Miniature golf: Pixie produces
Phenomenon Elizabeth Wang isn't tilting at windmills - at tender age of 8, she's slaying dragons on the course
By Lynn DeBruin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published July 28, 2008 at 7:28 p.m.
Elizabeth Wang, 8, center, works on her game at the driving range at Black Bear Golf Club in Parker. At 4-foot-2 and 74 pounds, she has broken 80 from the women's tees and routinely can hit hit a golf ball up to 190 yards.
Video: Eight-year-old Elizabeth Wang has broken 80 from the women’s tees (5,384 yards) at Black Bear, has had a pair of hole-in-ones (from 112 and 57 yards) and last week finished tied for third for her age group in the Callaway World Junior Golf championships.
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Age: 8.
Height, weight: 4-foot-2, 74 pounds.
Grade: Fourth.
Home: Parker.
Best 18-hole score: 78, Green Valley Ranch.
Other interests: Piano, school.
Elizabeth Wang
On why she chose golf . . . "First of all, it's safe. It's fun being in all kinds of conditions and trying to hit out of hard situations."
* On trying other sports . . . "I tried swimming and I was afraid of the water. I thought soccer, you might hurt your leg. Tennis, you might get hit on the head. I was hooked on golf when I was 6."
On her favorite female golfer . . . "Lorena Ochoa because she's good."
On what her friends think about her devotion to golf . . . "They don't play golf, but they think I'm strange, and those are my classmates."
Patricia Wang
On her daughter's long-term goals . . . "She told me she wants to be a surgeon when she grows up. Then, on vacation, she can (play) golf with the pros with no stress of winning."
Corey Baehman, Black Bear club pro
* On Elizabeth Wang . . . "She has an unbelievable gift and has that desire inside her to get better every day. The first thing she thinks of when she gets up isn't Nintendo Wii or getting online to look at a kids' Web site. She wants to go hit balls or practice, or whatever. It's in her genes to get better, to be a golfer."
* On convincing the 8-year-old she didn't "mess up" after she tied for third at the Junior World Golf Championships . . . "She's got such high standards, which is great. She hates to lose. She's got that fire in her that you can't teach. You either are born with it or you don't have it."
* On practicing . . . "She was playing in a tournament on Monday that started at 8:30, and she was here when I got here at 6 in the morning. At first light, she wanted to get two to three holes in of practice before the tourney."
* On her love of the game . . . "She and her dad got into it one day, and she was going to run away from home. She grabbed her bag and headed for the golf course."
Photo by Tim Hussin © The Rocky
Elizabeth Wang, 8, swings at Black Bear Golf Club in Parker on Tuesday, July 22, 2008. Wang won two recent tournaments and is heading to the U.S. Kids World Championship in Pinehurst, North Carolina. She has broken 80 from the women's tees.
Photo by Tim Hussin/Rocky Mountain News
Elizabeth is chauffeured by her father, Peter. She recently finished tied for third in her age group at the Junior World Golf Championships - and she's been playing for less than two years.
The giggles give away her age.
But listen to the other sounds coming from the driving range at Black Bear Golf Club and one quickly realizes there's something special about the dressed- in-pink, bubbly bundle of energy known as Elizabeth Wang.
Pro Corey Baehman sees it just about every day at the club because that's typically where one can find the precocious 8-year-old.
"When she's on the range, there's a crowd there in about 10 minutes," Baehman said. "Just to see a little kid like that make the sound she makes when she hits the ball and generate that much club speed . . . it's pretty amazing."
For the record, Wang is 4-foot-2, with a driver that reaches nearly to her chin.
But her swing speed approaches 80 mph, and despite her youth, she routinely hits drives 180 to 190 yards.
She already has broken 80 from the women's tees (5,384 yards) at Black Bear, has had two holes-in-one at Family Golf Course in Englewood (from 112 and 57 yards) and, last week, finished tied for third in her age group at the Junior World Golf Championships in San Diego.
Weekend hackers take note: She hasn't been playing two years yet.
This week, she'll be in Pinehurst, N.C., to play in the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship (Thursday to Saturday), and in late August, she will participate in the Drive, Chip and Putt national championships in Celebration, Fla., - her 206-yard bomb off the tee helping pave the way for the all-expenses-paid trip.
