Lucy Park has had a breakout first year on the Cascades’ golf team, with multiple top-10 finishes through the year, tying for third at the UCSC Spring Invite in March against NCAA Division III level teams. The young star has shown a lot of growth and promise in her inaugural season and only looks to get better as she continues to her goal of playing professional golf when she graduates.
How did you get into this sport and why golf?
I started pretty late; a lot of people who play golf started when they were five years old. I started in grade 10. I had never played a round before. I went to the range a couple of times. My sister wanted to start playing golf because my dad used to play. He didn’t play as much then, but he wants to play with me, and we both want to get better together.
I was on my high school golf team and was better than most of the golfers. A lot of them were hockey players and baseball players. So they looked very athletic and muscular, and I was the only girl on the team; I’m not that athletic. I was pretty weak and I still played better; that gave me some confidence. I was beating all the guys and I was like, “this is something I want to do.”
When did you decide that you wanted to go from playing for fun to competitive?
My personal coach has helped me a lot with that. [When I first started], I played just twice a week, more for fun, and my coach said, “you could play competitive golf and try it out.” Then I started practicing more, and after three months, I started playing tournaments, which people don’t usually do. Tournaments like the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour (MJTs) are very competitive.
But that was good for me, I feel I learn easier if I get into competitive mode and see the people who are good. Right after that first tournament, I got to see what I needed to improve on; I wanted to get better.
I actually won one of the bigger tournaments for the first time in grade 12. Jennifer [Greggain], who was the [golf] coach before Cody [Stewart], reached out and asked, “Are you interested in playing university golf?” I thought, “that’s another level of golf,” and then that’s when I started thinking and hoping to turn pro and play on a tour after graduation.
What was the first bad golf habit you had to learn to break?
Learning to not be so competitive. I used to play golf a lot with my dad, and I was so competitive. I wanted to win. I wanted to play better, I don’t want to see those high scores. My dad said, “You’re here to have fun with me. You don’t have to beat me. You don’t have to try to be my friend.”
I once had a bad round because I wasn’t playing well. I think this is the one time I kicked or threw my ball. It wasn’t even big. Like I’ve never kicked anything. I’ve never thrown anything. I was playing so badly.
And my dad got so mad at me, he was like, “You can’t do that. And you have to have fun, even if you’re playing a bad round. In tournaments, you’re supposed to be enjoying your sports.” I was like, ”Yeah, that’s something I should work on.” Yeah, I just played around with him. Had more fun.
How do you handle the stress of a bad round if you don’t throw the ball, then?
I actually struggled with that a lot; I get really stressed, but I’m not too aggressive, which is good.
Every hole, I’ll say, “This is a new hole. The last hole is done. That’s not in my head anymore. This is a new hole. I’m playing this hole.”
I try to view the whole tournament as one thing. It’s very healthy because looking at one day, 18 holes isn’t that long. Well, if we say five hours, it feels longer. So when I think, “I have 36 holes to go and I only played three holes badly, that’s okay.” It’s not the end of the day.
What are your favorite courses to play in B.C.?
Ledgeview is my favorite. It’s the course I grew up playing. I was a member there. Nick Taylor and Adam Svensson were members at Ledgeview and play in the PGA. I think it’s so cool that I get to play the same course as them. It’s just a fun and easy course.
Cordova Bay in Victoria; it’s a beautiful course, it’s just pretty. The greens were not that fun. It was very undulating and it was hard to play, but it was a cool course.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
Teryn Midzain is an English Major with ambitious goals to write movies and a full-time nerd, whose personality and eccentrics run on high-octane like the cars he loves. More importantly, Teryn loves sports [Formula One], and doesn’t care who knows. When not creating and running deadly schemes in his D&D sessions, Teryn tries to reach the core of what makes the romantic and dramatic World of Sports, the characters and people that make the events so spectacular.