Last May, Lizette Salas hoisted her first trophy on the LPGA Tour after capturing the Kingsmill Championship Presented by JTBC. It was good practice for the next piece of hardware she would be lifting less than a year later at her alma mater, the University of Southern California. In April, Salas joined a very short list including Brandon Beck and Mark Sanchez to be recognized with the Young Alumni Merit Award for her accomplishments on the course and in her community.
“It's definitely an honor to be given this award especially since I only graduated four years ago,” Salas said by email this weekend. “To be amongst big names like NFL player Mark Sanchez it's almost surreal.”
Salas grew up less than an hour from USC in Azusa, California but a world away from the lifestyle it would later provide. “As a Hispanic girl growing up in Azusa, I didn't have much when it came to the golf world,” Salas said. It was at Azusa Greens Golf Course that she picked up her first club at age seven and learned the game thanks to the services her father as a head mechanic at the course traded with the teaching pro. Golf became the vehicle that helped Salas earn a scholarship to USC and become the first in her family to attend college. The 2008 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year would become team captain and the first, four-time All American in the women’s golf program.
Well aware of the advantages that come with an education from USC and a career on the LPGA Tour, the former Trojan wanted to find a way to help those in her hometown enjoy the same opportunities she received. “I thought to myself why not let the rest of the community know that there's a bigger world out there that they might not know of. I believe that there shouldn't be any restrictions on your goals because of gender and race.”
“The San Gabriel Junior Golf program is a constant reminder that my career and journey has a different meaning especially to young kids,” Salas said. Through the program co-founded by her father, Salas teaches and mentors kids from her hometown on everything from nutrition, to exercise to confidence and self-esteem. She is also an ambassador for LPGA-USGA Girls Golf.
This week Salas defends her title at Kingsmill Resort, hoping to once again lift that crystal trophy. “Kingsmill will always have a very special place in my heart because that was my very first stage where I shined in my own way. I look forward to all the good memories and especially the fans of Williamsburg!”
Salas is grouped with Michelle Wie and Morgan Pressel on Thursday and Friday.
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