By Jonty Ralphsmith
Pakenham’s Lillian Bu is riding the emotion of being the best eight-year-old golfer in the country.
The Haileybury College student is a product of Mark Shaw’s advanced ‘My Golf’ program run out of Deep Creek Golf Club and she won the US kids Australian Open event in Rockhampton last month.
Competing against 110 people from as far as India and China, in late September, she blitzed the field, getting par on the first day of competition.
She backed that up with three over on day two, only because she had the victory sewn up by the final hole of the nine-hole course when she lost concentration with her short game and putting as she lapped up the experience.
Lillian believes it is the best golf she has ever played and loved it.
“I like golf because we get to go to different places and countries and there are lots of medals and trophies and you get to meet new people and make friends,” she said.
“But the bad thing I don’t like is that there are lots of flies!”
Having just played golf since last November, getting into it because she saw her father, William, playing, she immediately excelled.
She is among six people in Shaw’s advanced program, and he has about 40 children aged up to 15-years-old he coaches in all.
“I started teaching her 18 months ago, she came to a junior program and I said ‘you don’t belong here’,” Shaw recalled.
“She’s is naturally gifted, the way she swings the club, she listens really well, applies the drills we do and works hard.
“We have been working on her short game, putting, pitching, chipping, nothing more than 50 metres from the green. Her longer game is well controlled so if we get the short game down pat early, the rest will come.”
Lillian needs to play only one more round before she has a handicap and it won’t be long before that handicap rockets past most casual golfers at Deep Creek.
“Mark was the one who encouraged her to start competitions from March,” said William, who expressed concern she may not have been ready.
In her first tournament at Keysborough in March, she finished last but remained resilient, and within a month, she had her first victory, at Keilor.
Lillian has since been an omnipresence on the US kids Australian tour, and has the Australian Challenge at Moonah Links in December to look forward to, before more interstate travel next year.
Her quick success has made Lillian aspirational and she is a regular at her local driving range in Berwick and Beaconhills golf course.
“My first thing to do is golf and second thing is school,” she said.
“I really want to improve and be a pro and be in the top three in the world championship LPGA.”
Others future talent from the program that Shaw is bullish on include Jensen Cavanagh, a leading under-8 golfer, and 11-year-old Ciara Davies.
