Emmaus junior Wong took the long road to championships
Evelyn Wong stood in a restroom at Steel Club in Hellertown trying to regain control of her emotions.
The Emmaus junior was stressed a few minutes away from a playoff there this month during the District 11 Class 3A golf championship.
The 16-year-old’s game came so far from the first time she played a decade ago
Wongcameso far in the last year, literally.
She and her family lived in Macungie until a few years ago, when her father, Foo-Sing Wong, received a job transfer to China.
Last year, her older brother, Colin, came back to Macungie to live with their grandmother and attend Emmaus.
A year later, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in China, prompting Wong and her mother to return to the United States. She is homeschooled, but she and East Penn School District officials filled out the necessary paperwork to ensure her eligibility throughout this season.
As Wong’s passion for golf grew, her credo remained the same.
“I don’t expect success,” she said. “I just want to do my best. And I want to have fun.”
Wong’s passion comes through in her diligence on the practice green, chipping areas, driving range and during every round she plays.
“I don’t think anybody is as focused when they are practicing,” Emmaus coach Mo Bryan said. “She’s so methodical. She walks through everything. You can see how focused she is. It is hard to distract her.
“She keeps talking about hownervous she was at districts,” he said. “You never would have seen it. She was right on point.”
Wong joined a Green Hornets squad in 2020 that expected to compete for EPC, District 11 and PIAA championships with returning standouts Michelle Cox (Penn State commit), Matt Zerfass and John Keba. She thrived in that environment, with everyone focused on doing whatever they could for the team.
They all wanted to beat the golf course, but they wanted to celebrate group success, too.
Wong contributed from the start. She had back-to-back rounds of 71 at Allentown Golf Club and 70 at Iron Lakes. She then shot 73 in Emmaus’ first showdown with eventual EPC and District 11 Class 3A champion Liberty.
Then came Keba’s season-ending back injury.
“Once they found out John wasn’t coming back,” Bryan said, “they all were like, ‘I have to be better. I have to carry the team.’ There was pressure on everybody. Their shots were shorter. They
missed putts. They weren’t playing with the confidence they started out with.”
Wong shot 81 and 79 in consecutive rounds before Bryan got the team to understand that they had to play for each other while recognizing that putting undue pressure on themselves was not the way to accomplish that goal.
The junior also remembered what brought her to that point in her golf career. She was driven by enjoyment, not the stress of trying to play better.
She reminded herself that her progress was fueled by her commitment to the sport she loved. She practiced hard, but enjoyed the process.
Wong led Cox by three shots after nine holes at the district tournament, but Cox birdied Nos. 12 and 14 to post a 2-under 34 on the back for a 76. Wong, meanwhile, battled her emotions as much as the windy conditions. She bogeyed 15, birdied 16, parred 17 and bogeyed 18 before parring the extra hole for the title.
“Even when I was putting [on 18],” Wong recalled, “I just wanted to have fun. ‘Even if I
three putt, I won’t lose. I’ll end up tying which is not a loss.’ I did have a lot of fun playing, but it was very stressful.”
Wong is among four girls and eight boys from District 11 participating in the PIAA Golf Championships on Monday and Tuesday at Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York. The 2A boys and girls events are Monday; 3A plays Tuesday. Both tournaments are reduced to 18 holes in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wong, Cox and Zerfass played two practice rounds at Heritage Hills. They’ll play there Monday afternoon.
Bryan expects all three to play well because they have course knowledge to go with their talent.
“It’s a course that you have to know where to hit the ball,” the Emmaus coach said. “It’s a hilly course with some blind shots. You don’t want to be on the wrong side of the fairway and not have a shot at the green. That is stuff you can only learn by playing the course.”