Bad Back on Course
Andrew Wen can pinpoint the exact moment and the exact spot golf got rough. He even remembers the weather conditions.
“It was raining that day” [in 1993], said Wen, now a junior at UC Irvine. “It was June 3 and I was so happy because I had finished my SATs the previous day. I was sitting in traffic on the freeway and this lady rear-ended me.”
Wen’s injuries weren’t severe, but they have lingered.
Two weeks ago, on the first day of the U.S. Intercollegiate tournament at Stanford, the pain in his back returned. Wen, the Anteaters’ top golfer, shot a pitiful 85 for the first round. That he came back with strong performances in the next two rounds didn’t ease the pain, in his back or in his mind.
Golf is more than a game to the Wen family. Wendy and Bowen followed that little bouncing ball from Taiwan to Guam to San Diego County for their sons, Andrew and Daniel.
Daniel Wen, 24, is currently in China on the Asian Tour. Andrew followed in his brother’s footsteps, and even blazed his own trail.
He won the 11-12-year-old division in the prestigious Optimist Junior World tournament. That same year Tiger Woods won the 13-14 division.
At 14, Wen finished fourth.
At 15, he received his first letter from a university. At 16, on a rainy day, while sitting in traffic on the freeway, a driver rear-ended his car.
“I didn’t make the cut the next two years in the Junior World,” Wen said. “Things come back very slowly. My mental game wasn’t there. I lost confidence. Then I started doubting. The next thing I know, I’m shooting 80.
“I can’t practice sometimes. If I compete a lot, the pain comes back. I do these stretches every day, knee to chest. I lay flat and turn my legs to the right, then turn my whole body to the left. It’s no fun, but it’s a must. I love golf.”
*
Jeff Johnston, UC Irvine’s exuberant golf coach, was new to the job in 1995. He had never recruited a player.
“Someone came and told me that there was a golfer on campus and he’s choosing between Irvine and Stanford,” Johnston said. “That’s all I needed to hear.”
Johnston hadn’t settled into his office yet, so he met with Wen and his mother, Wendy, in track Coach Vince O’Boyle’s office.
“I was so nervous and I didn’t know what to ask,” Johnston said. “I pointed to all the plaques on Vince’s wall and said, ‘I’m sure the golf team has the same number of championships.’
“Finally, I brought in Kevin Yamauchi, our team captain. He talked with Andrew and I talked with his mother. She said she heard I was working on my Ph.D. in religion. I am a youth pastor and I think that was the most important thing she heard that day. We ended up hugging. Praise the Lord.”
It has been a good union.
Wen, who attended Palomar College for two years, has been a driving force for the Anteaters, who will compete in the Big West Conference championships beginning Monday at the Pacific Golf and Country Club in San Clemente. He has finished among the top 10 in three tournaments this year.
He was runner-up out of 103 golfers at the Southern California Intercollegiate championships in early March. He also finished seventh out of 100 at the Pacific Invitational in September and eighth out of 104 at the Spalding/Anteater Invitational last month.
Irvine has been a place for Wen to regain the form that had prompted colleges to send him letters as a teenager. He also has flourished academically; he has a 3.7 grade-point average and has been nominated for Academic All-American.
But for every two steps forward, there is one step back.
“If I compete too much, the back pain returns,” Wen said. “Swinging bothers me more than walking. I try to rest a lot. That’s pretty much all I can do. I’ve been through therapy and seen chiropractors. I went to an acupuncturists. None of it was working. Right now, all I do is stretch and ice after I play.
“Golf has so much to do with your confidence. If you’re not confident, you have doubts.”
*
There was no doubt at all when he was a kid.
Bowen Wen, a decathlon coach in Taiwan, first learned to play golf at a military academy. He saw it as a sport his oldest son could do for life, unlike decathlons.
Daniel Wen picked up the game quickly. But in 1983, the family moved to Guam to run a furniture store owned by Wendy’s sister. Finding a place to play was difficult.
“We couldn’t afford to pay the fees at a club,” Wendy said. “So my husband talked with a Navy officer about using the driving range on the base. It was all grown over with weeds, but it was a place Daniel could go hit.”
Only Daniel. Andrew was 7 at the time and was brought along because no baby sitter could be found.
“Andrew would help pick up the balls,” Wendy said. “One day, Andrew asked his father, ‘Why do I have to serve my brother? It is not fair.’ Bowen let him hit the next day.
“The club looked real smooth in Andrew’s hand and he could already hit the ball nice because he had watched his brother. My husband then had to shag balls for both of them. He was the only one that came home with grass stains on his clothes.”
Before he was 10, Andrew had broken 80 and was beating most adults. Both sons played so well that the family decided to relocate to take advantage of the San Diego Golf Assn., which encourages and helps youths entering in the sport.
Daniel competed in the Junior World tournament in 1989 and the family stayed. That Wendy’s sister owned two furniture stores in San Diego County made it possible.
“She told my mom, ‘Now your sons can play as much golf as they want,’ ” Andrew said.
*
Johnston actually would like Wen to play a little less golf.
“We talk to him about quality over quantity and his back problem makes that even more important,” Johnston said. “His biggest problem is comparing himself to others.
“Whether it’s conscious or subconscious, I’m sure he feels some pressure to do well. How many families move halfway around the world so their sons can play golf?”
Whether Wen is reaching back for something or reaching for his level, he can pinpoint one thing.
“I have always been told I have this potential,” Wen said. “It is there and I’m trying to find it. I played this game well when I was young, so the skill is there. Now, I feel it coming back.”
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
College Golf
* What: Big West Conference men’s golf championships.
* When: Monday-Tuesday; tee time is 7 a.m. each day
* Where: Pacific Golf and Country Club, San Clemente
* Participants: UC Irvine, Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara, Pacific, Nevada, Boise State, Idaho, Utah State, New Mexico State, North Texas.
* Admission: Free
* Notes: Pacific is the defending champion. Each day will consist of 27 holes
* Information: Pacific Golf and Country Club, (949) 498-6604
