Event host Michelle Wie West talks to the media at forward of the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty Nationwide Golf Membership
Considering like that again this match final yr. You have been pregnant. Had simply been on Fallon. You have been preparing for an additional nice occasion right here. Inform us a bit of bit concerning the journey of 2024 and what we are able to stay up for in 2025 this yr?
MICHELLE WIE WEST: Yeah, it’s loopy to suppose it’s already a 3rd yr, and tremendous thrilling announcement popping out yesterday saying that we’re going to resume for an additional 5 years.
That simply will get me so excited simply because we’ve got seen the great that we’ve completed within the first two years and now this yr, and it will get me actually excited for the longer term.
Positively my favorite week of the yr, so excited to see all of the gamers and the juniors. We’ve got quite a lot of the brand new juniors this yr, which I’m very excited for.
Already the third yr, we’re having Yana Wilson, our inaugural junior being within the professional area. It’s already a full circle second and so excited. Trying ahead to the longer term as properly.
Q. You introduced up the announcement. What are we trying ahead to past this yr? What are we trying ahead to this yr? What can followers and gamers anticipate from you this yr and into the longer term?
MICHELLE WIE WEST: Once more, we’re at one in every of America’s most iconic venues, Liberty Nationwide. The climate is a bit of dreary, however I believe it’s going to clear up for the weekend. Simply wonderful views. The highest gamers on the earth. You’ll see the following future expertise.
And I believe with the panorama of girls’s beginner golf now, there may be quite a lot of recognizable names within the junior area as properly, which I’m actually excited for.
However, once more, simply elevating the ladies’s sport and pushing the following future technology can ahead. I get actually excited. Within the participant eating I noticed a few the juniors eat with their mentors, and I do know quite a lot of them have performed follow rounds this morning.
So the entire week simply feels actually nice to be part of.
Q. I wish to name out this superior shirt you’ve on. I do know you introduced your funding into Collectively Sports activities. Inform us a bit of bit about what that model means to you and the way this partnership took place.
MICHELLE WIE WEST: Yeah, actually thrilling announcement that I’ve invested in Collectively. I’ve all the time been a fan of what they’ve completed with their platform, their story telling. And this assertion, it means a lot to me. It’s very highly effective. It actually says everybody watches girls’s sports activities. Not a sure demographic or age or gender. Everybody watches it.
It’s a sentiment that in case you construct it, folks will come. Tournaments like this, you construct it, folks will come. Actually wonderful to see the assist we’ve got within the native tri-state space and followers and throughout the globe as properly. You realize, folks tuning within the final two years, we’ve had wonderful dramatic finishes with wonderful champions.
Once more, actually excited for that this yr. With Collectively I hope we are able to proceed to story inform and actually get into golf.
Q. I do know it is a favourite occasion by all gamers each single yr. How a lot has it meant to you to maintain the gamers the way in which you do and proceed to develop that during the last three years of this championship?
MICHELLE WIE WEST: Yeah, I believe being a participant to my core, and hasn’t been a lot time after I retired, so once I knew I used to be going to be a match host there have been — the participant expertise was extraordinarily vital to me. I’ve been to tournaments the place it appears flashy, however behind the scenes there wasn’t a lot.
I wished to verify even when it’s the stuff you don’t see within the newspaper or whatnot, I wished to verify the gamers have been actually taken care of. That was actually vital to Mizuho as properly. Inside their firm, their core tradition is empowering girls and pushing the following future technology ahead.
By that it’s a must to contact upon each a part of the match. It’s not simply the branding or simply being at very nice golf course. It’s ensuring the gamers are handled nice. For us that was extraordinarily vital, as a result of there have been the highest junior women within the area as properly too. For a lot of of them this will probably be their first skilled occasion, so we wished to verify their bar was set extraordinarily excessive and wished them now shifting ahead to anticipate that from a match.
In order that was actually vital to Mizuho and I. It feels nice figuring out that gamers are taken care, they’re comfortable.
You realize, simply type of what I advised the juniors final night time as properly. It’s such a novel format. None of those gamers are being pressured to be right here. It’s a possibility for them to provide again, they usually selected to be right here and we’re eternally grateful and honored that these prime gamers are excited to come back this week. They’re excited to mentor, they’re excited to spend time with the juniors.
Total, I believe it simply creates a greater surroundings.
Q. You speak about inspiring younger girls and the AJGA gamers. The final two champions right here, Yana and Gianna, you talked about Yana as properly, have had success on the golf course, and it’s a must to suppose a part of that may be attributed to this match. How a lot does that imply to you to proceed inspiring these younger women?
