Lucy Li

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Did anyone watch this young lady at the Womens US Open at Pinehurst no 2 the last 2 nights , she shot 78 78 for a +16 total and was not last in the leaderboard ..........she is rather small and that is because she is 11 years old , yes read again , 11 years old , she had to hit woods into some of the long par 4 and even a 5 wood to a par 3 .......................it was nice to watch someone so young complete in the top level of the women`s game , made a change from those over paid footballers rolling round in pain after being hit by a mashmellow lol ...........I shall keep an eye on her progress.........................EYG
 
Loved her quote about bouncing back from the bad holes - which she did throughout both days - "If you care about your score, then the numbers get bigger and bigger and if you don't care about it, it actually helps you play better" - the wisdom/naivety of children.
 
snaphookwedge said:
11 is far too young to be playing in a professional competition.
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Lydia Ko won a Pro tournament aged 14 - as an amateur. That was an improvement over the year before when she was 2nd.

Does seem young, but I believe Golf is a lot different to Tennis, which had talent vs (im)maturity conflicts quite some while ago.
 
snaphookwedge said:
11 is far too young to be playing in a professional competition.
Click to expand...

It's hard to deal with child prodigies - what's the alternative to letting them compete? Same problem with math geniuses or musical talents. You can't bring them up the way you bring up kids of more usual abilities. They would be miserable.

And remember she wasn't there by dint of some promoters invitation - she won her US open qualifying competition by a margin.
 
she comes from a family that seem to have a very hot house attitude to teaching,both her and her brother never attended school but were home taught,through a scheme set up by Stanford university,same with the golf she had a pro coach from the age of 4,now it all sounds great but to me seems very insular,is it what the child and yes she is still a child wishes to do or is it what her father has told her she is going to do.
The sickly sweet way they described her outfits and her eating a lolly pop gave me the creeps,just because she can hit a golf ball and qualified to be there does not mean she should be there,the emotional pressure could cause her to go the way of a lot of young sports men and women,look at WIE and the problems she had in the end it caused her family to split,no in my opinion is 11 is far to young to be playing with the big girls,even a few on the tour have said the same.
 
Not particularly keen on 'hot-housing' but it can produce some absolute stars! Who knows how many failures there have been and those are likely to be really strange people!

But 'early development' and parental pushing has been very successful for many Korean female golfers!

Wie happens to be leading the US Open btw!

And Li shot the same score as Laura Davies and Natalie Gulbis! The outfit I saw a pic of was certainly patriotic!
 
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Foxholer said:
Not particularly keen on 'hot-housing' but it can produce some absolute stars! Who knows how many failures there have been and those are likely to be really strange people!

But 'early development' and parental pushing has been very successful for many Korean female golfers!

Wie happens to be leading the US Open btw!

And Li shot the same score as Laura Davies and Natalie Gulbis! The outfit I saw a pic of was certainly patriotic!
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It was not about her ability to hit a golf ball, as i stated but whether she should be there for her mental health,ok she suffered no harm this time but how would it have looked to have a 11 year old child in floods of tears asking for her mummy if the pressure got to much,WIE came through a very tough time both on and off the course,how many young hopefulls have not?
 
6inchcup said:
It was not about her ability to hit a golf ball, as i stated but whether she should be there for her mental health,ok she suffered no harm this time but how would it have looked to have a 11 year old child in floods of tears asking for her mummy if the pressure got to much,WIE came through a very tough time both on and off the course,how many young hopefulls have not?
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She managed to qualify for the US Open - I'm sure pressure won't bother her
 
6inchcup said:
It was not about her ability to hit a golf ball, as i stated but whether she should be there for her mental health,ok she suffered no harm this time but how would it have looked to have a 11 year old child in floods of tears asking for her mummy if the pressure got to much,WIE came through a very tough time both on and off the course,how many young hopefulls have not?
Click to expand...

Well 'hot-housing' (or similar) was/is always going to play havoc with development and attitude! My view is that if she has come through that sort of environment, then she's more likely to be capable of withstanding the pressure and pitfalls than others! Having appropriate 'support' to fall back on is the key.

I think Wie did extremely well to cope with being a trail-blazer! The Tennis equivalents - back in the days - didn't have anywhere near the support. Andrea Jaegar, Jennifer Capriati, Jelena Dokic, Mary Pierce. Steffi Graf and the Williams sisters came through some pretty harsh training to be stars! Pam Shriver and Tracy Austin came through it relatively unscathed.

