Now Wie will drive for the big bucks

At least she won’t have any money problems while the debate gets started. Wie wore a pink shirt with a white swoosh on it and sat in front of a backdrop with the logos of Nike and Sony, her new corporate sponsors who are so happy to be on her team that they’re both giving her a reported $5 million a year for the privilege.

Woods knows all about endorsements, to the tune of about $90 million a year, and he also knows enough about Wie to say that she can handle the life of a professional golfer, even if she is in her mid-teens.

‘‘I wouldn’t see any reason why she can’t,’’ he said. ‘‘I can only compare to me. When I was 16, I wasn’t even thinking about turning pro, I was just hoping to get into college somewhere. She has a talent and has been good enough to make a giant step. At 16, I was just excited to get my driver’s license.’’

Right now, it looks like Wie is comfortable in the driver’s seat. She hasn’t hit a ball as a pro and already is a multimillionaire. Many probably will find it fashionable to question what Wie will lose as part of her youth now that she’s playing for money, but there doesn’t really seem to be any downside.

What makes Wie different, and worth $5 million a year for five years to Nike, is that she wants to play against men. ‘‘That’s what would drive the ratings, that’s what would drive people to buy the Nike gear she’s wearing’’, said Kurt Badenhausen, associate editor at Forbes. And that’s why she’s making more off-the-course money than Annika Sorenstam, a 63-time tournament winner and Hall of Fame player, whose endorsement income is estimated at about $5 million a year.

If there is an inequity in endorsement income compared to results, ask LeBron James about making $90 million right out of high school. At least Wie is staying in high school. She is in the 11th grade and obviously very good at math.

Meanwhile, the short-term questions will start being answered next week, when Wie makes her debut as a professional at the 18-player, $850,000 Samsung Championship, an LPGA event at Bighorn Golf Club.

She might not be old enough to drive a car to Palm Desert before Tuesday, but now there’s nothing to stop her from cashing a paycheck. That’s her personal golf evolution.

(LA Times-Washington Post)

A PRODIGY’S PROGRESS

• When she was 11, she won Hawaii’s most prestigious women’s amateur tournament, the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational

• At 12, she was the youngest Monday qualifier for an LPGA Tour

• When she was 13, she was the youngest player to win an adult USGA event, the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship

• At 14, she missed the cut at the Sony Open even though she shot 68 in the second round

• She’s made the cut at her last 16 LPGA tournaments