In her first start on the Epson Tour in 2021, Beth Wu (Diamond Bar, California) embraced the early morning cold in Kansas, carding a bogey-free 3-under par 69 on day two of the Garden City Charity Classic. Wu finds herself with a one-stroke lead going into the final round.
“It feels pretty good to shoot three under par the first two days. I went on a run on the back-nine today and took advantage of being off in the morning with no wind on the front-nine,” said Wu. “There are a few things I want to work on the range, but I just need to tweak it a little and I should be good to go tomorrow.”
Last season the “Road to the LPGA” rookie only competed in four events on the schedule. Between less events and the COVID-19 break, Wu continued to find ways to work on her game to prepare for the full season.
“I have a really good group of guys I play with back at home. I just play with them straight up and do team games with them too,” said Wu. “A couple of Korn Ferry guys are in the group; Rico Hoey and Mark Anguiano. Hira Naveed has been out there too, so it’s really nice to have a good group to play with in SoCal.”
Joining Wu in the final paring tomorrow is fellow UCLA Bruin, Lilia Vu (Fountain Valley, California), who was a two-time All-American and 2012 Pac-12 Conference Player of the Year. Vu is one-stroke behind her former collegiate teammate after carding a 3-under par 69 and 2-under par 70 in the first two rounds in Garden City.
“It’s definitely fun having Beth out here playing. We are actually traveling together so it’s just like how we were in college,” said Vu.
“I’m pretty proud with how I finished after I tweaked my back from the approach shot on the 16th. I’m glad that I stuck through and managed through the pain,” said Vu. “I think my strength right now is really just playing one shot at a time and not getting ahead of myself. I’m enjoying myself out here so it’s tremendously helping my game.”
She came into this week off two top-10 finishes in her last two starts - T8 last week at the Copper Rock Championship and T4 at the Casino Del Sol Golf Classic. After both events, Vu spoke about how she has been working on building her confidence back up since she competed on the LPGA Tour and did not see the results she had hoped. Tomorrow Vu is looking to claim her first win on the Epson Tour.
“I think with building confidence you can’t really look elsewhere except from yourself. What has really helped me is knowing that I’ve put in the work and just trust every shot I have in front of me,” said Vu.
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