She partnered up with former San Diego State University standout Christine Wong at her first-ever Junior Opening Day at the Quilchena Golf and Country Club. Now, Alisha Lau is about to embark on her own collegiate career south of the border.
The Grade 12 student at Burnett Secondary School has earned a full-ride scholarship to the University of Colorado. The lucrative deal reflects her status as one of the top junior age talents in the country and her rather rapid ascend into an elite player.
Lau was only nine when she played alongside Wong on that spring afternoon. She influenced her enough to eventually drop competitive dance and focus only on golf.
“Christina was just finishing high school at the time or going to college. She told me I should start playing Junior Linkster events and that’s how it all started, smiled Lau. “Christine has always been there since I was young and her sister (Stephanie) too.
“But it wasn’t until I was 13 that I began to take it more serious. I got Rob (Houlding) as my coach and moved up to bigger tournament events. Older girls were telling me I had good potential and I just started getting better and better. Lots of people have said my learning curve has been quite quick.”
By the time she was 15, Lau had earned a spot on the national junior team and university programs were paying plenty of attention.
About a year later, schools were allowed to approach her under the strict NCAA recruiting guidelines. She already had at least one offer on the table when Colorado entered the picture. The Buffaloes coaching staff happens to include Canadian Golf Hall of Famer and Vancouver native Brent Franklin who had earlier scouted Lau.
“I was definitely interested in Colorado but wasn’t too sure where I was on their list,” she recalled. “I was kind of being pushed by these other schools that I was interested in and was teeter-tottering a bit.
“Coach (Anne) Kelly then wanted me to come (for an unofficial) visit but I had a couple of other things going on and couldn’t go. She called me back later and said they wanted to offer me a full-ride scholarship. I was on the plane the next morning and missed my socials test. I didn’t even have a chance to tell my teacher where I was. It was a little bit of a jumble for a couple of days but definitely exciting.”
At the time, Lau could only make a verbal commitment then proceeded to have an impressive competitive summer. She was fourth at the Canadian Juniors in Nova Scotia and sixth at the B.C. Women’s Amateur. She also qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur in New Jersey.
Lau made an official visit to the Boulder campus last October and signed her National Letter of Intent a few weeks later.
“Alisha was a highly-recruited player and we are very excited that she choose CU,” said Kelly. “She has a lot of high level tournament experience and has very sound fundamentals that will blossom with more experience at the collegiate level. She is a dedicated student and athlete who will represent our program and CU in a first rate manor.”
Lau also got a taste of campus life at a large Pac-12 school during her visit and went to a Buffaloes football game at Folsom Field with over 40,000 fans in attendance.
“The football team had gone from worst to first in the Pac 12 South and they were calling it ‘the rise is real.’ It was pretty big just walking down to the stadium, seeing the marching band and all the school spirit. It’s quite dynamic and quite different than back here but a very exciting thing too,” she said.
The collegiate golf season is split into fall and spring schedules. It means Lau will have to take a different approach to her usual summer tournament schedule. She currently is practising regularly under Houlding at his training centre in East Richmond.
Ideally, her game will be peaking when she heads to Boulder in mid-August.
“I’m definitely going to be playing some local events to build myself up for the major tournaments in the summer. It’s usually a pretty crazy six weeks where I’m going all over the place. This time I have to be more careful and not overplay before I go to school with the season starting in September,” she explained.
Lau describes her game as being “well-rounded” with her mid to short irons being her strength. She is also consistently in the fairway off the tee and it’s typically her putter that determines just how good her round will be.
“I like the diversity of different shots and how creative you can get,” she added. “I have played volleyball and softball at school, as well as other sports, but you can’t sub out in golf. It’s a four to five hour-grind that offers so many different things in one.
“As much as you are playing against competitors, it’s really me against the course. I’m trying to go out there and play my best to give myself the best opportunities.”
She has enrolled in Colorado’s College of Arts and Sciences for now. She is considering business school or another program that is equivalent to kinesiology back home.
