There are only very few individuals who make it to golf amateur championship at a young age. Among the few are Michelle Wie who almost won an LPGA major when she was 13 and a PGA when she was 14. Wei made her professional debut in 2005 at the Samsung World Championship in 2005. But just lately her game has been not so good, besieged by criticisms, wrist injuries, poor public relations, missed cuts and two withdrawals. These are reasons enough to wipe the smile off anyone’s face right?

But Michelle now has another big reason to smile because she has finally come of age! She turned 18 on last Thursday. Yep she finally blew her 18 candles. It’s good because she’ll be in good spirits as she heads down for the Samsung World Championship. According to her, “I feel a lot better as a person. You know, I think that it will get better.”

Aside from golfing, Michelle Wie is also currently a freshman in Standford University where she’s taking up classes in humanities, calculus and Japanese.

Happy birthday Michelle!