![\"Michelle](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/michelle-wie-west-daughter.jpeg.rend.hgtvcom.966.690.suffix\/1780698017763.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nLOS ANGELES \u2014 Just about the only thing that was similar between Michelle Wie West\u2019s first \u201cfarewell\u201d to competitive golf three years ago at Pebble Beach, and her latest bow on Thursday at Riviera Country club was the weather.<\/p>\n
On the Monterey Peninsula that Friday in 2023, the sky was dark with heavy clouds in the late afternoon at Pebble\u2019s famed 18th hole, and the weather unfortunately thinned out the crowd in the grandstands. At Riviera, the marine layer that had hidden the sun on mornings this week stubbornly hung around, with a breeze that was unseasonably chilly for June in Southern California.<\/p>\n
As for the scene\u2014how it looked and how it felt\u2014it was not only completely different for those who could compare it to Pebble Beach, it was different for Wie West.<\/p>\n
\u201cPebble just truly felt like the end,\u201d she said after her second-round, three-over-par 74 resulted in a seven-over total that missed the cut. \u201cThis was just a bonus, and a great bonus to be able to play at Riv, be able to play another U.S. Open. It\u2019s a great honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Curiously, the USGA scheduled Wie West\u2019s second round to finish on Riviera\u2019s ninth hole instead of the course\u2019s famous closing amphitheater. A gallery of a few hundred followed her from the tee, and a few hundred more people stood at the green. As her mother approached the green to attempt a long birdie putt, Makenna, now 6, sat on a cart path under the watch of her grandfather, B.J. Wie.<\/p>\n
Another difference: Wie West would end up three-putting the ninth, missing her par attempt from six feet. That was quite the contrast to Pebble, where she made a walk-off 30-foot bomb that thrilled the crowd.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Michelle Wie West walks off her final hole with her daughter, Makenna.<\/p>\n
Kathryn Riley<\/p>\n
Makena was ushered inside the ropes just before Michelle finished, and she ran to greet her mom and dad. Jonnie West, the Golden State Warriors executive, caddied for his wife this week, as he did at Pebble Beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as I hugged her, she was like, \u201cCan I go to daycare?,\u2019\u201d Wie West said with a laugh and then rolled her eyes. \u201cI\u2019m glad I did all this for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason why she wanted to go up to daycare was because she wanted to go play with Brittany Lang\u2019s kid,\u201d she explained. \u201cThat\u2019s also just so crazy to know that I\u2019ve known Brittany Lang since I was 13, and now our kids are playing together and are best friends. It\u2019s awesome. It\u2019s fun to see the time go by, and I feel blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Pebble Beach, Wie West said there was only a slight chance that she\u2019d compete again, but then in 2024 she gave birth to son Jagger, and that extended the 10-year exemption for her 2014 U.S. Women\u2019s Open victory at Pinehurst.<\/p>\n
Riviera, which was awarded the USGA\u2019s biggest women\u2019s tournament in 2022, had lots of appeal for Wie West, considering its stature, the West family\u2019s basketball legacy in L.A., and the fact that she and Jonnie had begun raising their kids in the Southland.<\/p>\n
![\"2280042158\"\/](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/michelle-wie-west-jonnie.jpeg.rend.hgtvcom.966.690.suffix\/1780698019174.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Michelle Wie West hits a shot on Riviera\u2019s 10th hole as her caddie and husband Jonnie West watches.<\/p>\n
David Cannon<\/p>\n
With this Open in mind, Wie West, 36, went to work on her fitness in the year after Jagger was born and said she didn\u2019t touch a club for a long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, that was like the fun part about this week and about this whole journey \u2026 it was the first time in my career where I really felt like I can get after it again without really managing much pain,\u201d Wie West said.<\/p>\n
Feeling healthy again motivated her to work extremely hard on her golf game, with Jonnie by her side. It was a bonding time for them. \u201cI played so much golf, we spent so much time together. It was just so much fun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The entire family knew this week would be filled with laugher and emotion\u2014not to mention a lot of bodies in one place. She called it a happy \u201cmad house.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo out of three dogs came, both kids came, nanny came, parents came, and it\u2019s just amazing chaos,\u201d Wie West said. \u201cI had a lot of help this week, and it was really awesome to kind of come back and know that, even though I missed the cut, I go back, and I\u2019m going to have fun with my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was golf to be played, of course, on a Riviera layout set up for a major championship. As a prep, Wie West gave herself an invite last month at the LPGA Mizuho Americas Open that she hosts, and the results were not encouraging as she shot 82-80. She went back to work, in particular on her putting, and her game this week was far sharper.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely felt a little scarier coming back, just being gone for so long,\u201d Wie West said when comparing the experience to Pebble Beach. \u201cYou work so hard for just like really one week. It definitely was nerve-racking, but at the same time, it was a lot of fun to come play.\u201d<\/p>\n
After opening with a 75 on Thursday, Wie West made three birdies to go with four bogeys in the first 10 holes in the second round and had an outside chance at making the cut. But that faded when she bogeyed the difficult second and finished with a bogey.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I would be lying to say I wasn\u2019t disappointed. I would have loved to have made the cut today, grinded all day,\u201d she said. \u201cI hit some good shots, hit some good putts, and kind of felt that feeling again, which is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, she joked about only scolding herself a couple of times with an occasional curse word. \u201cFor a tournament week, that\u2019s pretty good,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ll take that as a win.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Just about the only thing that was similar between Michelle Wie West\u2019s first \u201cfarewell\u201d to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,755,138747,44,85],"class_list":["post-718129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}