Ziemer's B.C. Golf Notes: Vancouver’s Victoria Liu an Ivy League star; Taylor top-10s at Valspar; Hadwin, Svensson and Taylor off to Match Play; Arora earns player of week honours
BC's Victoria Liu Wins Third Ivy League Title This Year - Image Courtesy GoPrincetonTigers.com
Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
Victoria Liu headed to Princeton University with more than a little apprehension about how she would balance the academic challenges of an Ivy League school with playing college golf.
It turns out the Lord Byng high school graduate from Vancouver need not have worried. Liu is registering excellent grades as she pursues a computer science degree at Princeton and is absolutely acing things on the golf course.
In just her second year, Liu has collected five tournament wins for the Tigers. Her latest win, and third of her sophomore year, came at last week’s River Landing Classic in Wallace, N.C. Liu carded rounds, of 71, 70 and 75 to finish the 54-hole event at even-par, one stroke ahead of Marshall University’s Emily McLatchey.
Liu credits her success on the golf course to being able to find that delicate balance between her academics and her golf. “I heard a lot of rumours about going to Ivy League, about going to Princeton, and that a lot of people would drop golf or not want to play anymore because of how intense the school is,” Liu said over the phone from Sea Island, Ga., where she and her teammates spent spring break.
“I was really scared going into it. That was definitely one of my fears because I really love my golf. But especially after making it through my freshman year, I was able to manage my time. What I really needed to do was develop a really good-quality practice session. My practice time is less than what I had during junior golf, but I think the way I practice and the way I approach my practice is with a different mindset. I am more focused and I want to be there more because it’s also a way of relieving the stress of our school work.”
It seems to be working very well and her stellar play has earned Liu high praise from Princeton coach Erika DeSanty. “I would argue she is one of the very best players to ever come into the Ivy League,” DeSanty said. “She is certainly one of our hardest workers. She is always the first to practice, she is always the last to leave. She loves the game.”
Liu’s latest win included a hole-in-one during the second round when she holed her 8-iron from 125 yards. “This was my third one,” Liu said. “It’s funny because all three of them have come in competition. The last one I got was during an AJGA event when I was 14 or 15. So I hadn’t had one in a while.”
Two tournaments remain on Princeton’s spring schedule, the Harvard Invitational and the Ivy League Championship, which Liu won as a freshman. She would love to repeat as champion, but is more concerned about helping ensure her team advances to NCAA regionals.
“I think the biggest goal for the team this year is to try and make it to the nationals because an Ivy League school has never made it,” said Liu, who finished second at last summer’s B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship.
“I feel like our team has so much potential, so my main goal is to do the best I can and help the team win the Ivy League so we have a chance at the regionals. And if I can perform well myself, of course I would love to have the Ivy League title again.”
For her part, DeSanty is not surprised to see the kind of season Liu is enjoying. “There’s absolutely no doubt we saw it coming, especially with the way she finished the spring season last year, winning the Ivy League Championship and then going on to regionals and having an awesome performance.
“There is a clear mentality shift that she has had, focusing on her ability to score no matter what the circumstance, no matter the field, no matter the conditions. She’s putting herself in a place to score at all times and sees herself at the top of every leaderboard regardless of who we are competing against. It’s been fun to watch and be a part of.”
ARORA ACCOLADES: Liu is not the only British Columbian having success at the NCAA Division I level. Surrey’s Angela Arora, a freshman at the University of Tennessee, was selected as the Southeastern Conference’s golfer of the week. That recognition came after Arora won the Clover Cup earlier this month in Mesa, Ariz., in what was just her third tournament start for the Volunteers.
GAME, SET, MATCH: Surrey’s Adam Svensson and the Abbotsford duo of Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin all have spots in this week’s World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Tex. Taylor is coming off a tie for 10th at last week’s Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla., where he earned $181,575. Taylor has now made $3,229,746 this season. Hadwin, whose lone PGA TOUR win came at the 2017 Valspar, missed the cut. Svensson had the week off.
COLLEGE NOTES: Coquitlam’s A.J. Ewart, now in his senior year at Barry University in south Florida, tied for third at the Southeastern Collegiate in Valdosta, Ga. Ewart registered his second straight top-five finish with a 54-hole total of five-under par to help Barry finish third in the team competition. . .Simon Fraser University’s men’s team finished second at the Tim Tierney Pioneer Shootout in Alameda, Calif. SFU finished with a team score of seven-under par, three shots behind the winning team from Cal State Marcos. Michael Crisologo (four-under par) paced the Red Leafs with an eighth-place finish. Jordan Bean tied for ninth at three-under.
WHAT’S COOKING: Vancouver Golf Club has upped its culinary game by hiring Rob Feenie as its chef-in-residence. Feenie, who recently ended his chef-in-residence position at Bacchus Restaurant at Vancouver’s Wedgewood Hotel, will also serve as Vancouver Golf Club’s culinary director.
CHIP SHOTS: GolfBC has announced tentative opening dates for three of its facilities that close during the winter. Gallagher’s Canyon in Kelowna is scheduled to open April 1. Okanagan Golf Club in Kelowna will open its Bear and Quail courses on April 7. Nicklaus North in Whistler is scheduled to open on May 5.