U.S. team happy to have Michelle Wie on board
As if being a rookie selected as a captain's pick -- a semi-controversial pick at that -- wasn't enough, Michelle Wie's first drive in front of her new teammates at Rich Harvest Farms couldn't have gone any worse.
"I blocked my first tee shot and said, 'I'm sorry!' " Wie said with a laugh. "And they were like 'No, we don't say sorry out here. We've got your back.' I think that's really special."
Those were the words the youngster was waiting to hear because no one, including Wie, knew what kind of reception the LPGA rookie would receive from her new teammates.
"Being a captain's pick, sometimes you wonder, do I really deserve this? Am I the right one?" Wie said. "But everyone's come up to me and said, 'I'm really glad you made it.' It's just nice to know these girls have my back."
It didn't happen all at once, though.
"When she first got here you could tell that she wasn't one of the peers," said course owner and designer Jerry Rich. "Now they're giving high-fives and patting each other on the back. They're really coming together as a team and she feels she's part of the team now.
"We all hoped that she'd make it. She's just a wonderful young lady. I think she's really going to shine."
If the swarm of media surrounding her Wednesday is any indication, Wie already has arrived. But her popularity is a mixed blessing for U.S. captain Beth Daniel.
Sure, it's good to have a household name on the team to attract fans and media to the Solheim Cup, but at what cost to the other team members and team chemistry as a whole?
"She got so much media attention by playing in the men's events and there was all this debate about was she doing the right thing, was she doing the wrong thing, is she getting too much, is she not getting enough?" Daniel said.
"I think that's important because I can't send one person out the week of the Solheim Cup and win it. I need 12 people all on the same page trying to achieve the same thing and I have twelve people who are on board with it, and that's very important.
"I do not want this to turn into a Michelle Wie Solheim Cup because it's not about her, and she understands that."
Teammate Christina Kim thinks Wie will fit in just fine and all the bluster surrounding her arrival will soon fade.
"People are really starting to embrace her and really getting to know her," Kim said. "They're seeing her for the first time for who she really is, which is an incredible human being with a huge heart."
And someone who's at the place she wants to be. Finally.
"It was one of my biggest goals," Wie said of making the Cup team. "It's been fun living in one house, eating at the same time; it's just been such a great experience.
"I just cannot wait for the real thing."