PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – The game of golf doesn’t really let you retire. It is always tempting for more. For you and me, of course, but especially the good ones.
Think of the tournament of champions, or the top executives, or the press conference Jack Nicklaus gave earlier this week in Ohio. If you’ve been great at golf, you’ll be begging to come back. And it will make a big return too. The fact that St. Andrews hosting the Open once every five years is a tradition, but it also doesn’t seem like an accident. Everyone deserves a last walk over the bridge; if you played in 2022 why couldn’t play in 2027? Tiger Woods will test the theory.
Golf has this way of keeping its hand on the neck of its heroes for as long as possible – and much longer than other sports. Some of them are beautiful, like the annual Fred Couples Walk around Augusta National. But few golf legends waltz into retirement and stay there, content. Check out Lexi Thompson, who messed up the idea of ​​that R word by sticking a “half” in front of it. it wish she was here this weekat Riviera Country Club, playing a 20th US Women’s Open. But if it was that important, how she suggested on Instagramthen why was he bailed in the Final Qualifier? The road ahead seems so wide during anyone’s peak, but it quickly narrows towards the end. Dealing with this can be a struggle on both sides: theirs and ours.
This week’s retirement idea revolves around Michelle Wie West, who is now officially, DONE done. Friday was her last day in real competition, carding a four-over 75 for a 36-hole seven-over count. She missed the cut by a few, but she wasn’t expected to make it. Her long game was warm enough to flirt with the weekend, but her putt was cold. When it was over, she signed her autographs, did her interviews, chatted with friends and hung out, unhurriedly.
The reason why?
She was amused. She felt the feelings again. It’s that mystical tension that professional players seem to crave.
“It’s fun just hitting under pressure,” she said after finishing. “You don’t feel pressure – I don’t feel pressure in my normal life. There’s nothing I do that recreates that, so it was fun to feel it again.”
Wie West talked about retirement years ago and succeeded as real as it gets at Pebble Beach in 2023. She has competed just once since then – at last month’s Mizuho Americas Open, which she hosts in Jersey – but failed to break 80. In the years since Pebble, she has grown to a level of deliberate peace with the sport that dominated — and sometimes clouded — her life. She didn’t play at Lancaster in 2024, and not at Erin Hills in 2025. She wasn’t interested; it didn’t need to be. But that 2014 US Open win at Pinehurst gave her a decade of exemptions, and she stretched it as long as she could with a few years of maternity leave, going down to the Riv as her final US Open. Her father-in-law, NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West, was a member here and raised his children on the street. It was here or nowhere, and the family tried to make the most of it.
Her parents, BJ and Bo, were nearby. So was the family’s nanny and two of their three dogs. As the second round came to a close, Wie West’s 6-year-old daughter, Makenna, was hustled onto the green for a much-anticipated hug from her mother. Makenna was there for a moment before asking if she could leave all the cameras and fans to see a friend. Mom shrugged. That’s how it goes.
“The reason she wanted to go to daycare was because she wanted to go play with Brittany Lang’s baby,” Wie West said. “It’s also pretty crazy to know that I’ve known Brittany Lang since I was 13, and now our kids are playing together and are best friends. It’s amazing. It’s fun to watch the time fly by and I feel blessed.”
It’s fun to watch time go by. How few people can say that? Almost everyone says exactly the opposite. One might think LPGA pros would struggle with it more, with many of their careers cut short (or affected) by motherhood. There was one pregnant woman on the field this weekplaying because he likes to play. She does not want the pregnancy to completely change her life.
Wie West, however, couldn’t look more pleased with the golf. And she fought for this tournament, let’s be clear. She cursed herself a few times, but mostly she wore ribbons. She was definitely a solid addition to the field, beating nearly half of it. Anyone with an ounce of competition would be riding a roller coaster of emotions after this. But there were no tears; all smiles.
The pro golf ecosystem is filled with opportunities that keep everyone moving forward. Sponsor exclusions, streaming roles, and podcast hosts that require you to relive the past over and over again. Wie West will deliver here and there. It will rock the new McLaren clubs. She will host her own tour every May. She will play in the women’s TGL in the winter. Her game won’t be perfect, but Makenna will love it.
But before all that, though, she’ll be hanging out in LA for at least a few more days, watching the top women’s amateurs at the Curtis Cup and dreaming of being their captain one day.
