Michelle Wie is healthier, stronger and determined to succeed but concedes her injured wrists will never be the same.
"I just accepted the fact that it's never going to be 100 percent ever again. After a major injury last year, it's never going to be the way it was before," she said on Tuesday as she prepared for the US LPGA Tour's Fields Open, which begins today.
The 18-year-old Wie said she has accepted that her wrists are as good as they can be.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"Obviously, it's not 110 percent, but I feel pretty healthy," she said. "I feel a lot stronger. I feel like I can be a lot more aggressive with the ball. I feel more like an athlete right now."
Wie is starting the season on her home island of Oahu for the fifth straight year on a sponsor's exemption. This time, she's playing against women.
She injured both wrists last year but kept playing, and struggling. She made only three cuts. In nine starts, she withdrew twice and broke par only twice in 19 rounds against women.
Wie is wrapping up her first year at Stanford University, where her courses include Japanese, humanities and a hip-hop dance.
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