“It kind of lit a fire under me,” she said. “I wanted to do better — not only for myself, but for my team.”
She fired a 5-under 67 Tuesday to claim the girls’ open title. Now, the University of North Carolina commit will turn her focus to college golf.
While Vu received offers from other programs, UNC had long been her favorite. She had attended golf camps in Chapel Hill as a child and had a sense of familiarity with the program.
“I’m pretty sure I have pictures of me wearing UNC hats from when I was like 10 playing golf,” Vu joked. “When I got the offer, I was just ecstatic. It really wasn’t difficult for me to make that choice.”
Robinson golf coach Marvin Sim knew he had something special in Vu when she asked to be a manager for his team as a seventh-grader.
“She did everything that I ever asked of her,” Sim said. “Even though she didn’t have to, she walked the course with some of our better golfers to try and learn the game a little bit more.”
By the team she was a freshman, she was on the team — even if she did hit some bumps during that state championship round. By this fall, the senior was named team captain.
Her goal remains the same: get to the LPGA Tour’s Q-School and earn a tour card. But the soon-to-be Tar Heel feels like she will be in a place to succeed.
“It’ll be fun to have a whole team of people who are kind of in the same place as you and want the same things,” she said.
Vu plans to major in business administration and management when she gets to Chapel Hill next fall. Sim believes she will succeed, no matter where her golf career takes her.
“She has the drive, and she has the necessary skill,” he said. “I have no doubt in my mind that she will graduate from UNC with a good degree and, you never know, possibly take an NCAA championship.”