Meet The Pint Sized Teen Who wows Women's Glof

Eleven-year-old Lucy Li youngest ever qualifier for U.S. Women’s Open

LUCY Li has become the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open by winning the sectional qualifier at Half Moon Bay in California. The 11-year-old Li shot rounds of 74-68 on the par-72 Old Course on Monday. She will surpass Lexi Thompson as the youngest qualifier in the U.S. Women’s Open, which is June 19-22 at Pinehurst No. 2. Thompson was 12 in the 2007 Open.
Beverly Klass played the 1967 Open when she was 10. There was no qualifying.
Li, of Redwood Shores, California, already has a big win on her resume. She captured the girls 10-11 division at the inaugural Drive, Chip and Putt contest at Augusta that preceded the Masters this year. She beat second-place qualifier Kathleen Scavo by seven strokes at Half Moon Bay.
Judy Rankin was a 14-year-old prodigy from Missouri when she entered the 1959 U.S. Women’s Open at Churchill Valley Country Club in Pittsburgh.
 Lydia Ko was 15 when she won the Canadian Women’s Open two years ago, making her the youngest winner in LPGA history. Now she’s in range of becoming No. 1 in the world.
In men’s golf, Matteo Manassero won twice on the European Tour before he had his driver’s license. Ryo Ishikawa won his first professional tournament when he was 15. Jordan Spieth nearly won the Masters last month at age 20. And who can forget Guan Tianlang, the 14-year-old from China who made the cut at the Masters last year?
Even so, two numbers are enough to get anyone’s attention - “11” and “sixth grade.”
“This is ridiculous,” Dottie Pepper said Tuesday, more amazed than concerned. Earlier in the day, Pepper was on Twitter and tried to get her head around an 11-year-old teeing it up at Pinehurst No. 2 when she noted that Li’s date of birth was “THIS CENTURY. Whoa!”
Rankin and Pepper both attributed the increasing achievements by teens - pre-teens in Li’s case - to modern equipment and coaching.
Li began playing when she was 7 by whacking a few golf balls on the range while waiting for her brother and cousin to finish a golf tournament. She now works with Jim McLean. And this is not the first time Li has written herself into USGA history. She set a record last year in the U.S. Women’s Amateur as the youngest qualifier at age 10. She also was the youngest in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links to reach match play, losing in the first round to a college player.
“For people with talent, regardless of age, today’s equipment is making the game a lot easier to learn,” Rankin said. “For talented people, they are learning the game quicker and easier. That has a big bearing on it.”
Rankin also points to the very best in golf being on television so often, and the fact that kids copy what they see.
“No one in the world is better at mimicking than children,” she said. “I can go way back to a friend of mine from U.S. Amateur days, Helen Sigel Wilson. She always said the way to teach a kid how to play good golf is only let them see great players. They can figure it out.”
Sooner than later, that’s what they’re doing.