MICHELLE Wie will be in Singapore.

Local fans will finally get a long-awaited look at one of the glamour girls of sport.

The sensational Hawaiian-born wonderkid has qualified for the US$1.3 million ($1.72m) HSBC Women’s Champions to be staged in Singapore next month.
In fact, the golf phenomenon of South Korean parentage who got out of teens only three months ago, qualified for the prestigious event on two counts.

Being one of 20 LPGA tournament winners for 2009, Wie is an automatic qualifier for the assembly of champions from 25 to 28 Feb at Tanah Merah Country Club’s Garden course.

She also qualifies on another premise – her current world ranking of 10.
Golf Channel reported last week that Wie is seriously considering teeing it up in both the LPGA Tour season-opener in Thailand from 18 to 21 Feb and in the HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore the following week.

It said: “Don’t be surprised to see Wie in Asia, which will be a terrific boost for the Tour.”

The qualifying criteria for the star-studded HSBC event which caters for a maximum of 63 players are:

- Top 20 players from Rolex world ranking as of 31 Dec 2009.

- LPGA tournament champions from 2009.

- HSBC Women’s Champions winners in 2008 and 2009.

- 2010 Honda LPGA Thailand winner.

- Two sponsor invites

- Singapore qualifier.

Unless Wie, 20, decides to pull out because of her school commitments at Stanford or is injured, the much-sought-after leggy beauty will make her first appearance in Singapore.

Wie, born in Honolulu to South Korean parents on 11 Oct 1989, became the youngest player to qualify for the USGA amateur championship at the age of 10.

She was also the youngest winner of the US Women’s Amateur and the youngest to qualify for an LPGA Tour event.

In 2006, she was named in a Time magazine article as “one of 100 people who shaped our world”.

The 1.85-metre tall Wie, who turned professional in 2005, graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu in June 2007 and enrolled at Stanford University in September 2007 as a freshman and professional golfer (which made her ineligible for NCAA golf).

Qualifying with Wie, who won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational last November at Guadalajara in Mexico by two strokes from Paula Creamer, are some of the world’s foremost women players.

Creamer aside, there are Brittany Lincicome, Angela Stanford, Kim In Kyung, Lee Seon Hwa, Anna Nordqvist, Yi Eun Jong, Ji Eun Hee, Catriona Matthew, M. J. Hur, Suzann Pettersen, Sophie Gustafson, Helen Alfredsson and Song Bo Bae.

Dazzling assembly

Of course, the elite of the dazzling assembly is world No. 1 Lorena Ochoa, the first winner of the HSBC Champions in 2008 at the Garden course.

Breathing down her neck will be Shin Ji Yai, the defending champion of the HSBC Women’s Champions.

The Singapore qualifier (for golfers with handicap two or below) will be decided next week when 11 players contest the two-day event on Wednesday and Thursday at the Garden course.

Among the entries is last year’s Singapore representative Joey Poh, daughter of Singapore’s teaching pro Poh Ah Hai.

Joey is a member of the HSBC Youth Golfers Excellence Programme which grooms youths who show great aptitude and potential.

The Singapore entry for 2008, Amelia Yong, is also on the list.

The others are Heng Su Ann, Koh Sock Hwee, Amanda Tan, Jessica Pei Ang, Stephanie Loi, Kok Jo Ee, Christabel Goh, Ji Jiali and Low Si Xuan.

This article was first published in The New Paper.