By Kalee Kniess
For MSUspartans.com
Michigan State women’s golf star Katie Lu walked into her first experience with golf at a young age, when her mom stumbled across a summer camp just a few minutes down the road from their home in Central New Jersey, just outside of Princeton.
Golf was not a thing in her family, but the sport was about to become her calling.
“I first started golfing when I was 10-years-old, and it was kind of random,” Lu said. “My parents, they didn’t golf at all, so they didn’t really know much about the sport.”
In the ensuing 11 years, Lu was put her name in the Michigan State record books and become one of the best collegiate golfers in the country.
Lu, a rising senior enrolled in the Broad College of Business, returned from California on Tuesday after helping lead the Spartans to the NCAA Championships. A leader on the team throughout the season – she was the team’s top finisher seven times – Lu not only had the best season of her career, but one of the best seasons in program history.
A First Team All-Big Ten selection this year, Lu led the team in scoring this season at 71.54, a career best mark that also ranks No. 2 all-time for a single season at Michigan State, just behind the record of 70.68 set by Sarah Burnham in 2017-18.
She will enter her senior year in 2024-25 ranked No. 4 all-time at Michigan State with a 73.55 scoring average.
Lu has been dedicated to golf since that first summer. She said that she inspired her dad to start playing with her – a decision that helped push her talents further.
“My dad started getting into it more with us, and we joined other junior golf programs like the first tee, PGA Junior League and then slowly got even more into it,” Lu recall. “And then the tournaments came along.”
Those summer tournaments helped prepare her for the competition at the college level and, like many golfers at this level, continued to test herself against the best in recent summers. Last year, she reached the round of 32 at the Western Amateur and advanced to the semifinals of the New Jersey Women’s Amateur for the second-straight year.
“I feel like those events prepared me a good amount (for the 2023-24 season),” Lu said. “I got to play in an LPGA event and then I also played in Arizona with the team for the 2023 national championship.”
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