In sports, golf, and life, things can go from good to bad in an instant.
That’s a feeling Lilia Vu has experienced.
After contemplating her future in the sport, Vu won her maiden LPGA title in February 2023 and then won two majors later that year, the Chevron Championship and AIG Women’s Open.
Soaring to the top of the women’s game, Vu was ready to follow up her 2023 season with more success. But in March of last year, she sustained a back injury and was sidelined for nearly three months, missing a chance to defend her Chevron title.
She tried to tee it up in the year’s first major, but couldn’t hit the ball more than 40 yards.
“At that point that was—you think about different things,” Vu said Tuesday ahead of her Chevron return.”Not even defending that tournament; I can't even play one hole, so that was kind of going through my mind.
“It was a good time to reevaluate everything.”
Then, intrusive thoughts set in.
“I was so much in panic with would I ever play a golf round again, let alone a tournament round,” the world No. 4 said.
That proved not to be the case. The Californian not only eventually teed it up again, but she won in her first start back at the Meijer LPGA Classic before finishing runner-up at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship the following week.
However, the time off gave Vu a different perspective.
“I think it teaches you a lot of lessons that I feel like sometimes you need balance in your life a little bit,” the 27-year-old said. “Like I think I got caught up with golf being my identity, and during that two months I saw a lot of family, a lot friends.
“I couldn’t hit for a couple weeks so I was just doing other things. Read a lot. Listened to audiobooks. Just tried my best to become a better person. That’s all I could improve at that point. Physically, I was trying my best with PT and learning how to breathe correctly and fixing my posture, the way I sit.
“Just a whole kind of life change I would say.”
Now, with a refurbished mindset, Vu is back at the tournament that birthed her stardom—and her hardships last year might have her better prepared to stay there.
“I think everything happens for a reason,” she said, “and I think that needed to happen so that I could have more body awareness. I think I was just kind of playing golf mindlessly. That does help sometimes when you’re playing well, not thinking about too much, but it kind of shows that I never really reflected how when I was playing well just mindlessly, how to get there again.
“Now I definitely have more body awareness and more swing awareness.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Lilia Vu Back at Site of First Major Win After Back Injury Prompts ‘Life Change’.