By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
The best collegiate golfer today is conquering the course in Waco, but she doesn’t see her success as much more than just playing golf.
“To be honest, it doesn’t feel like I’ve done anything crazy,” junior Yurang Li said. “At the end of the day it really is just golf. Win or lose, it’s just a game, and it’s honestly not that big of a deal.”
Li, a native of Fullerton, Calif., transferred to Baylor from Illinois in May expecting to be the third player on head coach Jay Goble’s depth chart. Since joining the Bears, she’s flourished. Li finished top-40 in all five of her fall events, including back-to-back first-place finishes at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational and the Bear Brawl in October.
“Earlier in the season I wasn’t playing exactly how I wanted to be,” Li said. “I really couldn’t get it going, but I played consistent golf and found my rhythm. From there I was able to figure out what I needed to work on to improve.”
Li took Baylor golf by storm in her first semester, winning Big 12 Golfer of the Month in October and twice tying the program’s single-course record with scores of 65, all in a streak of five straight rounds shooting under par.
Success is not new for Li, but she credits the familiarity and comfort she is currently finding on the course to her new environment and the culture at Baylor.
“When I entered the transfer portal, I knew I wanted to play for a program that just had a better team and actually could make it to nationals and I could compete there,” Li said. “I also wanted a school with better academics and closer to home.”
At Illinois, Li qualified for regionals and finished one-under-par in her first NCAA tournament appearance. As she sought to take that next step up in her game, the community at Baylor that Goble has crafted was too good to turn down.
“I really liked Coach Jay and believe that he has what it takes to make me a better golfer,” Li said. “He’s helped me out a lot with a lot of the little things with my golf game, and that’s really made a difference for me this year.”
The change in the little things did not just come for Li at Baylor on the course, but in her personal life outside of golf as well.
“Ever since I’ve been at Baylor, I’ve been much happier and in a better mental state,” Li said. “The things that make me happier is I feel like I really am at the right place with the right people. I credit my teammates with that the most.”
Li brought home tournament titles from a win at home in Waco at the Bear Brawl tournament at the Ridgewood Country Club as well as in Hawaii at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational, where the team also brought home the first-place trophy.
“In Hawaii, all those pieces just really fell together, and I gained a much better understanding of myself and how I play golf,” Li said. “I was able to just learn how to take advantage of my playstyle and to start to play to my advantages. I started laying up more and being better with my wedges rather than always trying to make a par 5 in two, and that made a difference.”
Li views her finishes as a showing of the team’s greater success, being more excited to celebrate the wins with her teammates than a view of her own personal triumph.
“When we won as a team in Hawaii, Jay took us out to a nice restaurant and we got to just have a lot of fun and order a bunch of different desserts,” Li said. “I just love hanging out and spending time together with everyone. Eating dinner together and just getting to socialize with my teammates is always great.”
Looking forward towards the spring season, Li is seeking to continue her streak of dominance on the fairways with the NCAA national championship tournament in May looming as the semester’s finish line.
“This spring obviously, it’s championship season, so something important for us is to just avoid being burnt out when May rolls around,” Li said. “I don’t have a lot of expectations for the season, but really I just want to continue to build and play my game. We have the entire spring to keep get[ting] better.”
Goble chimed in on Li’s immense success found on the green lately as well.
“Yurang is on the Annika [Award] watch list and has finished 2nd, 1st, 1st her last three events,” Goble said. “We are looking forward to her to continue to play her game one shot at a time. And if she does a good job of that, she will be tough to beat.”
Baylor golf will continue their spring campaign on Feb. 9 in Tucson, Ariz., at the Arizona Thunderbird Intercollegiate.
