Michelle Wie talks exclusively to ESPN STAR Sports ahead of the HSBC Women's Champions which starts on 25th February in Singapore.

By Eugene YS Han

For those who questioned the legitimacy of her staying power. For those who scoffed at her attempts at playing against men. For those who wrote her off when she went on a mini-slump. Michelle Wie is back with a vengeance and probably better than ever.

It was as if it was fated for her to suffer that wrist injury. She was then forced to slow down and take stock of her fledgling but colourful career.

"I broke three bones in my wrist and it was quite a traumatic injury," Wie said of the time she injured her wrist in 2007.

"I never had a serious injury like that before. So my mind wasn't broken but my wrist was. My mind thought my body was 100% so I went out there and gave it my all and it just didn't work out. The more you work at it the worse your condition will be. And it definitely got to me a little bit. Now it's all better and I feel great."

Wie may have been marked for greatness at 14 but it is only at 21 that she has truly convinced that she can now blossomed into a superstar-in-the-making.

It's no wonder that the golfing world is waiting with bated breath. Waiting at perhaps her next title win or even a triumph in a major in the not too far future. The expectations and stakes are higher, especially with golf missing you-know-who and with a financially-hit LPGA, can Wie handle the pressure and expectations?

"I just accepted it," revealed Wie when asked how she handled the stress of it all.

"It's going to come with the territory. I just accepted the fact that I'm going to have stress in this career. But it's also fun and the rewards are so much better."

And when the going gets tough, especially during the time when Wie was missing cuts and getting disqualified, she revealed that it was her family that helped her through the storm.

"I definitely hang on to the people I love. My support systems which are my parents, my friends and my fans. I hang on to the good times and to the future. I hang on to what's going to happen in the future."

Among some of Wie's unsavory experiences was when the 21-year-old decided to play in men's tournaments starting at the age of 14. She defended that decision and said it was something she had set her mind on doing.

"It's something I always wanted to do and when it's on my mind it's something I wanted to do it," she told ESPN STAR Sports.

"I'm not the type that allows other people's criticisms or thoughts to get to me. It's something I would have regretted if I didn't do it. I don't want to live my life at the end of it and be like 'I wish I should have done this, I should have done that'. So one of my mottos is: Living with no regrets and giving it my all."

They always say getting that first win is the hardest. So one could imagine the huge sign of relief when Wie finally got her first LPGA Tour victory - since she turned professional at 16 years of age - at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico.

"I was so happy and relieved to win But it also kinda made me want it (winning titles) even more. It made me practise so hard in the off-season than I ever had. It just motivated me to realise that there are still some things I needed to work on and I want to do better. It just felt so good that I wanted to do it again."

Golf may have been Michelle Wie's true calling but the energetic American is game for any kind of sports when she was younger.

"I played a lot of sports - I swam a lot, I was on the baseball team, I played soccer, I did ballet and gymnastics. I really wasn't very good at any of them," laughs Wie.

"And I also played a lot of tennis. But you know when I first started golf, I wasn't serious at all. I knew I always wanted to play sports and I wanted to be good at something. So golf (in the end) it worked out fortunately."

"I knew if I worked hard at it, cultivated it, it could possibly work. It's still work in progress though."

Wie is definitely a work in progress but there is much hope the 'Wie effect' can help Golf recover from being hit by financial and personal crises.