Eddie Zhang '15 Recruiting Profile

"You didn't come this far to only come this far."

Golf is the greatest game in the world. It has opened up so many opportunities for me and has transformed me from a shy, un-confident middle schooler to the person I am today. I started playing golf for the first time at age 10. I got started with the First Tee of Pittsburgh, an organization that teaches golf and life skills to aspiring learners of the game. To this day, I am still actively involved with the First Tee. Back then, I didn't take the game seriously, and I really only went because my parents wanted me to find a hobby for me (we tried soccer, hockey, and even fencing but they all failed). As expected, I was terrible at the beginning and almost quit. But thanks to the encouragement of my parents and coaches, I kept on playing and eventually, I began to take golf seriously. I started to take private lessons from a local professional, and my golf game improved dramatically. 3 years after first learning the game, I was shooting in the mid 90's. Afterwards, I hit a period where my golf game just took off; I was hitting it longer and straighter, and I was dropping 10 strokes off of my 18 hole rounds. I played in my first tournament ever and shot an 80, getting second place. I was ecstatic! I soon began playing lots and lots of local golf tournaments. While I had my ups and downs, I accumulated several victories and many top 10's, top 5's, and top 3's.