Lilia Vu Sees Brighter Days Ahead After an Up-and-Down 2024

The world No. 4 didn't match her 2023 Player of the Year campaign but overcame injuries and found something to build on at the season finale.

Lilia Vu, pictured at the 2024 CPKC Women's Open, won once this season after a four-win 2023. / Sergei Belski-Imagn Images

A tie for 40th wasn’t what Lilia Vu was looking for at last week’s LPGA season finale, but she sees a brighter and healthier 2025 ahead.

The 2023 two-time major-winner came into this year with high expectations only to find plenty of adversity, and her on-course performance at Tiburon Golf Club was somewhat of a microcosm of her season. After scuffling to rounds of 72-71, she put together one of her best rounds in months with a five-birdie 68 on Saturday.

It was a confidence booster a long time in coming. 

“I think I’m mentally strong, sometimes I feel like that’s something that is also my weakness. When I’m really confident, I feel like nothing can stop me and then sometimes I’ll just a hit a wall of imposter syndrome and have to drag myself out of it,” Vu says. “Golf is a game that is all mental and you have to be strong enough to handle the times in which you can be hitting it well and when you’re not, it’s really just taking care of your mental health, trying your best because it’s always a journey.”

Lilia Vu hits a tee shot during Round 2 of the CME Group Tour Championship. / Janine Brown/Sports Illustrated

Vu’s lone—but thrilling—win this season came at the Meijer LPGA Classic in June, where she defeated Grace Kim and Lexi Thompson in a three-way playoff where she birdied all three extra holes. That was her first start after missing three months following back injury. 

“I would say I’m pretty disappointed with how I’ve played this year but with my back injury, I think I’ve done pretty well, even if it doesn’t always show on paper,” she said.

Vu finished T2 in two of the last three majors of the season, the KPMG Women’s PGA and AIG Women’s Open, made her Olympic debut and played on the victorious U.S. Solheim Cup team.

So don’t call it a slump after her breakout 2023, when she was LPGA Player of the Year behind the two majors and four wins overall. She’s still No. 4 in the women’s world rankings. 

Trying for career win No. 6 will have to wait until late January when the LPGA’s historic 75th season begins. Vu is a part of that history now; her two major wins in 2023 marked the first such season for American since 1999. She and this year’s Player of the Year, Nelly Korda, are also the first back-to-back Americans to win the award since Betsy King and Beth Daniel in 1989 and 1990. And that Solheim Cup two months ago? Vu holed the winning putt for the U.S.

Vu knows it's a privilege to find success on the LPGA Tour, and to play the sport she's loved since age 7. The 2018 Pac-12 Player of the Year had a challenging start to her professional career, missing seven of nine cuts in 2019. She thought about quitting before playing her way back through the Symetra Tour and winning her first LPGA title in February 2023 at the Honda LPGA Thailand. 

Just as she fought to get her card back in 2022, Vu fought back this season to win the Meijer Classic in Michigan. She also met a goal of playing for Team USA in Paris, opening with the Americans’ best round before fading to T36.

But playing in the Olympics meant much more than her scores. In her words, she was playing for a country that helped save her family from the war-stricken conditions in Vietnam and all she wanted to do was represent team USA well and give back. As originally told to LPGA.com in 2022, Vu’s mother, grandparents and other family members escaped Vietnam in a boat built by hand by Vu’s grandfather. When the boat started to leak, all 82 on board including Vu’s family were rescued by a nearby U.S. Navy ship, the USS Brewton. Her family later settled in Orange County, Calif., where Vu’s mother met her father and the star golfer was born. 

Lilia Vu takes a few moments for young fans at the CME Group Tour Championship. / Janine Brown/Sports Illustrated

While she’s a fierce competitor on the course, Vu’s personality has proven relatable and likable to younger women and girls with interest in the sport. She considers it a responsibility to be able to engage and serve as an inspiration. 

Last week she sported a hot pink golf bag, equipped with her pink putter and a bedazzled ball marker. At the bottom of her golf bag were three Hello Kitty stickers, a reminder that while she has accomplished so much, she is still a young 27 with much to look forward to in 2025.