It was considered big news when teen sensation Paula Creamer announced she was turning pro and joining the LPGA Tour 10 months ago.

So big, we're told, that maybe a handful of media crowded around the No. 1-ranked amateur in the scorer's tent at the LPGA Qualifying Tournament in Daytona Beach, Fla., for the announcement.

But in the world of teenage golf, as we are often reminded, there is Michelle Wie and, then, there is everybody else.

Which is why Wie's announcement tomorrow will take place at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental and is scheduled to be hooked in with live satellite teleconferences in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco plus international dial-in.

In New York alone, they say, "60 to 70" media members are expected. More remarkable, perhaps, is that they are asking the local media to be on hand by 7:30 a.m.

Really, now, you didn't expect Wie to make her announcement in a tent — even a three-ring one with "Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey" on it — or without a sizable gallery, did you? Not after all this buildup.

With the 15-year-old who prides herself on attempting "things other people don't do," you knew there wasn't going to be anything remotely routine about this. Especially not with Nike and Sony said to be signing on in the millions of dollars each to be part of the ride.

Even Tiger Woods' announcement that he was leaving Stanford after his sophomore year and turning pro in 1996 attracted only about 100 media — many already on hand for the Greater Milwaukee Open — and no satellite conferences.

Of course, Woods didn't have to schedule an early morning announcement like the one supposedly timed to get Wie back to her classes at Punahou School. No word yet on whether she'll be buying lunch for the entire 11th grade with her contract advance.

It remains to be seen if Wie's coming out tomorrow will pack the same instant promotional kickoff as that of the 20-year-old Woods, whose press conference debuted the "hello world" Nike campaign. But Wie's world is surely a bright new one in its own right as the presence of camera crews from several nations underlines.

She is blazing a heretofore unexplored trail here, crisscrossing the PGA and LPGA tours, not to mention age, gender and continents. All the better to market her appeal to the widest possible audiences.

Which is part of why, you suspect, tomorrow's announcement will confirm that Team Wie is hooking on with the William Morris Agency, and not IMG. Presumably the better to accentuate her distinctiveness since IMG's golf client list, in addition to Woods, includes reigning LPGA queen Annika Sorenstam and Creamer, the LPGA rookie of the year.

If there is one thing we have learned about Wie to date it is that she doesn't walk in anybody else's footsteps or follow a used blueprint. And, far from shying away from the spotlight, she embraces it.

Indeed, Wie's potential makes her unique in so many respects and tomorrow's press conference will be but the latest and largest reminders of that.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.