one belief. For clarity, the full exchange is below, starting with Stephen’s question:
“Was there any advice you felt you regretted? Maybe even if from a coach’s point of view you’ve practiced, or you’ve gone that route, then you’ve gone down it and actually looked at it, no, that was a waste of time, I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Hmm, I can’t think of one,” Wie West said in the video. “I just think it’s like the old school belief that you have to hit balls until your hands bleed. I think back in the day, before you had all this science and technology, it was quantity over quality, really. And it’s just, who can stay there longer. And you hear the whole Tiger Woods mentality, running on the treadmill in a weighted vest, and all the stories about you taking your glove off and your hands bleeding, and that was the point.
“And I wish I hadn’t. I felt I would have had a longer playing career with a healthier body. So that’s one thing I definitely regret is hitting so many balls on a carpet. Because it wasn’t even grass – it was just a mat. And you’re hitting the concrete at that point. I wish I had the science and technology that kids have access to now.”
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In particular, in a 2020 interview with GolfTV, Woods said something similar when asked what he would tell his younger self, replying: “Not to run so much. Running over 30 miles a week for probably the first five or six years on the Tour destroyed my body and my knees.”
In the video with Stephen, Wie West was then asked about Woods, a 15-time major winner. She was often compared to him, the host said, and Stephen wondered what she was like.
“I don’t know,” Wie West said in the video. “It was like — I mean, obviously when I was a kid, it was like, oh, that’s pretty cool, and I think there was actually a quote in there, it was like, ‘I’m going to beat Tiger by the time I’m 18.’ And I look back and I’m like a dumb man. But that’s the arrogance you have to have when you’re a kid and you do the crazy things you’re doing. If you don’t have that faith, I wouldn’t have been able to do half the things I would have done. So I’m grateful for that.
