Once, Jim Liu was very prominent in those rankings. When Liu went to Stanford in the fall of 2013, he was the consensus top-ranked junior – by Golfweek, by the American Junior Golf Association and by the National Junior Golf Scoreboard. After he won the 2010 U.S. Junior Amateur, becoming the youngest player to do so at the age of 14, he was on the fast-track to becoming a household name. He was being compared to Tiger Woods.
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Jim Liu was the youngest ever winner of the U.S. Junior, eclipsing Tiger Woods' record |
“If you asked me where I thought I’d be when I was just entering college, I probably wouldn’t give the answer of where I’m at right now,” Liu said. “On the other side of that coin, I don’t really regret any of the decisions I’ve made.”
Right now, Liu is about to graduate from Stanford (next March) and resume work with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he interned last summer. He’ll be an analyst in the investment banking division with financial sponsors, and he’ll be working in New York City – close to his boyhood home on Long Island but far enough away to be on his own.
As he enters the professional world of finance, a professional golf career is no longer part of his aspirations. Liu acknowledges, though, that if the past few years taught him anything, it’s that “you never know what life will bring you.”
Liu played only one full season of college golf for Stanford (2013-14), competing in nine tournaments. In those days, he practiced six-and-a-half days a week – in other words, an off day every two weeks.
At the beginning of the 2014 season, in a move that was hard to see coming from the outside, Liu announced he would take a break from college and college golf. A minor back injury had plagued his first year at Stanford, and besides that, “a lot of things weren’t really what I was expecting.”
Liu walked away from the game until the itch brought him back.
The Jim Liu File (courtesy Stanford media guide)
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“Deciding to play the Dixie was sort of a whim decision of mine,” Liu said of teeing it up in South Florida for the prestigious – and heavily international – event.
He’s been careful to keep it from getting too intense, and in many ways it feels like a holiday. He couldn’t recruit any golf buddies to make the trip with him, so instead his father Yiming will tag along. Jim is going to encourage dad to stay at the beach while he plays.
Liu plans to scrap the second practice round for the beach, too.
Without golf, Liu has been able to flesh out some of his other interests. Always creative as a kid, Liu imagined he might major in product design at Stanford, but it was hard to get started on that track while he was still playing on the golf team. The practice and competition schedule was too demanding. That’s why Liu settled on economics, even though in his post-golf team days, he found his place in a fraternity and also joined the Stanford solar car project (doing more marketing than engineering).
With all that going on, Liu’s golf time has been reduced to roughly eight rounds a year each of the past two years. Most of those take place at the Stanford Golf Course, when he can round up a few pals and drop $15 for a twilight round.
When Liu is home in New York, he often plays Bethpage. Given the quality of golf, Liu may be more prepared for the Dixie than the handful of rounds suggests.
“Part of the reason why I decided to take time off school in the most place is I was losing my original reason for why I fell in love with the game,” Liu said. “It almost got to a point where playing college golf almost became chore-like, that’s not a healthy thing in the long-term. I think my perspective since then has changed a little bit.”
As for the Dixie, Liu said he hasn’t starting feeling nervous for his return to competition. Given this new approach to golf and life, the nerves may not set in at all.
