Austin Liu '19 Recruiting Profile

My name is Austin Liu and I will be a 2019 graduate of Oak Park High School in Southern California.

Ever since I was 5 years old, I was attracted to golf.    My parents never knew much about golf, but they help me develop a deep love and passion. They devoted so much time and money into my future and I am so thankful for them.  Every day I go out and play, my love and appreciation for the game develops and grows, which has shaped me into the person I am today.

 With my goal of playing golf on the collegiate level, I am looking for certain qualities such as school size, potential majors, coaching experience, and the overall atmosphere of the school. I’m hoping to play for a school and program that will help me attain both my academic and athletic goals.  

Academically, I have learned in the past couple years how to best balance and manage my studies, high school tournaments and junior golf events. Last year, I struggled during the second semester of my freshman year to manage my studies alongside golf training and tournaments. Thus, I received a GPA of 3.67. However, I learned to manage my time more efficiently and effectively, and during Sophomore year, received a Fall semester GPA of 3.83. Creating a disciplined study routine has helped me to efficiently manage my multiple commitments, a skill that is imperative when I am a college athlete.

In addition to my academic studies and golfing life, I have also spent countless hours helping out at the Agoura Hills Public Library. Whether we would be organizing bookshelves, cleaning computers, I made a positive contribution to the Library by improving the overall atmosphere of the library. In addition, myself and my friends are in a club at school called Students for Hospitals, where we collect recyclables to raise funds for burn victims and those in need of financial support. I also hosted bake sales and lemonade stands to donate to those in need.

Regarding my participation in athletics, I began playing competitively since the age of six and have been pursuing my dreams ever since. Over the past year, I have had some significant competitive experiences that helped me grow as a golfer. I started growing my confidence in my skills last summer at the TTC@ Mountaingate CC, where I achieved my goal of achieving a Top 10 in a Toyota Tour Cup Event. I learned more from those two rounds of golf than I had in all the previous competitive rounds I played. I discovered that I can play good golf while maintaining a calm and cool composure. This was also the first time playing a tournament where we had to complete 36 holes in one day. Under pressure, I learned to stop overthinking it and just go out and play golf.

Even after cooling off a little bit midway through the season, I help carry the team to a California State Regional appearance. These experiences have shown me what a strong work ethic, disciplined warmup and practice routine does for my golf game.

My golf instructor, Dan Martin, has been a key part of my golf development.  Not only has he helped my swing from a technical standpoint, but he has also caddied for me in tournaments (i.e. U.S. Junior Amateur Qualifier) and taught me how to manage myself physically and mentally on the golf course. He has also put together meaningful exercises for me during my lessons while being overall a great mentor. If you’d like to further discuss my qualifications with him, you can contact Dan at [email protected] or on his cell phone at (805) 901-7829.

My high school golf coach, Donn James, has also been a major influential person in my short high school career. Donn helped me keep my spirits high when I had a string of bad rounds, and kept the whole team in check with doing what each of us were capable of and not trying to do what’s not in our control. Donn helped us develop a good work ethic, and making sure we weren’t screwing around during practice. Donn puts in so much of his time into developing our golf organization at Oak Park High School, while also balancing time to coach the Girls soccer team. If you’d like to contact Donn, you can contact him at [email protected] or his cell phone at (805) 377-5216.

I am a very determined golfer and I am fully committed to seeing my dream of playing collegiate golf come to fruition.   I know that my work ethic and commitment to continuous improvement will have a strong impact on the outcome of your team.

I understand you are not allowed to reply to me, apart from an athletic questionnaire, until the September in 2017.  I will continue to update you periodically throughout the summer and hope you have the opportunity to watch me compete and follow my progress.  

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.