Michelle Wie has a new putting stance that has her standing taller and, for the first time since the 2014 Walmart LPGA Classic, atop the leaderboard in an LPGA tournament.
Pain-free Michelle Wie leads an LPGA event for 1st time in 3 years
Her lead is slim, but Wie’s ahead for the first time since 2014.
Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images
Wie, who needed just 29 putts in Thursday’s opening round of the HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore, has a few other clubs clicking as well as she carded just two bogeys to go with eight birdies on her way to a 6-under 66 at Sentosa Golf Club’s Tanjong course. Now using a conventional putting grip after ditching the claw following last week’s tourney and the “table top” stance that had her bend her back nearly parallel to the turf, Wie also has a new short stick in the bag.
“I took a putter from the Callaway trailer at the Honda [Classic] last week and its been working pretty well and I like the look of it,” the four-time tour winner said after her round. “Sometimes you gotta go and just take a putter, I guess.”
The new putter in question is a Toulon Design Memphis Rose Gold mallet, according to a Callaway spokesperson.
Wie, who last hoisted hardware at the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open, switched to Callaway clubs earlier this year after her longtime sponsor Nike announced it was ditching the equipment side of its golf business. So far, so good, as last week she bounced back from a missed cut at January’s season opener to finish T30 at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.
In addition to her prowess on the putting surfaces on Thursday, Wie also hit 11 of 14 fairways and found all but one green in regulation. Thursday’s round was also unusual for the oft-injured/ill Wie in that she played with little discomfort. Gone, for now, are the nagging health problems she’s had with her finger, hip, neck, knee, and ankle.
“It feels good to play without much pain,” she said. “To go out there and just play some golf and focus on my game rather than trying to finish out rounds.”
Wie certainly cannot relax, holding just a one-shot edge over five players — Mo Martin, Anna Nordqvist, Brooke Henderson, Ariya Jutanugarn, and Inbee Park — each of whom is a major champion. But she’ll take the lead whenever she can, since she has not entered the winner’s circle in the last 61 tour tilts. She also has far more missed cuts (T13) than top-10 finishes (one) since the start of the 2015 season.
