A diamond in the rough: Bethany Wu
January 28, 2014
To the cheers of “Wu Wu,” Diamond Bar junior Bethany Wu held her title as the champion of ANNIKA Invitational Tournament on January 20. Wu led the last six rounds of the ANNIKA Invitational, becoming the first player to win the championship title twice. Ranked as Number Three in the nation in her age group, Wu remains unbeatable for the second year after finishing the 54-hole stroke play competition with a final score of nine under.
The Brahma champion posted the final-round 1-under-par 71 and finished the tournament at 9-under-par 207 at Reunion Resort, Florida, defeating 72 other female golfers ages from 14-18 the world. Wu took a score of 8-under 136 with a five-stroke lead on the first day of the tournament.
“I was just nervous. Once I shook it off, I started making pars again, which calmed me down and I was able to get back,” Wu said.
On Monday, Wu started the day with three bogeys in the first five holes, and at the sixth hole, she made a hard-fought par, and eventually made her first birdie at the eighth.
Wu was able to overcome Mathilda Cappeliez from France and Megan Khang from Massachusetts after making tree birdies at Nos. 14, 15, and 16.
Wu finished the tournament in first place at 9-under 207 and defeated the three way tie between, Megan Khang of Rockland Massachusetts, Yuting Shi of Japan, and Ziyi Wang of China. They were all holding second place by eight shots: Khang closed with a 70, Wang shot 72, and Shi came in at 74.
The junior champion was also recently titled as San Gabriel Valley Tribune player of the year and is verbally committed to UCLA. Last year, Wu led the Brahmas to their first CIF-Southern Section Northern Division title, finishing third in the CIF-SS state qualifier.
“It’s unbelievable. My goal was just to win one AJGA Invitational, so to win another one, especially this one, is incredible,” Wu stated.
