Michelle Wie’s playing days are not over, but while she’s spending time away from the competitive game as an expectant mother, she will still be busy in professional golf.
Golf Channel announced on Wednesday that Wie would be joining the network’s dais on its “Live From” set for three big events over the next seven months as a contributing analyst.
Wie will slide into a chair alongside Rich Lerner and Brandel Chamblee beginning next week at The Players Championship, and she will reprise that role again in May at the PGA Championship and in September at the Ryder Cup.
“I learned a lot from working with the ‘Live From’ team at the Solheim Cup, and I am honored to have been invited back to be a contributing analyst alongside some of the best,” Wie said in Golf Channel’s announcement.
Michelle Wie West is joining the ‘Live From’ crew for a trio of high-profile events, beginning with next week’s Players Championship. https://t.co/OKLEnWghvX pic.twitter.com/2etaCt4l9o
— Golf Central (@GolfCentral) March 4, 2020
This will be Wie’s second foray into television. Wie worked as a Golf Channel studio analyst during the Solheim Cup and she will be a “multimedia” contributor next month at the Masters for CBS.
Wie spent much of 2019 on the shelf with a nagging wrist injury, but made headlines intermittently announcing various life events such as getting engaged and married to Jonnie West, son of NBA great Jerry West, as well as going public that the couple will be expecting their first child together this summer.
As a result, Wie is on maternity leave from the LPGA Tour this season. While the circuit allows for players on maternity leave to play in events should they so choose, Wie hasn’t made any announcement that she would be doing so.
With the news that she and West would be having a girl, however, Wie said that her passion and motivation to return to the LPGA Tour was reignited.
“The motivation to come back is even stronger because I’m having a girl,” Wie said in January. “I really want her to see me play. I want her to see me be a strong woman. That’s really important to me. The motivation to come back and play is definitely there.”
With Wie’s move onto the “Live From” set, analyst Justin Leonard has been move to the network’s prime-time telecasts, according to the release.
