WIE-MARKABLE 13-YEAR-OLD HAWAIIAN ON `TOTALLY DIFFERENT LEVEL'.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

Michelle Wie missed the cut in her first three LPGA Tour events, but give her some slack - she was only 12 years old at the time.

This year, at the advanced age of 13, Wie is 3 for 3 in making the cut in LPGA tournaments and 1 for 1 in getting into the final group at an LPGA major.

She plays in another major this week - the U.S. Women's Open at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Ore. - and who's to say she won't again be in the final group Sunday?

Unlikely? You bet. But Wie's career defines unlikely. Just two weeks ago, the teenager from Honolulu celebrated her graduation from eighth grade by defeating the 2002 NCAA women's champion to become the youngest player to win a U.S. Golf Association adult championship.

That victory, over Virada Nirapathpongporn in the U.S. Women's Public Links championship, earned Wie a berth in the U.S. Women's Open, where she will face the top women's professionals in the world - most of whom she outshot at the Kraft Nabisco Championship in the first LPGA major of the season.

Wie slipped that Sunday to finish tied for eighth at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. But she also shot a tournament-amateur-record 66 in the third round to earn a spot in the final threesome with world No. 1 Annika Sorenstam and eventual Kraft-Nabisco winner Patricia Meunier-Lebouc.

Both departed Wie's first major impressed with the ability and the enthusiasm the 6-foot Hawaiian teenager brings to the game.

``That's what I'm looking for, a girl that enjoys playing,'' Meunier-Lebouc said.

Sorenstam, who has won 45 LPGA events and is dominating her tour as Tiger Woods has dominated the PGA Tour, said she ``cannot relate at all'' with what Wie is accomplishing at such a young age.

``Starting at Sweden, my handicap was 63,'' said Sorenstam, who began playing golf at age 12. ``A year later, who knows? Maybe it was a 45. So I cannot relate at all. She's playing on a totally different level at that age.''

And not just against her fellow females.

The heads of PGA Tour players were swiveling like owls when Wie started booming 300-yard drives at the Sony Open practice range in Honolulu in January. She was playing that week in a pro-am event, having failed in a bid to qualify for the tournament despite defeating half of the men in that qualifier.

``You watch her swing and say, `That's normal,' '' two-time major champion Vijay Singh said that week. ``Then, you realize that she's only 13 years old and that's ... that's unbelievable.''

Andy Miller, who won the 93-player Sony qualifier in which Wie's 73 tied for 47th, said: ``There's a lot of guys who got kicked around by a 13-year- old girl.''

The same might happen to a lot more men and women professionals before this summer ends and Wie begins ninth grade at Punahou School. She has accepted sponsor's invitations to play in the LPGA Jamie Farr Kroger Classic as well as men's events on the Canadian and Nationwide tours.

There's also three USGA championships - the U.S. Junior Girls and U.S. Women's Amateur after this week's U.S. Women's Open - putting Wie in four national championships between eighth and ninth grades.

That is just fine with the strong and slender phenom PGA Tour player Tom Lehman calls ``The Big Wiesy'' because, like Ernie Els, her smooth and rhythmic swing generates seemingly effortless power.

``I don't like going to the mall,'' she said. ``I'm not really like the other girls. I just like to go to the golf course and play. Golf is fun and feels really good.''

Professional golf will remain a temporary pastime for Wie, by tour regulation and her own inclination: Though she cannot join the LPGA Tour until she turns 18, Wie, who takes several honors classes, has said she wants to put off any professional playing career until after college, where her choice is Stanford.

In the meantime, she's enjoying her summer vacation, with her father - University of Hawaii professor B.J. Wie - serving as caddie and helping track down those monster drives, like the 314-yard blast she hit in her final round at the PubLinks.

Her future LPGA opposition can only wait and wonder how good this kid will get.

``As long as she's not bored with the game,'' former U.S. Women's Open champion Laura Davies said, ``she's going to be the real thing. Well, she already is.''

Dave Shelburne, [phone]

dave.shelburne(at)dailynews.com

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Michelle Wie, 13, has made the cut in all three LPGA Tour events in which she has played.

Chan Bush/Special to the Daily News