Michelle Wie: Not Your Average Teen

Steve Kroft Profiles Teenage Golf Sensation Michelle Wie

(CBS) 
To help manage all of this, her parents have surrounded her with the best people all that money can buy. Besides her caddy, Greg Johnston, and renowned golf coach David Leadbetter, her retinue includes agents, a sports psychologist, physical trainer and image consultant.

Two years ago, it was just Wie and her parents. Now she has an entourage.

"Entourage. That's funny," says Wie. "But, you know, I'm very glad for all the new members of the team. It feels nice to have, you know, people that you can trust around you."

"And making decisions for you," Kroft says.

"Yeah. I mean it's awesome," Wie says.

Most of the shots are still being called by her parents, B.J. and Bo, with recommendations from the William Morris Agency, which was hired by the Wie family to manage the business aspects of her career and line up endorsements from sponsors who were already standing in line.

They include a ubiquitous sporting goods and apparel company, a Japanese electronics giant and a Swiss watch manufacturer — who collectively contribute an eight-figure sum to the Michelle Wie trust fund.

William Morris president David Wirtschafter says Michelle is, and will remain, their only golf client in a talent stable mostly filled with Hollywood actors, directors and writers. He sees her as someone who can easily make the jump from sports to entertainment.

Asked if he thinks there is a difference anymore between sports and entertainment, Wirtschafter says: "We don't think so. We think that sports is a subset of entertainment. And we feel that so many people are interested in her because almost every demographic is anxious to watch her play and anxious to see what she does next, that she will be one of the few athletes who essentially transcends sports and becomes somebody that people pay attention to in popular culture."

Why are so many people interested in her?

"I think that men are fascinated by the way that she plays golf," says Wirtschafter. "She plays golf in a style that is much more like men. It's a power golf style. She hits the ball a long, long way. I think women find her attractive, particularly young women, because she, again, is playing against boys. And, yet, when she's off the course, she's very much like them."

Wirtschafter acknowledges that Wie has also become very attractive and that it makes a huge difference. "Because she exudes femininity, she exudes youth and, on the other hand, just has a skill level that's off the charts. And I think that's a very, very rare combination."

"So if she was 5-2 and weighed 160 pounds, there wouldn't be this interest?" Kroft asks.

"I don't think there'd be this level of interest. But if she was 5-2 and weighed 160 pounds and could play golf as she plays golf, she'd still be a great golfer," says Wirtschafter.

Much of the interest in Michelle is in Asia. She is of Korean descent, already speaks Japanese and is now taking a stab at Mandarin. When she arrived at an airport in Japan last year before playing in a tournament there, she was styled and greeted like a major movie star, although she tries to pretend otherwise.

Wie says she doesn’t feel the level of celebrity she has already achieved. Referring to her movie star-like reception in Japan, Wie says, "Oh, I just figure that they were there at the airport because they had a plane to catch."

Wie admits juggling high school life while playing on the LPGA Tour is hectic but says that's the way she likes it.

"I mean, I like being busy. When I have nothing to do, I'm just like, 'Find me something to do.' I'm just, like, walking around my house trying to find something, actually cleaning up my room," she says, laughing. "Which I never do."

Asked if her parents still rule her life, Wie says: "Well, basically, in the household. I mean they're the head of the household. So I guess I have to listen. But I'm still stubborn. I won't give in easily, that’s the thing."

That stubbornness has helped propel her to stardom. She passed up junior events and amateur tournaments that she could win for the chance to lose and learn from the best professionals. She also ignored people like John Hawkins, a senior writer at "Golf World" and "Golf Digest," who advised her to stay away from the men’s tour and go play with the girls.

"Michelle's an iconoclast. She is somebody who dares to separate herself from her so-called peers," says Hawkins.

Hawkins says it's a huge part of Wie's appeal.

"She is unlike anybody else," he says. "Who has the guts — can't refer to any other part of the anatomy here — who has the guts to play against men when they're 16? I have a tremendous amount of respect for the satchel it takes to go out there and tee it up with the big boys. You gotta turn your TV on and watch that, don't you? I mean, you got to."

And people watched. "People came out. It was all over the newspapers the next day. It's news. It's news when she tries," says Hawkins.