And while Golf is still highly competitive, it's nowhere near as confrontational as Tennis - by it very nature! There's a lot of support for each other amongst players - who will all have a view on whether it's too young to be competing regularly at that level.

Li is still way down the Amateur rankings (1801) so don't expect her to be turning Pro next week. But a possible star! The current #1 Amateur (Aussie Minjee Lee) is 18 and currently tied 3rd.
 
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snaphookwedge said:
The point is she is a child and should be left to develop as a child as well as a sportsperson rather than the other way around - just my opinion.
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Well, not knowing anything about her, I don't think any of us are really in a position to to comment accurately. But she does seem to be 'remarkable'. Would you have her turned into something 'ordinary'? I'm sure there'll be plenty of 'advice' given and it's likely that she'll be left to (fairly rapidly) progress up the Amateur rankings for the next year or so. After that, who knows! Ko has certainly shown what can be done - she has had 1 win and hasn't missed a cut (12 tournaments) on her LPGA Tour rookie year!
 
Foxholer said:
Well, not knowing anything about her, I don't think any of us are really in a position to to comment accurately. But she does seem to be 'remarkable'. Would you have her turned into something 'ordinary'? I'm sure there'll be plenty of 'advice' given and it's likely that she'll be left to (fairly rapidly) progress up the Amateur rankings for the next year or so. After that, who knows! Ko has certainly shown what can be done - she has had 1 win and hasn't missed a cut (12 tournaments) on her LPGA Tour rookie year!
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I know nothing about her and don't claim to, it is just my opinion on a child fast-tracked into a high pressure situation with limited life knowledge - even if she achieved that feat on merit. Surely, giving children choices whilst nurturing talent is more important for a successful long-term career. Perhaps I have missed the point in some eyes but it just feels wrong to me!
 
Can't help feeling she has missed out on social interaction with other kids and the chance to enjoy childhood through this hot housing regime and that seems a little sad to produce someone with the ability to hit a ball well. Even if she goes on to dominate the game, and there's no guarantee that will happen, she'll never get those lost years back and how easy will it be to mingle with others her age in a normal environment once golf finishes
 
Listening to her talk when she's been asked a few questions, the game is something she enjoys doing & she from what she says, is having fun doing something she has a deal of natural talent at. She plays with her Dad some too, when asked if her Dad could beat her, she collapsed in to fits of giggles, saying eventually "no", the intonation said " don't ask dumb questions, was hilarious. Asked about some of her favorite things about the week, her answer was the 'ice-cream'.
Seems there is still very much a pretty normally adjusted, but bright talented 11 year old in there to me.

She's doing importantly what she very much enjoys doing, her happy attitude to it all is heart warming, the talent is quite amazing. She has a very good 'head' on those young shoulders.

In qualifying she won by 7 shots a lot of the players she beat were twice her age.
Wish her all the luck is the world, both her playing & her being interviewed was a real joy to watch. Go girl, have fun!
 
6inchcup said:
she comes from a family that seem to have a very hot house attitude to teaching,both her and her brother never attended school but were home taught,through a scheme set up by Stanford university,same with the golf she had a pro coach from the age of 4,now it all sounds great but to me seems very insular,is it what the child and yes she is still a child wishes to do or is it what her father has told her she is going to do.
The sickly sweet way they described her outfits and her eating a lolly pop gave me the creeps,just because she can hit a golf ball and qualified to be there does not mean she should be there,the emotional pressure could cause her to go the way of a lot of young sports men and women,look at WIE and the problems she had in the end it caused her family to split,no in my opinion is 11 is far to young to be playing with the big girls,even a few on the tour have said the same.
Click to expand...

Aye it's bothering Michelle now ;-) - two shots clear at the top of the leader board in a major on the last day but playing best golf of her life (may not last) and seems to be quite grounded personally.

Main thing I took from the interviews Lucy did was how much like an ordinary wee kid she is - except when she's hitting a golf ball - then she'd boot my and yours backsides
 
Reckon she should just be allowed to do what she enjoys doing - seems to me she had the time of her life and loved every minute of it
 
To this topic, on the coverage this year, an announcer speaking about fellow commentator Judy Rankin, mentioned that back around 1959 a 14 year old Judy won the Missouri Am Open, & the next year was the low AM in the US Open. She went on to turn Pro aged 17. Given Judy's Playing record it worked out pretty good. Think Wie's early years were handled badly by her folks mainly, glad to see she's come through all that now.
 
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