Lilia Vu, a golfer from NAPLES in Florida, cried last year on the 18th hole at the CME Group Tour Championship. Vu’s desire to win so dominated her that she broke down when the season ended.
She said that her close calls were due to a concept: “When you want something too badly, it can get away from you.” “You have to believe that it will happen, and I did this year.”
Vu’s windshield wipers were blown off just before she left for CME season last year. Her caddie encouraged her to purchase a new vehicle during the off-season. Vu promised herself she would buy her dream Mercedes Benz G550 after winning her first tournament. Vu bought the Mercedes Benz G550 before her first victory at the Honda LPGA Thailand, in February. Since then, Vu has won three more times including two majors.
She said, “Oh, I’m sure I’m going to win.”
Vu leads Celine Boutier by 27 points in the Rolex player of the year race going into the final event for the 2023 season. Boutier will have to win CME in order to upset Vu, who won the Amundi Evian for the first time this summer. A win is worth 30 points.
Boutier will be the first Frenchwoman ever to win this award. Since Stacy Lewis’ 2014 win, no American has won POY.
Vu and Boutier, who had never won a LPGA event before this season’s tournament, are now poised to make a big impact in 2023.
Boutier did not start thinking about Player of the year until she won her fourth title in Malaysia, after winning an epic nine hole playoff. She knew that it would be difficult to surpass Vu’s previous two major wins. Boutier is a fan of the LPGA points system, which differs from the PGA Tour’s player voting.
She said, “You can’t fight points.”
Celine Boutier, a French golfer, plays an approach shot at the tenth green during the second round The ANNIKA powered by Gainbridge on Pelican Golf Course on November 10, 2023. This was in Belleair Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images).
Boutier finished third in the LPGA for top-10 finishes last season with 12 from 24 starts. Boutier can’t pinpoint one major difference in her game from last year. However, she believes that the fact that she was in the top 10 so often in 2022 has given her the confidence she needed to have a breakthrough season.
Vu, who won The Annika last week and returned to No.1 in the world after her victory, currently tops the money list with $3.252,303. After her win at The Annika last week, Vu is currently ranked No. After starting the season without a sponsor, her clothes now feature logos.
Money is always the topic of conversation at the CME, especially with a $2,000,000 first-place prize on the line.
Vu used to struggle with money, comparing herself to other college graduates who had sponsors. Vu received financial help from her parents. She was grateful, but the pressure to repay them hung over her. The former Bruin’s 2019 season was a miserable one.
She said, “I’ve stopped letting the money control me.” “I don’t think about it any more. I knew that I wanted to play golf again, and everything else would follow. “That’s what happened.”
Vu used her time during the pandemic to read books and reset her brain. The book that started it all was “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson. The book’s premise is to improve one percent every day.
Vu began a daily reading habit in 2020, which she continues to this day. She’s currently reading “101 Essays that Will Change the way You Think” by Brianna WIest.
Vu recalls a time she almost gave up golf, and how it was a key building block in her success.
She said, “My rookie years just destroyed me.” “I was so focused on every shot. It was life or death.
“I only remember feeling miserable. “This is the dream. Everything we worked for was out here and I just wasn’t in the right mind for it.”
“Everything happens with a purpose and that’s the reason I’m now here.”
