KINGSTON, N.Y. \u2014 Two days after capturing Wiltwyck Golf Club\u2019s junior championship, Rondout Valley High junior Hokai Liu was back working on his game at the Kingston-based club on Tuesday, August 4.<\/p>\n
Liu earned a spot in the upcoming men\u2019s club championship by capturing the two-day junior club title for boys under the age of 18 with a two-round score of 11-over-par 155. He opened with a 9-over 81 on Saturday, August 1, and then shaved seven shots off his first round with a 2-over 74 the following day to beat runner-up Daniel Sullivan (161) by six strokes.<\/p>\n
Liu, 16, earned a spot in the 16-man men\u2019s club championship by claiming the junior title. The match-play tournament will begin on Saturday, August 15, with the 36-hole final scheduled for Sunday, August 23.<\/p>\n
Defending club champion Ty Monroe and Liu will be joined in the match-play tournament with male members having the next lowest handicaps as of August 15.<\/p>\n
Liu has played plenty of golf with Monroe, who won his first Ulster County Men\u2019s Amateur Golf Championship (The Herdegen) by eight strokes with a 54-hole total of 8-under 205 in late June.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great player,\u201d Liu said, noting that Monroe was playing in the Carter Cup boys invitational on Monday and Tuesday at the Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Monroe finished with rounds of 73 and 84, which was tied for 37th late Tuesday.<\/p>\n
It will be Liu\u2019s first time qualifying for Wiltwyck\u2019s men\u2019s club championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came very close to winning the junior club championship the past couple of years, but this will be the first time I\u2019ll be playing in the club championship,\u201d Liu said. \u201cI\u2019m very excited and my game feels pretty good right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liu said an improved mental approach was the main reason for a seven-stroke improvement in the second round of the junior club championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think on day one I really got into my head to play better,\u201d he said. \u201cBut day two, I just focused on keeping the ball in play and not doing anything crazy. Just play all the safe shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liu qualified for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) Boys Golf Championships the past two seasons at Rondout Valley. This past season, he fired rounds of 86 and 84 for a two-round total of 28-over-par 170, finishing in a tie for 82nd.<\/p>\n
Monroe (75-72-147) of Saugerties High tied for 14th place.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t my best,\u201d Liu said of his state tournament finish. \u201cI felt a lot better going into it, but it was all experience for me. I had a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n
There will also be competition at Wiltwyck this month for the women\u2019s club title, the senior men\u2019s title and the net men\u2019s and women\u2019s championships.<\/p>\n
Alexandra Young, an Onteora High graduate, will be defending her women\u2019s title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KINGSTON, N.Y. \u2014 Two days after capturing Wiltwyck Golf Club\u2019s junior championship, Rondout Valley High junior Hokai Liu…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[44,898,913,56,914],"class_list":["post-46409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-golf","tag-latest-headlines","tag-new-york","tag-sports","tag-ulster-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}