By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Julie Lucio didn’t have much of a choice growing up.
She was going to play golf.
“I tell everybody, I have four kids and everybody has to play golf,” Jesse Lucio, Julie’s father, said with a laugh. “Whether you like it or not.”
For Lucio, that subtle push turned out to be an excellent choice.
It was at the age of 4 that she picked up a club, and three years later she began playing competitively. After Lucio entered the world of junior golf, she won her first tournament at 7 years old, a junior Masters, complete with a miniature green jacket.
And she just kept getting better.
Her father estimates she played about 25 tournaments per year during the past eight years, winning 20 of them on average. Lucio has made a name for herself all over the state, and now as a freshman at Hanna she is quickly making herself more familiar to the Rio Grande Valley.
“I love the sport,” Lucio said. “I get things off my mind. I feel good just playing golf. If I don’t play golf for a while, I get (anxious),I want to come to the golf course and practice. Plus, playing golf makes my family happy.”
Lucio already has won four of the five tournaments in which she has competed this year, with a stroke average of 73.44 per 18 holes.
“I knew she was going to be one of my top players coming in. She’s a Lucio, it’s in her blood,” Hanna golf coach Adrian Garcia said. “She’s been a junior golfer that’s played all over the state, but she’s above expectations right now.”
The elder Lucio is a former coach at the Universityof Texasat Brownsville and played professionally for a time. He has always been impressed with how natural golf was for his youngest daughter.
“Julie just took to it, she’s a natural listener,” he said. “Everything I’ve taught her, she just did. She listens very well.”
Golf is more than a sport to Lucio, it’s her passion. She said she practices every day for about two hours, trying to get a least nine holes in per day. But like any golfer, she has her strengths and weaknesses. The best part of her game is her driving ability, but she struggles with club selection at times, lacking consistency.
Garcia has been waiting for this moment for a while as a coach and family friend. The elder Lucio was his golf mentor, and he got to see the younger Lucio grow up throughout the junior golf circuit.
“It’s finally here,” Garcia said. “We just want to be patient and let things fall into place, but she has tremendous work ethic. She’s a good student and very humble, she just loves to play golf. I told her, ‘Whether you like it or not, you’re one of the top players in the Valley.’
“I’m really looking forward to the next four years.”
Already showing the poise of an upperclassman, Lucio was chosen as a co-captain for her team. Now she wants to help bring Hanna its share of championships.
“I want us to win district, to win regional,” she said. “And I want to take the team to state.”
With all her success in golf so far, the elder Lucio is hopeful his daughter can achieve her dreams.
“We’re hoping she can get a scholarship to college,” he said. “And we are looking at the LPGA, hopefully. Who knows, it could happen.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.