MICHELLE WIE WEST: Yeah, it means the whole lot to me. Simply my very own genesis of my profession I began taking part in LPGA occasions once I was 12 years previous. That actually solidified my profession. Simply being in these excessive stress conditions from a younger age and ensuring that I wished to be an expert.
I bought to play skilled tournaments not as a professional however as an beginner. I believe it eases your approach into it considerably. It’s actually cool to see gamers like Yana and Gianna actually accomplish that properly of their profession. Wonderful that Yana in her skilled debut on the Epson Tour gained her first occasion final week, and hopefully constructing nice momentum this week.
I bought to see them yesterday. Spoke along with her dad. Her dad, which is so heartfelt to me, was saying to me that this match is admittedly the explanation why, that her expertise right here, her win right here, catapulted her ahead.
Listening to that simply makes me really feel so good and makes this — cements the truth that we’re making a distinction in these younger women’ lives. That’s crucial factor we take away from this occasion.
Q. Final night time on the welcome social gathering you had the chance to fulfill participant who confirmed {a photograph} of you and her when she was simply 5 years previous. Now she’s taking part in as a junior within the Mizuho Americas Open. What does this second say concerning the lasting influence you’ve had on this technology of golfers?
MICHELLE WIE WEST: I believe it’s actually cool. A, it made me really feel actually previous, however the work we do as athletes I believe is extraordinarily vital. Empowering the following technology to observe their desires, quite a lot of occasions after we’re actively taking part in is a really unconscious effort.
That’s why I believe this match is so cool. I keep in mind watching Tiger on TV, watching Seri on TV once I was actually younger and be like, hey, that appears actually cool.
You then take the following step. Your mother and father take you to a match and also you get to observe actual athletes in particular person. You then’re like, okay, I actually wish to do that.
However then this match to me is so vital as a result of these younger women, impressionable younger women beginning their profession, get to be contained in the ropes with their idols. That takes it to a different stage. It’s wonderful.
I like taking my daughter to occasions. I believe it’s actually vital to have sturdy feminine position fashions, particularly in our daughter’s lives. So it was actually cool seeing her yesterday. I positively keep in mind her coming. She was so cute. It’s actually cool to see her within the match.
Q. We liked watching that TikTok video you posted. Something you realized from the ladies and the Gen Zers yesterday?
MICHELLE WIE WEST: Nicely, the primary yr I realized from the Gen Zers is the .5 digicam they usually flip it. They don’t take selfies anymore. Selfies are out. Simply wished you guys to know, all of the millennials within the group, that selfies are usually not it. It’s a must to .5 it and switch it round.
I requested them quite a lot of questions. Who’s cool? Who isn’t? I used to be very stunned. Sure singers they don’t hearken to in any respect.
However, yeah, I realized a lot from the juniors this week and I’ve a lot enjoyable with them. I believed I might relate to them doing a TikTok, I meant Instagram Reel as a result of I’m a millennial. It was enjoyable to narrate with them and have enjoyable with them.
Q. The title extension, you talked about off the highest, however as match host, how wonderful is it so that you can see these folks, Mizuho, AJGA, LPGA, and Liberty Nationwide and Mountain Ridge step as much as placed on this occasion that you just get to host for an additional 5 years?
MICHELLE WIE WEST: Oh, my God, it’s a dream come true. It’s an final Bucket Record merchandise for me. So honored. However most significantly, it’s wonderful to companion with individuals who at their core wish to do good. You see it. It’s not superficial or just for their model. It’s to their core. I bought to spend — ever yr I get to spend time with their staff. It’s wonderful to see. The tradition bleeds by way of your complete firm. Staff, quite a lot of them volunteering this week, serving to out, being so enthusiastic about the whole lot that they’re doing, being happy with their firm.
It’s actually nice to be an element. Clearly the work that the AJGA does, being so passionate and rising the children’ futures, after which clearly the work we’re doing on the LPGA, it’s simply nice to be partnered with folks and Liberty Nationwide and Mountain Ridge, two golf programs which are immense assist.
And all the opposite sponsors which are part of this occasion too. It takes quite a lot of work. My group at Excel makes it look simple however I see it behind the scenes, how a lot they’re operating round.
I’m simply fully grateful to be on this state of affairs and to have folks. I get to look good, nevertheless it’s the folks which are behind the scenes which are doing the job.
