ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Defending AIG Women’s Open champion Lilia Vu is on her way to adopting another cat.
The five-time LPGA Tour winner got a kitten last fall and named it Walton in honor of her victory in the 2023 AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath Golf Club. In her pre-tournament press conference ahead of her title defense this week at St. Andrews, she said there’s another cat on the table if she wins a third major title, a motivation that seems to be working for the 26-year-old through the first round on the Old Course.
Vu shot a three-under-par 69 on the first day in Scotland, battling through difficult conditions to earn a red early in the round, and is now working to successfully defend a title for the first time in her career.
The California native got off to a flying start with a birdie on the par-4 first hole, but gave it up with a bogey on the second. She shot par on the next three holes before making consecutive birdies on holes six and seven, and a final birdie on the ninth, giving her a 33-stroke lead.
Vu shot par on holes 10, 11 and 12 before dropping a shot with a bogey on the par-4 13th. But she made up for that mistake with a birdie on hole 16 to shoot a par 69, her lowest first-round score in any of her title defenses so far during the 2024 LPGA Tour season.
“It was super tough,” Vu said. “You have to be there every single shot. You have to be really disciplined. On the first nine holes, the wind is coming from the left, you’re torn between doing harm and doing good, and on the second nine holes, you have to rewire your brain to say, OK, the wind is coming from the right. It’s OK to hit right and then come back. It’s definitely a mental battle.”
Vu’s win last year at Walton Heath was one of four she would achieve in 2023, and although she has just one win so far this season, Vu has played solidly throughout the year.
She tied for 7th at the Honda LPGA Thailand, where she was also the defending champion, before being forced to take a break from professional golf in April due to a lingering back injury. The 26-year-old then returned to competitive golf in June and won the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give in her first start after her two-month break, defeating Grace Kim and Lexi Thompson in a playoff at Blythefield Country Club.
She tied for second at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club and had never finished worse than T26 in her three previous starts before this week on the Old Course. She finished 26th at the Amundi Evian Championship, 12th at the CPKC Women’s Open and 25th at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open last week.
However, even though her current form shows that her back is no longer preventing Vu from playing the golf she can, it is still something she will have to think about, especially in Scotland’s cold weather.
“I think it’s just about staying warm,” Vu said when asked what the biggest challenge was about golfing on the Old Course. “Especially with my back problems, I have to constantly stretch even when the pace is good. I definitely had to do that a lot.”
In the second round, Vu starts two strokes behind her group mate Charley Hull, who shot a 5-under-par 67 in the first round. She is looking forward to competing again alongside Englishwoman and number 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Nelly Korda, at St. Andrews on Friday and will be looking to put herself in a good position to defend her place ahead of the weekend on the Old Course.
And although the weather forecast calls for rain and a similar gust to the first day in Scotland, Vu is a player who is more than ready to rise to the challenge when the going gets tough – a trait that has proven valuable for the Epson Tour graduate in her final years on the LPGA Tour.
“Everyone in this group is so solid. It was definitely a lot of fun and I can’t wait for tomorrow,” Vu said. “I think it’s reassuring to know that it’s hard for everyone, not just me, so I knew we were all in this together. I just wanted to do my best here.”
