U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

June 5, 2026

Michelle Wie West

The Riviera Country Club

Flash Interview

Q. Welcome back to the interview, Michelle Wie West. How does it feel to wrap that part up?

MICHELLE WIE WEST: Obviously I would be lying to say I wasn't disappointed. I would have loved to have made the cut today, granted all day.

But I had a blast honestly, with playing here at Riv, such a special week to have played it, and to have family, friends, a lot of familiar faces coming out, it was a lot of fun.

I hit some good shots, hit some good putts, and kind of felt that feeling again, which is awesome.

Q. How much different did this week feel compared to Pebble? Just your daughters now walking around and watching you and everybody's older, like how much different did it feel, just the vibe of all this?

MICHELLE WIE WEST: Yeah, it definitely felt a little scarier coming back, just being gone for so long. You work so hard for just like really one week. It definitely was nerve-racking, but at the same time, it was a lot of fun to come play.

Pebble just truly felt like the end. This was just a bonus, and a great bonus to be able to play at Riv, be able to play another U.S. Open. It's a great honor.

Q. This is an interesting time because we are going to see you play golf later on WTGL. Does it feel like less of a good-bye too because of that?

MICHELLE WIE WEST: I guess so. Pebble felt like the good-bye. This doesn't feel like the week that I'm ending it on. It was really fun to practice the way that I did, come back and grind. It was fun out there.

I made some good birdies today. It's fun to just hit shots under pressure. You don't feel pressure -- I don't feel pressure in my normal life. There's really nothing I do that recreates this, so it was fun to feel it again.

Q. What was that moment and that hug like with your daughter on the final green? I saw you guys trying to coordinate that before you even finished.

MICHELLE WIE WEST: Yeah, it was great to see her. As soon as I hugged her, she was like, can I go to daycare? I'm glad I did all this for her (laughter).

No, it's fun to see your kids grow up and really start to have their own passions and everything. The reason why she wanted to go up to daycare was because she wanted to go play with Brittany Lang's kid.

That's also just so crazy to know that I've known Brittany Lang since I was 13, and now our kids are playing together and are best friends. It's awesome. It's fun to see the time go by, and I feel blessed.

Q. We obviously saw your play on the course, but can you take us a little behind the scenes and what it was like for you this week with family and friends who came and what you enjoyed?

MICHELLE WIE WEST: Yeah, it was great. Obviously any chance to get Johnny on the bag, just the last couple months, because I played so much golf, we spent so much time together. It was just so much fun.

This week was definitely a mad house. Two out of three dogs came, both kids came, nanny came, parents came, and it's just amazing chaos. I had a lot of help this week, and it was really awesome to kind of come back and know that, even though I missed the cut, I go back, and I'm going to have fun with my kids.

Q. One more, your swing looks really good. When you look at it now, what version of yourself do you compare it to?

MICHELLE WIE WEST: Honestly, that was like the fun part about this week and about this whole journey really was it was the first time in my career where I really felt like I can get after it again without really managing much pain.

I was telling my physio, definitely get stiff, definitely got to keep the body moving, but overall it feels really good to be able to, A, work on your swing without the physical limitations.

Just kind of this whole journey, I had a year of just working out, no golf, and that never happened in my life. I kind of felt like I built my body from ground zero after my second pregnancy and going through the postpartum, running half marathon, and it felt good. I felt like I was hitting bombs out there today.

Q. This event seems to have something where 16-year-olds, 13-year-olds, teenagers, they make a splash, and you were one of those. But now that it's coming to an end, what do you think of when you see an Aphrodite do what she did so far this week? A real teenager kind of, I guess, start something for her now that you've seen yours come to somewhat of a close?

MICHELLE WIE WEST: Yeah, it's been really fun in my post-retirement career to be the host of Mizuho Americas Open. We have 24 of the top juniors girls playing that. It's been fun.

I feel very old this week, but at the same time, there's a lot of familiar faces in the junior faces particularly, and it's great to see Aphrodite play really well. She won our event twice in a row, defended her championship this year, and she's been playing really good golf.

Really excited for Curtis Cup next week at Bel Air. Really excited to be there for the girls and root USA on.

Yeah, and I think the next generation, the next wave of girls, they're amazing. They're playing this course really well.

Q. You said that you were going to take McKenna's advice and really lean on what you tell her on the golf course this week. Was that successful?

MICHELLE WIE WEST: I think so. Yeah, I think I did pretty good. I only cursed at myself a couple times. But for a week, tournament week, that's pretty good. I'll take that as a yes, as a win.

I just needed to make a couple birdies coming in, and I really felt like I was there, I was grinding it, and that felt good. That was a lot of fun actually.