Freshman
year, “the best year of your life,” as some would say. Everyone has encouraged
me to take full advantage of it. Although transitioning to living at school can
be tough, I have attended boarding school since seventh grade, and that has
helped me ease into college life. Through my experience thus far, I have
learned that having a great group of people including my friends, family,
coaches, and teammates, have helped me adapt to life on the Farm. In fact, one
the biggest changes for me has been getting used to the beautiful sunshine of
California, which bodes much better for my golf game then snowy New England!
Stanford has been great so far, and I wanted to share my favorite moments from
this fall.
Playing Great
Courses
As members of
the golf team we have the opportunity to travel around the Bay Area and play
some amazing golf courses. We are fortunate enough to be able to play the
Stanford Golf Course as often as we want. On top of this, we’ve played storied clubs
this fall such as San Francisco Golf Club and California Golf Club, as well as
ones with great views such as Half Moon Bay.
Meeting All
Sorts of People
The Stanford
Golf Team has a great supporting cast of people that have contributed to our
success through their continuous support. I have been fortunate enough to meet
some of these people at the Siebel Varsity Golf Training Complex and at the
Cardinal Classic. While they all had diverse interests outside of golf, they
all exhibit a strong passion for the game. One particular person I met helped
build the pool at the middle school I attended out in Massachusetts. I was a big
swimmer throughout grade school, and I was very grateful of this beautiful pool
during my time there. It was quite a coincidence to meet the people whom it had
been named after, and it proved to me how contributions like this are vital to
a team’s success.
Taking Down
the Big Dogs
Despite being
a very close-knit team, a key value of our team is the competitiveness. This is
exemplified in practice where the sole purpose of our practice is to beat a
teammate is set drills.
Isaiah and I,
two of the three freshmen on the team, challenged and then proceeded to
successfully take down the big, bad, juniors Mav and V, in a best ball battle
at our practice facility. Isaiah showcased his clutch putting rolling in a 15
footer on the last hole, accompanied by a strong fist pump. Big win for the
good guys.
Pumpkin Ridge
Playing
Pumpkin Ridge was a blast. This historic venue, where Tiger won his third
consecutive US Amateur Championship in 1996, served host to my first collegiate
tournament.
The third and
final day, I had two double bogeys in five holes and was sitting at 4 over,
however, I went 7 under from then on out including closing with 5 birdies in a
row, something I had never done before.
It was a great way to finish off my first tournament!
The fall season was a blast and I
can’t wait for what the spring has in store! Go Card!
by Brandon Wu
