Senior golfer, Cristen Legaspi, reached 32nd in the CIF State High School Girl’s Championship. Legaspi started her golf journey at six years old after the influence of her older brother and started competing at nine years old. Watching her older brother’s golfing tournaments inspired her to follow in his footsteps and start golfing. Other than her brother, her golfing role model was Tiger Woods and she even took some lessons in the Tiger Woods Learning Center.

Legaspi said her last competition was a very nerve-wracking experience and the pressure was overwhelming, because so many other talented golfers were there. Still she wanted it to be a fun memory. Knowing this was her last golf competition in high school had a sentimental value. Though she believed she could’ve done better, she was impressed with herself for going as high as 32nd in the state. 

Legaspi will continue to pursue her golf career by playing in college. She has managed to get several offers, but chose to go with a college in Hawaii. Legaspi explained how her decision was based on the beautiful location and her wishes to study out of state. She is very satisfied with Hawaii Pacific University.

The majority of Legaspi’s life was filled with golf and she believes the most important aspect of golfing has to be mindset. When she first started, she focused on winning, however as she played more tournaments, she realized that with that competitive mindset, it is hard to enjoy the sport. She said the art of the sport is the fun of it, and she thinks she was able to make it this far because she did it for fun. 

With her busy senior schedule, she manages to input golf into her regular routine. She expressed how it is difficult to balance school life with her golfing career, but somehow, she manages. She tries to finish all her schoolwork and homework at school, then after school she practices golf. On average she golfs with her friends for four hours, but currently, she is resting because she has golfer’s elbow tendonitis, and it comes back once in a while. However, over her prime golfing time during quarantine, she would practice for eight hours. 

Legaspi is the captain of the golf team at Cypress High and says taking care of the team adds a lot of responsibility. However, despite the hardships golf is something she can’t give up on. Legaspi ends off with saying, “Even though it is a lot of responsibility to be a captain, it’s also brought me a lot of joy because of how great the people were on the team… to have better connection with each of them, including our Coach and make so many memories.”