![\"Michelle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2275190906-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMichelle Wie West is on the move.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s walking laps in her neighborhood at home in Las Vegas, so she\u2019s also logged onto The Athletic\u2019s Zoom call on her phone. She\u2019s getting her steps count in, but she\u2019s answering questions about her legacy and future at the same time \u2014 the usual. Multitasking is the only way she can operate these days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to get my conditioning up,\u201d she says. \u201cGet as much done as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wie West doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
On top of all of that, three years removed from her official retirement from professional golf at the 2023 U.S. Women\u2019s Open at Pebble Beach, Wie West has decided to come back to compete in a championship one more time, at this week\u2019s U.S. Women\u2019s Open. Add re-learning how to practice for a major like a tour pro to that list of responsibilities.<\/p>\n
It has long been a rule that winners of the U.S. Women\u2019s Open get a 10-year exemption into the event. Wie West won her sole major championship at the 2014 U.S. Women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
So this U.S. Women\u2019s Open won\u2019t feel like the final chapter of Wie West\u2019s ground-breaking, but tumultuous career. It won\u2019t be a send-off from the era in which the spotlight followed Wie West\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
At this U.S. Women\u2019s Open, Wie West is playing for herself and for her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more of a deeply personal reason for why I wanted to come back and play this one,\u201d she says. \u201cRiviera is such a special place to my husband\u2019s side of the family. His dad was heavily involved in the Northern Trust Open (now the Genesis Invitational) back in the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for my daughter, now being almost 6 years old, it\u2019s an amazing opportunity to show her firsthand that mom is working hard and practicing. I\u2019m really excited to share this with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Michelle Wie West\u2019s husband, Johnnie, will caddie for her at Riviera. (Sarah Stier \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Just like at Pebble Beach, Wie West will have her husband, Johnnie West, as her caddie, but this time she\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n
He was credited with the reinvigoration of the PGA Tour\u2019s annual stop at the club in the Pacific Palisades. He served as the tournament\u2019s executive director from 2009 to 2013, and Wie West will honor her late father-in-law by playing in the first women\u2019s major to be hosted at Riviera.<\/p>\n
However, she already has some experience winning at the esteemed venue. Before Wie West\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stacked my team, let\u2019s be real,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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\u2019s upbringing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never realized how much of a sports mom I would be,\u201d Wie West says. \u201cIt\u2019s just a way of life in my household.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wie West\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s good for Makenna to hear that everything\u2019s not easy. I\u2019m gonna have good days and bad days. I\u2019d tell her straight up, I didn\u2019t want to go practice today, but I did. I can kind of see how my inner dialogue shapes her inner dialogue,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Over time, though, Wie West found a groove with her on-course regimen, and she cherished the opportunity to show off to her daughter.<\/p>\n
The last time Wie West teed it up in the U.S. Women\u2019s Open, Makenna was asleep in her stroller. This time, she\u2019ll be walking outside the ropes with an awareness of who her mom is and some idea of her impact on the game \u2014 thanks to ChatGPT and an at-home viewing of Wie West\u2019s Golf Channel documentary.<\/p>\n
And that dynamic will continue next fall, as Wie West\u2019s children watch her participate in the inaugural season of WTGL \u2014 the women\u2019s iteration of the indoor simulator golf league, TGL.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis last part of my career has been \u2014 I wouldn\u2019t 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,\u201d she says. \u201cBut 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\u2019ve started to really feel like myself again.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2273776587-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Michelle Wie West has joined Justin Rose as a partner with McLaren\u2019s new golf brand. (Cliff Hawkins \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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 \u201cdark\u201d places throughout the round.<\/p>\n
Sticking a tee in the ground on the first hole of a U.S. Women\u2019s Open will provide an even greater challenge, and she knows that. She hasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t change her trajectory.<\/p>\n
\u201cHolistically, I feel very retired,\u201d she says. \u201cThere is zero part of me that wants to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Wie West is doing it one last time, because she wants to \u2014 and she can. And to her, that experience will be worth the first tee jitters and whatever score she\u2019ll ultimately sign for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really happy that this is going to be one of my final experiences with professional golf,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is truly a bonus for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michelle Wie West is on the move. She\u2019s walking laps in her neighborhood at home in Las Vegas,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-679929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}