Michelle Wie
Phenomenal golfer 14-year-old Michelle Wie got her start here
at the Casey Nakama Golf Development Center. Michelle learned the
most important part of the game... fundamentals. At the tender age
of 9 (nine) Michelle started her official golf instruction under the
guidance of Professional Casey Nakama, Director of
Instruction.
When Casey first began teaching Michelle, he worked on her basic
fundamentals: Teaching her to hold a good grip, a balanced athletic
stance and maintaining a good posture angle to the ball. They
worked on keeping the club on the proper plane and keeping her
swing-arc wide. Because she was tall for her age, her wide swing
created an extremely powerful golf swing. Casey then began to
develop her “game skills” (short game, course management and
distance control). After seeing her incredible progress, the only
thing she lacked was tournament experience.
While under Casey's guidance (for 3˝ years) Michelle compiled impressive accolades;
youngest to qualify for the United States Women's Amateur Public
Links at age 10 (also qualifying at ages 11 & 12), winning the
prestigious Jennie K. Wilson Invitational at age 11 (winning by 9
strokes), youngest player (11yrs 10mths) to qualify for the Manoa
Cup (Hawaii State Amateur Match-Play Championship), winning 2001
HSWGA Stroke-Play Championship... and also improved to become a
better player by each passing day/year.
Dean
Wilson
PGA Tour Professional Dean Wilson also seeks Casey's guidance
when he returns to Hawaii. Wilson was rookie of the year on the
Japan Golf Tour in 1998 and played for 3 years accumulating over $2
million in winnings where he was a multiple time winner. In 2003
Wilson got his PGA Tour card via the tour's Q-School and finished
98th on the PGA Tour in his rookie season. Wilson's biggest
highlight in his rookie season on the PGA Tour was at the 2003 Bank
of America Colonial Classic where he was paired with Annika
Sorenstam for the first two rounds as she made history.
Other players who have had lessons with Casey include:
Norman-Ganin Asao:
#1 ranked amateur in Hawaii in 2003 (turned professional in 2004)
Joe Phengsavath:
2002 Hawaii State Amateur Champion (turned professional in 2004)
Randy Shibuya:
2001 Hawaii State Amateur Champion, 2000 Manoa Cup Champion
Bradley Shigezawa: Youngest player to qualify for
Manoa Cup (breaking Michelle Wie’s record at 11 yrs 8 months)
Stephanie Kono: At 10 years of age learned her
basic fundamentals. Has since won 2001 HSWGA Match-Play
Championship, 2003 Jenny K. Wilson Invitational and 2003 HSWGA
Stroke-Play Championship.
Mahina Ah Yuen: 1999 HSWGA Match-Play
Championship
Kathy Cho:
1996 Jenny K. Wilson Invitational (at 15 years old)
and many more... |
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