One of the nice things about this week’s LPGA Tour stop at Palos Verdes Estates, California is that it resembles a bit of a homecoming for two of the LPGA’s newest players.
For Allisen Corpuz and Lilia Vu the territory is very familiar for the former Bruin and Trojan respectively as both ladies have played the Palos Verdes Golf Club on several occasions. Yet, to the best of their knowledge they have only crossed paths on one or two other occasions to their recollection.
Allisen Corpuz is a LPGA Tour rookie in 2022 and the 24 year old native of Hawaii has made 3 out of 4 cuts during her maiden season. A two time All-American at USC, Corpuz stated that she is very comfortable with the golf course this week. While the “white line yardage” sounds like a a walk in the park at 6,258 yards, soft conditions and many uphill green complexes will prove to be a test for the entire field of 144 players. Palos Verdes Golf Club is a golf course that Corpuz has played… A lot.
For Lilia Vu, the former UCLA Bruin is a graduate of the Epson Tour. During the 2021 season, Vu tallied 3 victories on that circuit. Vu said that she’s totally comfortable on the George C. Thomas and William P. Bell design which was established in 1924. Admittedly, Lilia Vu stated that learning the playing characteristics of the different strains of grass that they see week-to-week on tour – like this week’s turf (Kikuya) – is a part of the learning curve. Kikuya Grass is a strain of grass that’s notorious for being “grabby”.
For Vu, this isn’t her first year on the LPGA Tour as she did have some starts on tour in 2018 as an amateur (Lilia was also the top-ranked golfer in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for 31 weeks) and then in 2019 after turning professional. During that 2019 season, she played a total of nine events. Heading into this weeks event, Vu has made 5 of 6 cuts while trending upwards with two Top-10 finishes in her last four starts.
When asked during their Wednesday press conference about playing in the Los Angeles area both echoed the same sentiment. Excitement. In Hawaii during the 2022 Lotte Championship at Hoakalei (only 15 minutes from Corpuz’s home) the event was pretty quiet. At last week’s DIO Implant LA Open the fans there were present in numbers and very supportive. More of the same is expected this week in Palos Verdes.
For any Trojan (or Bruin) it’s going to be like having home-field advantage this week. For Corpuz and Vu this week will be fun.
Until The Next Tee!!
The Next Tee (TNT) 