Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Brian O’Shaughnessy/Index Krystal Limsiaco chips towards the green at the Bulldog classic March 28-29. She placed second at the event with a 169.

Krystal Limsiaco gave up her tennis racket in favor of a golf club. It seems to have worked out for her.

Limsiaco, a sophomore on the women's golf team, grew up in Houston following her two older sisters to the tennis courts.

"I would play with them all the time," Limsiaco said. "I just fell in love with the sport."

But once her dad took up golf, her sport preference changed.

"He was like, 'You should come out with me sometime,'" Limsiaco said. "And then once became twice, and twice became three times, and then I would just play with him every weekend."

Limsiaco took to golf quickly. Despite little training, she had a natural swing that didn't require much tweaking.

"Golf is a sport where it's rare to find somebody who has a natural swing," Limsiaco said.

After picking up the game, Limsiaco decided to start playing seriously the summer between her seventh- and eighth-grade years. She gave up tennis and hit the links.

"My dad was the one who was like, 'I think you should play golf - I think you have a better future in it,'" she said.

Her natural swing led her to the golf team at the Woodlands High School in Conroe, Texas, which boasted the No. 1-ranked girls' golf team in the state.

On a team loaded with talent, she said she was not the best player.

"I was top five on my team, but then again our team consisted of amazing players," she said. "Just to be on top five was an amazing thing at my high school. To be No. 1 you had to shoot even [par] or lower."

Being on a top team, Limsiaco practiced 18 holes five days a week. She said her experience in high school was similar to what players experience in college at schools that treat golf as the most important thing.

Truman head coach Sam Lesseig does not place golf first, which got the attention of Limsiaco. She said high school golf had worn her out, and she began looking for a place to play golf where the sport was not the top priority. She was looking for something to better suit her laid-back personality.

After looking at some schools in Texas and North Carolina, she found Truman. She liked the idea of playing for Lesseig because he would allow her to pursue her academics first.

Continued...

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