With her recent return to competitive golf, Michelle Wie West has revived her old career. At the same time, it has started a new one: golf course architecture.
Wie West has signed on to design its first layout, a par-3 course at Candyrootan established destination resort in South Carolina about an hour from Columbia and Charlotte. The course, called Sweet Tooth, will sit on the same stretch of sand that stretches across the Carolinas at Pinehurst, where Wie West won the 2014 US Women’s Open. Construction is scheduled to begin late next year.
“Public courses are really interesting to me because that’s what I grew up playing,” Wie West said of her childhood in Hawaii. “I’m also drawn to shorter-format courses because golf can be so intimidating for people just starting out. It helps lower the barrier to entry.”
Although the course isn’t finalized — the length and number of holes will depend on what the ground allows — the broader concept, Wie West said, is already taking shape. Spread over approximately 25 acres on Candyroot’s 1,210-acre property, Sweet Tooth is intended to be flexible and social, with holes that can vary in length and strategy depending on the configuration. Better birdie-chasers will be asked to take risks on small landing areas, while beginners, juniors and shorter players will have safer layup options on playable holes like par-4s and par-5s.
To underscore that point, Sweet Tooth will feature alternate scorecards.
“Technically, it’s a par-3 course,” Wie West said. “But I also want it to be set up so kids and beginners can play it as a par-72.”
The course will also be illuminated for night play, with holes designed to intersect and join together to foster a communal atmosphere.
“I want it to be a fun and unique design,” Wie West said. “Kind of ‘choose your own adventure’.”
Wie West Associate is Mike Koprowskia former Washington, DC policy analyst turned golf course architect who won praise for his work at nearby Broomsedge Golf Club. Koprowski is also leading the design of Candyroot’s first full-length 18-hole course, which is slated for preview play this fall and is one of four planned 18-hole layouts at the resort.
Sweet Tooth’s announcement comes at a transitional time for Wie West, who bid an emotional farewell to competitive golf at the 2023 US Women’s Open in Pebble beach ahead returning earlier this month for the exclusion of a sponsor at the LPGA’s Mizuho Americas Open in New Jersey. She struggled there, but said she enjoyed “feeling the nerves in all the worst ways.” She will experience them again next month at the US Women’s Open in Riviera.
Wie West married Jonnie West, son of late NBA legend Jerry West, in 2019 and the couple have two children. One of the joys of returning to competition, Wie West said, is that her 5-year-old daughter is now old enough to follow her journey more fully.
