Yuling Lee '17 Recruiting Profile

Dear Coach,

Hello, my name is Yu-Ling Lee, an international student from Taiwan, and I am writing to introduce myself because I am interested in joining your golf team and your university. The reason why I put golf first is that even though I have only been playing for a short time (four years), I have developed a deep and abiding passion for the game. In the future, I see myself pursuing golf as a lifelong professional sport, in no small part thanks to the guidance of my mother and the support of my coaches.

I was first introduced to golf in the form of my mother, who one day when I was thirteen walked through the door with a heavy bag of golf clubs over her shoulder. She was convinced that I was “too skinny” for a girl my age, and wanted me to go out and get some exercise. This turned out to be an ironic and saddening request, as shortly thereafter we discovered my mother had thyroid cancer, and had to take a great deal of wearying medication and treatment. Her greatest wish at the time was that I remained fit and healthy, and so I took to golf with the end of making my mother proud.

I played my very first game of golf in March, 2012, and my first ever golf instructor was Coach James Lin. We started off easy, but I wanted to play more, and got my wish – soon we were playing almost every day for the next three months. Coach Lin was impressed with how much skill I had developed in so short a time, and felt that by summer I was ready for my first taste of competition – the Chinese Taipei Golf Tournament for adolescents. The final score of my first tournament was 144 strokes, and I would have been very disappointed if I hadn’t been having so much fun! I continued training with Coach Lin until f, when he told me that there was nothing more I could learn from him, and that I should find a professional trainer to help me develop my potential. By this time I had improved my stroke from 144 to the 93-98 range – and I felt ecstatic, like my skill was finally catching up to my spirit!

My first professional coach was a man named Tony Ko, who famously trained Yani Tseng, the LPGA Champion in both 2008 and 2011. Most of the other potential students in the assessment round had strokes of about 75, but I was still hitting in the low 90s. What set me apart from the other students – the reason why Coach Ko selected me – was because instead of trying to impress him with what skill I had (like the others were doing), I closely watched him, learning straight from the master.

I specifically remember him telling me that I was an observant player, and being impressed at how quickly I had developed my skill. After five months of tireless practice every day – with a high cost in sweat and tears – I had improved my stroke to 76. Coach Ko noted that because of my ability to learn so much so soon, I had a great deal of potential as a professional player. He recommended that I study abroad in the United States and pursue a career in professional golf there. Today I am still awed by the faith Coach Ko showed in me, and look forward to justifying that faith by competing in – and winning – my own LPGA championship.

After taking part in the Ping Tournament in California during the summer of 2014, Coach Ko recommended another trainer to me: sport performance coach Sean Cochran. My practice session with Coach Cochran was only supposed to last two days, but he insisted that I spend a third day training with him. I was a bit surprised at this request, because a student has to really impress a trainer before they make such an unusual request, but not nearly as surprised as I was after Coach Cochran later forwarded me a letter in which he called me “the best athlete [he had] seen this summer”.

With the full confidence of all my coaches and the support of my parents, I decided that I would do my best by taking a study abroad program in the United States. However, this meant giving up much – I am no longer near my family in Taiwan, and we had to sell my old house to pay for my schooling. My parents have put in a lot of effort to make sure I can stay here in the United States comfortably, and my mother has fought past her health problems in order to join me here.

Along with this great new shift in my life, I have faced two other recent and less-fortunate changes: firstly, my golf clubs were stolen from my home in 2015, shortly after I took second in the Toyota Qualifier in California. I don’t need to tell about you the unavoidable difficulty I faced in having to adapt to a new set. Soon after this, I realized that if I wanted to go professional someday, I had to escape from my old, childish swing. To get out of this trap, I sought out Jim Follingstad, a professional swing coach. Developing my swing with Coach Follingstad necessitated another handicap as I had to adapt to the new swing, to match the professional style. He assures me that with my “natural swing”, I am already well on my way to playing the professional way. I should have mastered the swing by the end of this year, giving me another full year to practice and perfect it – just in time to join your university.

The rate of progress may seem incredible to a professional coach, but my track record and the commendations of my coaches prove that I can accomplish this the same way I have accomplished all my other goals: with dedication and passion. Dedication is what helps me break through the wall of fatigue, I feel after practicing the same swing for hours; when I hit a rock in my path, passion is what gives me the strength to carry on.

With my passion and practice, I will be one of the stronger athletes in the sport to enter your college – with dedication and training, I will be one of the strongest. The practice I have already invested will save time and effort that I can instead use to learn what your coaches have to teach me. While I have only been playing golf for a comparatively short time, I have already come very far, and expect to go much further. I know that I will enjoy the time perfecting my game being around others who share my passion for the sport.

After I have finished university and faced my first challenges as a professional golfer, it is my dream to become the world’s preeminent women’s golf “ambassador”. In this role, I would help promote global health and fitness by encouraging children and aspiring athletes – especially young women – to take up sports and refine their abilities. I want to be there to help them discover the happiness and pride that I feel whenever I meet a challenging shot. By helping in this way, I want to show my gratitude to my mother, my coaches, and all the others who helped and trusted in me.

With all the encouragement I have received from my previous coaches, and the training you offer, I will be a great addition to your university and golf team. Though there have been a few bumps on my path, I know that with hard work, dedication, commitment, and confidence I can triumph over any more that may lie in my future. Using everything I have learned about the sport and about myself, I expect to fulfill and surpass the potential that my coaches and my parents see in me. This potential can only be tempered by the unflagging passion I have felt ever since I took up my first club.

Thank you for the chance to relate how I feel about the great game of golf, and the ways I can contribute to your university. Shortly I hope to be able to introduce myself as a member of the University Name here golf team,

Sincerely yours, 

Yu-Ling Lee