Michelle Wie breathed a huge sign of relief as she reflected on having finally lived up to the burden of expectation by winning a first major title with a two-stroke victory in the US Women's Open.
More than a decade after having become famous for almost making the cut against the men in a PGA Tour event, the 24-year-old from Hawaii was on an emotional high after having won the biggest prize in women's golf.
"I'm just unbelievably happy," she said after shooting an even-par 70 to hold off her fellow American and world No.1 Stacy Lewis (66) over the taxing Pinehurst No.2 course. "I'm so honoured to have my name on the trophy, so grateful for everything."
Wie seemed poised to win in style until she double-bogeyed the 16th hole after almost losing her ball in a thick clump of wire grass after a poor second shot. It took some two minutes to locate the ball and she subsequently chose to take a penalty stroke, eventually sinking a five-foot putt to avoid dropping three shots. "I definitely gave myself a heart attack when I couldn't find that ball," she said. "I was stressing out, for sure. All you can do at that point is laugh. I joked with my caddie that we really like to make things difficult for ourselves."
The pressure was immense when Wie stepped on to the par-3 17th tee with a tenuous one-shot lead. She responded magnificently, sinking an 18-foot birdie that she described as "the best putt of my life".
After she secured par on the last win, she lifted her right hand to her mouth as if she could not believe what she had achieved, before breaking out in a huge smile. Wie, who previously had twice led into the final round at the US Women's Open, won $720,000, small change for a woman who has made millions in endorsements.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article