Allie Nguyen leads Woodland Christian golf to league title
Sophomore golfer named league MVP
The Woodland Christian High School varsity golf team recently won the Central Valley California League and were led to the championship by sophomore, Allie Nguyen.
Nguyen is one of two girls on the Cardinals' roster of nine. Regardless of gender, Nguyen is clearly one of the best golfers on the team. That sentiment was reinforced when the CVCL named Nguyen as the league's 2023 Most Valuable Player.
“The reason why Allie and some other girls in our league are able to participate is because we don't field any girls teams in our league,” explained Woodland Christian coach Tuan Nguyen. “So the girls who do play, they have to play from the same tees as the boys.”
Allie was one of only two full-time returning players for the Cardinals this season, along with sophomore Mateo Torres. Senior Alex Plamondon also returned but was in and out of the starting lineup due to other obligations.
Entering the league championship held at The Ridge Golf Course & Events Center on May 2, Woodland Christian was even with Forest Lake Christian of Auburn in the CVCL standings.
“It's a foothills course, it's extremely challenging and for whatever reason, they set us up at 6,000 yards,” Tuan recalled. “That's a lot of yardage for high school golfers in the foothills.”
The Cardinals won the league title over the Falcons via a tiebreaker, based on the front nine scores. Woodland Christian prevailed with one less stroke to clinch the CVCL championship.
Individually, Allie entered the league title match knotted at 93 points a piece with Forest Lake's Jacob Squires in the MVP race. According to Tuan, whoever performed the best among the top four individuals at The Ridge, would win MVP.
Allie secured the MVP accolade by shooting a 93 at the league championship, shooting 46 on the front nine and 47 on the back.
“It was rainy, windy and 47 degrees during that tournament. As a golfer, that makes it much more challenging to play in those conditions,” Tuan said. “I told her, in my estimation, `Whoever can play bogey golf for the day is going to win this tournament.' The strategy is one hole is not going to kill you so you can't get overly emotional, up or down, you've got to stick to the strategy. Eighteen holes in these conditions is a marathon. You just have to stay mentally and emotionally engaged knowing that if I can get around 90, I should win this tournament.”
Tuan is Allie's father. He is in his second season as a coach for the Cardinals but his first as the head coach. The advice Tuan bestowed upon his daughter ultimately paid off. After four holes at the league championship, Allie was two-over while her direct competition, Squires, remained at even par on his home course.
Allie recorded a quadruple-bogey on the fifth hole after hitting a hazard, dropping her six strokes behind Squires for the top spot. Allie quickly turned it around, going fiveunder over the final four holes of the front to finish the first nine one over par and in the lead by one stroke.
Two talented freshmen who joined Woodland Christian this year are Owen Rainwater and Aidan McMillan.
Despite being just a year older, Allie shared her knowledge with them throughout the season.
“What Allie was able to do was share her experiences from last year and even this year with those kids to show them, `Hey look, you've got to persevere through challenges on the golf course,' because when you run into obstacles on the golf course, one of two things is going to happen,” Tuan explained. “You can either stabilize or you can spiral. They really helped each other because you've got three talented players who are all inexperienced and pushing each other to get better everyday.”
According to Tuan, Rainwater pushed Allie to be better by shooting in the 40s on nine holes at practice daily.
“She's an athlete. She grew up playing basketball, volleyball, softball. She started playing golf a couple years ago. Her best asset on the golf course is her athletic ability. She can hit the ball off the tee as long or longer than most of the boys she plays against. That's a real advantage for her,” Tuan said. “She's a competitor. She takes things from a competitive standpoint to the extreme, which can really help you but also hurt you if you don't channel it properly.
“That's one of her advantages being a multi-sport athlete, bringing that competitive edge onto the golf course.”