Fourteen-year-old Michelle Wie stunned the sports world Sunday, January 18, by finishing on par at the 2004 Sony Open to become the youngest player ever to compete in a PGA tour event. Wie’s 140 in two rounds of play gives her the best score ever logged by a woman playing on the men’s tour. The Hawaiian phenomenon missed the cut by one stroke, but finished ahead of 49 of the world’s best male golfers. Not bad considering she is still in the ninth grade.

Playing against a field that included six of the top eight golfers in the world, Wie finished just three strokes behind Vijay Singh, the 2003 PGA tour money leader. Yes, a 14-year-old girl finished three strokes behind last season’s PGA money leader in an official tour event.

Perhaps now Singh and the rest of the tour realize that women can compete on their level, a lesson they failed to learn when Annika Sorenstam participated in the 2003 Bank of America Colonial Tournament. None spoke out more viciously or more childishly than Vijay when Sorenstam made her PGA appearance.

“She doesn’t belong out here,” Singh said of Sorenstam in an interview with USA Today. “If I’m drawn with her, which I won’t be, I won’t play.”

But even Singh was impressed with Wie’s limitless potential when he saw her play at the 2003 Pro-Junior Challenge.

“She’s going to be a star,” Singh told the Associated Press.

And she’s well on her way. While most 14-year-old girls were memorizing Backstreet Boys lyrics or working on their book reports, Wie made her first appearance on the PGA tour two years ahead of golf’s golden boy, Tiger Woods, who made his PGA debut at the age of 16.

Now don’t get me wrong, Woods certainly qualifies as a prodigy. The man shot a 48 in nine holes when he was three-years-old! He holds the records for the youngest golfer to win a US Junior Amateur title (15-years-old) and the youngest to win a US Amateur title (18). But Woods was not the youngest player to appear on the PGA tour, and neither was any man for that matter. That distinction belongs to Wie.

Now Wie could not possibly be compared to Tiger Woods, could she? After all, she’s a 14-year-old girl. Well, Sony Open champion Ernie Els disagrees.

“I saw Tiger before he turned pro,” Els told the Associated Press. “I think Michelle, a lot of what she did [in the Sony Open] reminds me a lot of what Tiger used to do. As a woman golfer, she’s going to take it to the next level.”

Sure enough, some of Wie’s feats rival the accomplishments of the early days of Woods’ career. Wie started playing at age four, sporting a 100-yard drive before she entered kindergarten. She shot a 64 on a regulation 18-hole golf course, the Olomana Golf Links, when she was only 10.

To put things in perspective, Annika Sorenstam did not even start playing golf until she was 12 years old, and she was 22 at the time of her historic appearance in the PGA tour’s Bank of America Colonial Tournament. Wie reached the men’s tour eight years ahead of Sorenstam, and by the time Wie turned 12 she had already earned her place in the record books.

As a 10-year-old, Wie became the youngest golfer to qualify for a USGA Amateur event when she participated in the Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship. At 11, the Hawaii native shocked her hometown fans as the youngest player to win the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational and the Hawaii State Women’s Stroke Play Championship, two of Hawaii’s premier events. At 13, she became the youngest player to make an LPGA cut when she advanced to the final group in the 2003 Kraft Nabisco Championship, where she played alongside Sorenstam.

While her peers were enjoying bag lunches and studying their Bat Mitzvah portions, the 13-year-old prodigy took her first shot at the men’s tour at the 2003 Sony Open, but failed to qualify. Though she would have to wait another year to break onto the PGA scene, Wie outplayed 50 male professional golfers in the qualifying rounds to finish 47th in a field of 97 players.

Simply put, Wie has shown more potential at an early age than any female golfer in the history of the sport. She rivals the PGA field with drives of over 300 yards, and at 6-feet tall she has the strength and power to compete with the men. Tireless in her work ethic, Wie plays seven hours a day on weekdays and four hours per day on weekends.

And after her impressive PGA debut, she has received praise from the golf world’s biggest stars. Els, who played with Wie in a practice round prior to the Sony Open, believes that she has the talent to compete on the men’s tour.

“She can play on this tour,” Els said of Wie in an interview with the Associated Press. “If she keeps working, doing the right things, there’s no reason why she shouldn’t be out here.”

Though she can’t drive herself to the course for another two years and it will be three years before she can legally watch an R rated movie, Wie has already scheduled six LPGA events for the 2004 season, and plans to compete in the Men’s Public Links tournament in the hope of earning a spot in the 2005 Masters.

Wie’s chances of playing in the Masters are slim, but what are the odds of a 14-year-old girl finishing on par at a PGA tour event? Considering what Wie has already accomplished, anything is possible. Before her playing days are over, Wie will not only play with the men, she will beat them. The tour better be ready, because Michelle Wie is just getting started. And Vijay, when she’s paired with you, I suggest you play.