Michelle Wie West’s return to the U.S. Women’s Open is on her terms

Michelle Wie West is on the move.

>She’s walking laps in her neighborhood at home in Las Vegas, so she’s also logged onto The Athletic’s Zoom call on her phone. She’s getting her steps count in, but she’s answering questions about her legacy and future at the same time — the usual. Multitasking is the only way she can operate these days.

>“I’m trying to get my conditioning up,” she says. “Get as much done as possible.”

>Wie West doesn’t need to elaborate. The former child prodigy is now a 36-year-old mother of two, the host of a premier LPGA tournament, an active investor, and, recently, has dipped her toes into golf course architecture and design.

>On top of all of that, three years removed from her official retirement from professional golf at the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, Wie West has decided to come back to compete in a championship one more time, at this week’s U.S. Women’s Open. Add re-learning how to practice for a major like a tour pro to that list of responsibilities.

>It has long been a rule that winners of the U.S. Women’s Open get a 10-year exemption into the event. Wie West won her sole major championship at the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst. So when she received a two-year buffer due to a maternity exemption and realized that the 2026 event would be hosted at Riviera, she immediately circled the week on her calendar. She had one last chance to do this, and in Los Angeles, at a place with close family ties, it felt right.

>So this U.S. Women’s Open won’t feel like the final chapter of Wie West’s ground-breaking, but tumultuous career. It won’t be a send-off from the era in which the spotlight followed Wie West’s every move. Or an end to the ever-present expectations for her success that she never seemed to escape. The five-time LPGA winner had that moment already, three years ago at Pebble Beach, when she stepped away from the game due to injury and motherhood. That was her goodbye.

>At this U.S. Women’s Open, Wie West is playing for herself and for her family.

>“It’s more of a deeply personal reason for why I wanted to come back and play this one,” she says. “Riviera is such a special place to my husband’s side of the family. His dad was heavily involved in the Northern Trust Open (now the Genesis Invitational) back in the day.

>“And for my daughter, now being almost 6 years old, it’s an amazing opportunity to show her firsthand that mom is working hard and practicing. I’m really excited to share this with her.”

>Just like at Pebble Beach, Wie West will have her husband, Johnnie West, as her caddie, but this time she’ll get the bonus of local knowledge and an emotional connection to the course. West is the son of the late Los Angeles Lakers legend and NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West, who was a Riviera member and called Los Angeles his adopted home.

>He was credited with the reinvigoration of the PGA Tour’s annual stop at the club in the Pacific Palisades. He served as the tournament’s executive director from 2009 to 2013, and Wie West will honor her late father-in-law by playing in the first women’s major to be hosted at Riviera.

>However, she already has some experience winning at the esteemed venue. Before Wie West’s wedding in 2019, she and her husband organized a Ryder Cup-style guys versus girls match at the George C. Thomas-designed course. The ladies won by a landslide.

>“I stacked my team, let’s be real,” she says.

>Wie West will also play for her daughter, Makenna. She quietly started preparing for this extra major appearance last Thanksgiving, dusting off her training aids and taking her clubs out more often than she had in years. That’s when Wie West started recapping her days on the range and in the gym with her 6-year-old each night. Unsurprisingly, Makenna has taken a liking to the game that defined her mother’s upbringing.

>“I never realized how much of a sports mom I would be,” Wie West says. “It’s just a way of life in my household.”

>Wie West’s preparation felt different, first because she forgot how to structure hour-long practice sessions, finding herself wondering what to do next after only 40 minutes on the range. But also because she knew she had a young, impressionable golfer taking notes about her process along the way.

>“I think it’s good for Makenna to hear that everything’s not easy. I’m gonna have good days and bad days. I’d tell her straight up, I didn’t want to go practice today, but I did. I can kind of see how my inner dialogue shapes her inner dialogue,” she says.

>Over time, though, Wie West found a groove with her on-course regimen, and she cherished the opportunity to show off to her daughter.

>The last time Wie West teed it up in the U.S. Women’s Open, Makenna was asleep in her stroller. This time, she’ll be walking outside the ropes with an awareness of who her mom is and some idea of her impact on the game — thanks to ChatGPT and an at-home viewing of Wie West’s Golf Channel documentary.

>And that dynamic will continue next fall, as Wie West’s children watch her participate in the inaugural season of WTGL — the women’s iteration of the indoor simulator golf league, TGL.

>The work Wie West has put into preparing for this championship dates further back than anyone knew when she announced her entry. During the pregnancy for her second son, Jagger, in late 2024, and while dealing with a difficult postpartum period after his birth, Wie West gained 75 pounds. She set out on a journey to feel like herself again.

>She started running and took up tennis to rebuild her body and regain her strength and confidence. Wie West described that process as therapeutic and a welcome contrast to the final days of her playing career, which were riddled with injury.

>“This last part of my career has been — I wouldn’t say tainted, but a lot of memories revolve around the physio, playing in pain, working my way around it, not being able to work out fully and the anxiety around that,” she says. “But I really feel like for the past year and a half, going through a postpartum journey, really building my body back from the ground level, getting strength back, I’ve started to really feel like myself again.”

>To gear up for Riviera, Wie West decided to give herself a test run. Last month, she teed it up in her host event, the Mizuho Americas Open, shot 82-80 to miss the cut, and playfully told the media that her nerves took her to “dark” places throughout the round.

>Sticking a tee in the ground on the first hole of a U.S. Women’s Open will provide an even greater challenge, and she knows that. She hasn’t played in a major in three years, and she might never play in one again. And on top of that, tournament golf comes with complex memories for Wie West.

>However, the point of this experience for the LPGA star is not to post a result. Even if Wie West were to contend in the championship, it won’t change her trajectory.

>“Holistically, I feel very retired,” she says. “There is zero part of me that wants to come back.”

>But Wie West is doing it one last time, because she wants to — and she can. And to her, that experience will be worth the first tee jitters and whatever score she’ll ultimately sign for.

>“I’m really happy that this is going to be one of my final experiences with professional golf,” she says. “This is truly a bonus for me.”

>This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

>Golf, Women's Golf

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