Freshman Millie Wang first tried her hand at golf at the age of 10 through a summer camp in Santa Clara. While she originally did not find the sport interesting, she continued playing due to her parents urging her to give the sport a chance. As she gained more experience, she fell in love with the sport and started practicing at the Pruneridge Golf Club in Santa Clara.
While Wang played recreationally during middle school, she began dedicating more time the summer before her freshman year. She practiced every day and developed a long-term goal of playing Division I college golf. While she doesn’t yet have a dream school, she finds Stanford’s golf program intriguing.
Currently, Wang is one of two freshmen on the girls’ golf team and is the No. 2 player. So far, she has enjoyed playing for the school.
“It’s a new experience since I’ve never played in a team before,” Wang said. “The team bonding makes golf a lot more enjoyable than playing by myself.”
On days with no school team practice, Wang often practices for three hours at Pruneridge. During a typical practice, she starts with a large bucket of balls at the driving range then moves on to chipping and putting. She also takes videos of herself to analyze and alter her swing as needed, keeping previous tournaments in mind in terms of what exactly to focus on for each practice session.
On weekends, she plays tournaments to continue gaining experience. Before each tournament, she arrives an hour earlier to stretch and warm up her shots.
“Tournaments are really time-consuming because the sport is really slow, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it,” Wang said.
One tournament that she said she will always be proud of is the American Junior Golf Association tournament at Stanford Golf Course this past August. She was pleasantly surprised to qualify for it after she won the one-day qualifier event with a 2-under 69 (two rounds of nine holes, totally 69 shots). Wang missed the first day of school for the tournament, but she said the experience was well worth it.
Despite the time-consuming nature of the sport and other drawbacks — Wang described golf as a sport that can be inconsistent and have unexpected results — she said but the sport’s qualities help her grow as an athlete.
“Golf is a game where one hole may go really badly but you must continue playing,” Wang said. “It helps you train your mindset to stay calm and just accept what’s going on.”