Not so long ago, Michelle Wie was an up-and-coming golf phenom whose game was powerful and aggressive; she didn't know how to play any other way.
On Sunday at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, Wie was the one watching another teen phenom attack the course en route to her first victory at a major as Wie just stood by and watched.
Lexi Thompson shot a 4-under 68 Sunday to break her third-round tie with Wie and win the Kraft Nabisco Championship at 14 under par. It was the 19-year-old's first championship at a major.
The 24-year-old Wie shot a 1-under 71 and finished second in the event at 11 under and still is seeking her first major more than a decade after bursting onto the women's golf scene as a child superstar.
According to Golfweek.com, the difference in the rounds between the winner and runner-up was in their respective approaches to playing the final round.
"While Wie took a calculated, deliberate approach to the Dinah Shore Tournament Course, Thompson let it rip. The aggressive game plan and precise iron play put her in prime position on nearly every hole," Golfweek.com reported.
Wie said she thought she had the right game plan entering the final round.
"I stuck with my game plan and I think it was the right play," Wie said, according to golf.com. "Who knows? In hindsight you would do something here or do something there, make a putt there. That's the way golf is. I just couldn't get anything going today."
But that's not how Wie got her game back after injuries, slumps and burnout derailed her career while she was still a teenager, the Golf Channel reported.
"Wie's swing looks free again. Her ball-striking this year has been impressive. That's partly due to the fact that she is less technical and analytical. She's trying to play with the feel she played with as that young phenom. Wie is so committed to that, she quit looking at video of her swing," the Golf Channel noted after the first two rounds of the Kraft Nabisco.
According to the South China Morning Post, Wie played timidly on Sunday, missing a two-foot putt on the eighth hole and coming up short on a five-foot birdie putt on No. 13.
"I think I got to a point I tried too hard to make birdies and I was forcing everything," Wie said after shooting 71 to finish on 11-under, according to the Post.
"If I'd just let it happen, I think I would have rolled a couple more putts in. I wanted to make those putts so badly."
And that may be the final step Wie must take to start making good on the promise she showed as that teen prodigy.
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