LPGA Player of Year Lilia Vu inspired by her grandfather’s journey

NAPLES, Fla. — One memory has accompanied Lilia Vu through this journey. Through the ups and downs. Through the frustration and second thoughts. Even through the exhilaration.

The man she says is “the best person I’ve ever known,” is no longer with us. But Dinh Du, Vu’s grandfather, played a major role in Vu becoming the first American in nine years to win the LPGA Rolex Player of the Year.

And if there is any doubt, Vu was asked about her grandfather Sunday after shooting the low round of the day (65) at the CME Group Tour Championship, which gave her a fourth-place finish. She raised both her hands, backside facing front.

“I think about him all the time,” she said. “My nails are koi fish. He raised like 50 koi fish in his backyard when he was alive. I always think about him. He’s always next to me. Even when I get down on myself, I kind of think … okay, grandpa didn’t do all this for you to get upset over one shot.”

Vu, 26, entered the final event of the LPGA’s 2023 season with a 27-point lead over Celine Boutier in the Player of the Year race. She never relinquished that lead, finishing 21-under 267, six shots behind winner Amy Yang.

But this journey that started in her native Fountain Valley, California, and continued with a decorated career at UCLA before turning pro in 2019, was possible because of one man.

Vu’s grandfather got his family and others out of Vietnam by building a boat. He would leave his family and head to the countryside for a month at a time to work on the project. Finally, in 1982, Vu’s mother, Yvonne, and her siblings were loaded into the vessel that was meant for 54 people. But others saw this as their way to freedom, too, and soon about 30 more had arrived.

And nobody was turned away.

“My grandpa is the reason why I’m here,” Vu said earlier this season.

Soon the boat had sprung a leak and two days later, they were rescued by the USS Brewton, the naval ship that transported the body of the Vietnam Unknown Soldier to California in 1984 before it was flown for burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

“I’m kind of like him,” Vu said of her grandfather. “He went away a month at a time to go build this boat, right? He was just quietly hard-working. I think I’m kind of the same way. I’m not very vocal with what I do … I kind of just write my goals and put it away. I don’t openly say all the stuff. I wait until I achieve them. I think I have that same hard-working passion my grandpa…