"I think I've done pretty well, but I know I can do better," the soon-to-be fourth-grader says simply.
Baehman has no doubt.
He has seen her at the course at first light, seen her helping chip balls back from the range at dusk. He has seen her practice putting two hours a day, seen her play 36 holes at a time, then beg her father to play some more.
"They're so opposite from the overbearing parents," he said of Peter and Patricia Wang, who live across the street from the Parker golf course. "She's begging them to play golf."
Elizabeth, who skipped kindergarten and is in the gifted program at Pineland Primary School, admits as much.
Some days she'll wake her father at dawn and literally drag him out of bed so she can work on a particular shot.
Her success - Mom says she finished third, second, then won the next three Colorado junior tournaments she entered - reached a point Dad semiretired from his computer-technology business so he could accompany her to the course and tournaments.
Peter Wang is about as unpretentious as Elizabeth is vivacious. He takes no credit for his daughter's prowess. He simply helped facilitate her improvement, buying books and videos to help her learn her aggressive, yet flawless, swing.
She has read books by Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan and Annika Sorenstam and regularly watches Golf Channel.
She has the lingo down to a tee.
She knows a collection area from a water hazard, a 60-degree wedge from a sand wedge. And she's not hesitant to tell a reporter "you're away" on the green when it's time to putt.
Asked to name her favorite golfer, without hesitation she says Fred Couples.
How many 8-year-old girls have even heard of Fred Couples?
"She follows the game, knows the game and is borderline obsessed with it," Baehman said. "You've just got to steer her in the right direction and make sure she enjoys herself so that it's not work."
What's unusual is neither her mother nor her father ever played the game.
So where does she get her athleticism?
Peter Wang points to his wife, who was a very good swimmer in China when she was young.
Both parents were born in China and came to the United States to study, then later emigrated and became American citizens.
Peter's schooling is in computer technology; Patricia is a pharmacy supervisor at King Soopers.
"Pete's not afraid to (ask), 'Am I doing this right?' He knows she's special," Baehman said.
Dad's only mistake so far might have been accidentally backing his car over her clubs one day.
"You would have thought her dog died," Baehman said of Elizabeth, who was visibly upset.
By that night, dad had tracked down replacements, as well as a new pink bag to replace the damaged one.
"She's an amazing talent, with unbelievable ability," Baehman said as he watched Elizabeth hit a perfect sand shot and sink a 12-foot birdie putt. "But she's an even better kid."
She'll run up and hug marshals, high-five members at the semiprivate course and mug for the camera.
She's not shy, and she knows what she wants: To be an LPGA member, birdie every hole in the same round and, last but not least, become a surgeon.
She might be little, but the kid thinks big.
"She has the skills now to be a scratch golfer - she's just not big enough," Baehman said. "Right now, she doesn't hit it far enough - doesn't hit it high enough because she's so little. But with her fundamentals, her swing and her hand-eye coordination, she'll be a scratch player by age 12, probably pretty easily."
For now, the dark-haired pixie plays on, her infectious laugh carrying like her ball across the range.
"Bye-bye," she says after launching another drive with that sweet swing. "Bye-bye."
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July 28, 2008
6 p.m.
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BUCKSHOTT2006 writes:
What a great story. Never underestimate what a child is able to accomplish.
July 28, 2008
7:21 p.m.
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mytwosense writes:
Buckshot, indeed!
Kudos to this little gal for finding a passion so early in life (and being darn good at it already!)
July 28, 2008
9:28 p.m.
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cooperjtd writes:
big whoop... I broke 80 on highland hills adventure golf like 10 years ago....
(way to go little lady!)
July 28, 2008
9:31 p.m.
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rj1967 writes:
Just what we need, a new little Cherry Hills snob.
January 3, 2009
9:17 a.m.
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welcher writes:
Time for a reality check. I've seen her play several times and I can tell you that she has an average swing. I've seen girls "younger" than Elizabeth play in California who have a far better swing and golf game. As far as her Father.. wow what a nut case. He rolls up the scoreboard right after EVERY awards ceremony and takes it home with him. HEY buddy how about giving other people a chance to view the scoreboard... that's called common sense and courtesy.