A Who’s Lu Of Golf

Chinese Taipei Player Enjoys Solid Week In First USGA Event

 

By David Shefter, USGA

 

Fairfield, Conn. – The country once was the dominant force in Little League Baseball. Chinese Taipei (formerly known as Taiwan) was to youth baseball what the New York Yankees are to the big leagues. It was a sheer dynasty.

 

The tiny nation captured 17 Little League World Series titles from 1969 to 1996. From 1972-1992, it won 17 Senior Little League titles and from 1974-1996 it took 17 Big League Little League championships.

 

Hsaio-Ching Lu, 15, of Chinese Taipei, made her first Girls' Junior appearance a good one, advancing to the quarterfinals where she lost to the top seed and medalist, In-Bee Park. (Steve Gibbons/USGA)

On the golf course, Chinese Taipei has not quite matched its baseball success, but if recent results mean anything, the country could be on its way to making an impact in a region that has primarily been dominated by Japan and lately Korea. Twenty Koreans, led by 1998 U.S. Open champion Se Ri Pak, are now competing on the LPGA Tour and two Korean-born girls advanced to the finals at the Girls’ Junior.

 

In 2001, Candie Kung, of Chinese Taipei, the runner-up to Beth Bauer at the 1997 Girls’ Junior, won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links title at Kemper Lakes outside of Chicago and this year she posted her first victory on the LPGA Tour (Las Vegas). And 2001 U.S. Junior Amateur champion Henry Liaw traces his roots to the country (both his parents were born in Chinese Taipei and his father was a star baseball player).

 

This week at the U.S. Girls’ Junior, where golfers from 13 different countries competed, another promising Chinese Taipei golfer made some noise. Hsaio-Ching Lu, a 15-year-old, advanced to the quarterfinals in her first-ever USGA event. Her strong run was ended by defending champion and qualifying medalist In-Bee Park of Korea (she now lives in Eustis, Fla.), 6 and 5. She earlier had defeated two South Americans, Angela Park (Brazil) and Catalina Marin (Colombia), before ousting Amanda Blumenherst, of Scottsdale, Ariz., in round three.

 

Eva Chang, the Chinese Taipei national coach, followed Lu and fellow countrywoman Koh-Chen Yeh this week at Brooklawn Country Club. Yeh, however, did not make the cut for match play.

 

Chang said Lu has the skills necessary to be a champion, having already won the Asian Pacific tournament and the Philippines Junior Masters. Lu plays out of Tamsui Golf Course, the oldest course in the country and Chang said at one time it was the best course in Asia.

 

“She is very determined,” said 12-year Brooklawn C.C. member Bill Rainsberger, who served as her caddie and often used hand signals to communicate. “She hits it surprisingly long for as small as she is. She has a real solid game.”

 

And, according to Chang, it’s a game that could land Lu a spot on the Chinese Taipei team for the 2004 Women’s World Amateur Team Championships in Puerto Rico.

 

Lu arrived in the U.S. on June 22 to compete in the Girls’ Junior and Women’s Amateur qualifiers as well as participate in the Junior World event in San Diego where she placed fourth in the 15-17 age division at Torrey Pines Golf Course a week prior to the Girls’ Junior. Lu also qualified for the upcoming Women’s Amateur at Philadelphia C.C. along with Ya-Ni Tseng, a promising 14-year-old who did not qualify for the Girls’ Junior, and Kwan-Chi Lu (no relation).

 

“The country is starting to support golf again,” explained Chang, who became the national coach in January. “It began about eight months ago. We used to be pretty strong. But our men’s team recently won the Asian Games. The women finished fifth. We don’t quite have the same support as Korea. Hopefully, we’ll get there.”

 

Camp Granada

 

Like Chinese Taipei, Paraguay is not known for its golf. Most youngsters play soccer – or fútbol as they call it in South America – because golf is a game considered only for the wealthy. The country only has six golf courses, one of which is nine holes.

 

“Golf is really expensive and the country is not that rich,” said Julieta Granada, who enrolled at the Bradenton (Fla.) Academy 2½ years ago to improve her golf skills and receive an English education. “With soccer, you can just find a ball and that’s it.”

 

In fact, Granada ’s mother, Rosa, used to use a young Carlos Franco as a caddie when the future PGA Tour player was 16. Franco is the most famous golfer to come out of Paraguay, while Celeste Troche enjoyed a successful amateur and collegiate career (she attended Auburn University) before recently turning pro.

 

“He actually called me but I somehow missed it,” Granada said. “He was at the B.C. Open (in Endicott, N.Y. last week). I was going to ask him if he wanted to caddie for me.”

 

Granada would like to follow in their footsteps and appears well on her way. She has been a quarterfinalist at the Girls’ Junior in 2002 and ’03. Her run was ended on Friday by fellow academy student Paula Creamer, 1 up. Creamer actually attends the Pendleton School in Bradenton, but both share facilities at the David Leadbetter Academy.

 

“We don’t really talk to each other,” said Granada. “We have different instructors. I had never played against her before. I think we were paired once in Junior Worlds.”

 

Because of the lack of competition, Granada ’s family felt it best to send Julieta to the U.S. She now competes on the summer junior circuit. As a 13-year-old she went to Germany to play in the Women’s World Amateur Team Championships. She was invited to play the 2003 event in Malaysia, but chose to stay home. Paraguay wound up not sending a team to Malaysia after placing 22nd in ’01.

 

“They wanted us to pay for the trip,” said Granada. “We actually paid to go in 2001, but Germany was a lot easier to get to from here (in the U.S.) than Malaysia.”

 

Young and Younger

 

The U.S. Girls’ Junior won’t be the final USGA competition for many of this week’s competitors. A total of 19 golfers that played in the Girls’ Junior have either qualified or are exempt into the Women’s Amateur, scheduled for Aug. 4-10 at Philadelphia Country Club in Gladwyne, Pa.

 

Heading the list are the seven U.S. Women’s Open participants: Sydney Burlison, Paula Creamer, Jane Park, Morgan Pressel, Naree Song, Whitney Wade and Michelle Wie. In-Bee Park, the 2002 Girls’ Junior champ, also is exempt.

 

The other competitors from this week’s Girls’ Junior who have qualified are Da Sol Chung, Hsaio-Ching Lu, Mina Harigae, Brittany Lang, Juli Wightman, Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff, Allison Martin, Esther Choe, Nicole Hage, Lisa Kajihara and Hannah Summerhays.

 

Wuesthoff said after her semifinal victory that she would not use her exemption because she wants to play in the Canon Cup, which is the same week.

 

Going Local

 

Six of the eight quarterfinalists employed local caddies, including two members and one son of a member. Besides Rainsberger, Bruno diBiasi was on Pressel’s bag and Jimmy O’Brien, the son of a member, carried for finalist In-Bee Park. Gregor Steger, a 29-year veteran caddie at Brooklawn, is on the bag of finalist Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff.

 

“I would help her where the hills would go,” said Rainsberger of Lu, “but as far as picking the (line), she did all that. She really was calling the game herself.

 

A total of 31 people connected with Brooklawn – members or sons or daughters of members – caddied this week.

 

David Shefter is a staff writer with the USGA. He can be reached at dshefter@usga.org.