Hong Kong SAR, China: The road ahead for Arianna Lau points straight to Illinois and to Northwestern University, where the city’s highest-ranked amateur will soon be settled fully into her college career.
At 17 years of age, Lau has already achieved much – her World Amateur Golf Ranking of 45th comes after five wins and 12 top-10 finishes – and she sees the Northwestern campus as a place where she can keep developing, both on the course and off
“Northwestern is a school with high academic standards and also excels in golf,” said the two-time Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) Junior Girls’ Championship winner, when asked why she chose to join the Wildcats.
Northwestern has, indeed, been excelling, recently carving a slice of history with a first-ever NCAA title. Entering this year's NCAA championship, at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California, the Wildcats were ranked 11th. Coming into the final, they faced the number one-ranked Stanford.
Northwestern’s stars dug deep on their way to a 3-2 match play victory in the final – an effort made all the more remarkable considering Stanford hadn’t lost in stroke play across the entire 2024-25 season, and had come off the best 72-hole performance in the history of the NCAA Championship (27-under-par).
Lau, of course, checked out the action – she loved what she saw from her soon-to-be team-mates.
“I am very excited to join such an amazing team,” said Lau, who displayed her match play prowess in January when she was a member of the APGC’s Patsy Hankins Trophy team that defeated their European Golf Association counterparts in the Solheim Cup-style event in the United Arab Emirates.
“They just won the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship. The atmosphere surrounding the whole team and their skills, their level of play, will help me to learn. So, when I enter [the school], I will believe that I can improve and follow my dream,” added Lau, in an interview published on the website of the Golf Association of Hong Kong, China.
Around this time last year, Lau was already in the United States, spending her summer break playing the ultra-competitive North American swing of the international junior golf schedule, and testing herself against unfamiliar courses.
She came out of it a world champion, thanks to victory in the Girls’ 15-18 category at the IMG Academy Junior World Golf Championships (now known as the Uswing Mojing Junior World Golf Championships). Over the ensuing 12 months, Lau's expectations for the next chapter in her life have only grown.
“Northwestern is a high-level academic and golf school, so I hope to have a balance between golf and academics because I enjoy learning,” said Lau.
“Learning can make me more mature and become a better person, both on and off the golf course. Therefore, Northwestern is the school for me. Their team, whether the captain or the coach, strongly supports each other and believes in their abilities. I’m very honoured and excited to be able to join Northwestern’s team in September.”
*Article courtesy of the Golf Association of Hong Kong, China.