Woods won the U.S. Junior Amateur three times before moving up to repeat the feat in the U.S. Amateur. He played two years of college golf at Stanford, winning the NCAA tournament, as well. By the time he turned pro, he had no doubts about his ability to win. He also knew that when the screws were torqued down tight and everything rode on one swing of a golf club, he could make the swing better than anyone else. And when it came time to sink the winning putt, it didn’t matter where the ball was on the green, he was putting it in the hole.

Wie can’t know that. She wants to make the shots and hole the putts, and I’m sure she’s done it countless times in practice. But she has yet to do it in a tournament. Rather than getting to know what it’s like to win, she’s getting practice only in how to lose. And she keeps missing putts in pressure situations.

Is it because she’s green or because she can’t handle the pressure? Because she’s just a kid or because she’s been rushed too far too fast?

There’s nothing in the game that requires less physical ability and more mental powers than putting. It’s a skill that feeds on success.

For Jack Nicklaus in his prime and for Woods when he’s zoned in, it seems as if the hole keeps getting bigger and the ball smaller until you’d swear what they’re doing is no harder than knocking BBs into a swimming pool.

But if you start missing kick-in putts under pressure, it’s like beating your psyche to a whimpering pulp with a five iron. With every miss, the hole gets smaller and the ball bigger and the breaks more inscrutable until it feels like you’re trying to drop a beach ball into a knot hole on the deck of a 20-foot sailboat in a gale.

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Golfers even invented a word to describe the fatal disease of being unable to sink a putt that matters — the yips. The malady wormed its way into Ben Hogan’s brain and destroyed his game way before its time. It attacked Tom Watson and wouldn’t let go for more than a decade.

Wie isn’t at that stage — yet. I hope she never gets there. Rather, I hope she gets acquainted with victory to give her confidence the nourishment it needs to grow with her almighty talent.

She’s a pro now, though, and she can’t get it in amateur tournaments. She has to do it against grown women and men. That takes some options away, and you only have to hope she and her father didn’t miscalculate her readiness to compete at this level.

She’s got the talent to qualify for the Open. What we don’t know is if she can seize the moment.

She could be the greatest sports story ever — or golf’s answer to Anna Kournikova.