A former Wakatipu High student’s living the dream with a golf scholarship in the United States.
Liam Judkins, 20, is holidaying back in Queenstown after completing the first of four years at California State University, Northridge.
He’s on the university’s seven-man golf team, though because they only field five players at each event, he has to qualify to make the team each time.
“It was a battle with five very experienced seniors, however it was a great learning experience to play with and against them.”
Judkin played all five events in the US autumn, and the first two in spring before dislocating his right shoulder in March – after experimenting swinging left-handed – and missing the last four.
Prior to the injury, “I felt like I was progressing in the right direction,” he says.
Back home he’s looking to get his body into a better position before resuming golf when he returns in August.
Though he started young, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Callum, who plays for Otago, Judkins says he hadn’t dreamt of playing US college golf while at Wakatipu High.
‘‘It was always like this tough, you know, individual sport, growing up — sort of through like 12 to 16 it was an on-and-off, love-hate relationship.’’
Covid also restricted his opportunities, however he did register some good results – like a seventh in the New Zealand amateur strokeplay and fifth in a NZ under-17s tournament – to burnish his CV.
After Wakatipu High he did labouring work while scouting out, through an agency, a US college he could attend.
“I ended up choosing California State Northridge, they offer some of the best money for the best programme, I guess you could say.”
Alongside golf, Judkins is also studying finance — ‘‘it’s a busy weekly schedule’’.
‘‘The goal is to win a tournament over there at some point, whether that’s my third year or fourth year.’’
Should he rank high enough, he could then end up joining a pro tour in the US.
