‘Would’ve had a longer playing career’: Michelle Wie West opens up on 1 regret

Michelle Wie admits she was “old school.”

But she’s also envious. 

“I wish I had the science and technology that the kids have access to now,” Wie West said. 

The 2014 U.S Women’s Open winner was talking on the most recent episode of “On the Road with Iona” — and it’s here where we’ll say a full viewing of the YouTube video is very much worth your time, as host Iona Stephen meticulously covers a lot of ground. Of particular note, though, Stephen asked about regretted advice.  

In response, Wie West, who moved on from competitive golf after last year’s U.S. Open, said there wasn’t one thing — but she said she wished she could change a belief. For clarity, the complete exchange is below, starting with Stephen’s question:

“Was there any advice that you think you regret? Maybe even if it was from a coaching point of view that you practiced, or you followed that path, then went down it and saw actually, no, this has been a waste of time, I shouldn’t have done this.” 

“Hmm, I can’t really think of one,” Wie West said on the video. “I just think it’s like the old-school belief of you got to hit balls until your hands bleed. I think back in the day, before you had all this science and technology, it was quantity over quality, truthfully. And it’s just, who can stay out there the longest. And you hear all the Tiger Woods mentality, of running on the treadmill with a weighted vest and all the stories about you take your glove off and your hands are bleeding, and that was the goal. 

“And I wish I hadn’t done that. I felt like I would’ve had a longer playing career with a healthier body. So that’s one thing I definitely do regret is, hitting that many balls on a mat. Because it wasn’t even grass — it was just mat. And you’re hitting off of concrete at that point. I wish I had the science and technology that the kids have access to now.”

Notably, in a 2020 interview with GolfTV, Woods said something similar when asked what he’d tell his younger self, answering: “Not to run so much. Running over 30 miles a week for probably my first five, six years on Tour pretty much destroyed my body and my knees.”

On the video with Stephen, Wie West was then asked about Woods, the 15-time major winner. She’d been often compared to him, the host said, and Stephen wondered what that was like.  

“I don’t know,” Wie West said on the video. “It was like — I mean, obviously when I was a kid, that was like, oh, it’s so cool, and I think there was actually a quote out there, it was like, ‘I’m going to beat Tiger by the time I’m 18.’ And I look back and I’m like, you dumb person. But that’s the cockiness that you have to have when you’re a kid and doing the crazy things that you are doing. If you don’t have that confidence, I wouldn’t have been able to do half the things I would have done. So I’m grateful for that. 

“I always kind of cringe when I hear that because I don’t see myself as that, but it’s also, I mean, a huge honor to be called that.”
Editor’s note: To watch the entire video with Wie West, please click here.