By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
To say Lauren Song has big shoes to fill is an understatement. Her older sister Anna graduated from Palisades High in the spring after the most accomplished career of any golfer in City Section history. Granted, the pressure to live up to extremely high expectations is daunting, but Lauren embraces the challenge and is ready to make ger own mark on the prep level.
“I don’t expect to outperform her,” Song said of her sister, who is beginning her collegiate career at Stanford University. “Pali is where I knew I’d be going all along so I expect people to make comparisons. This is my time and I want to make the best of it.”
Asked what she learned most from her sibling, Song citred Anna’s discipline in balancing school with athletics and her ability to control her emotions.
“She just left this weekend and I drove up to Pal Alto with her and said ‘Good luck, I’ll see you soon, It was pretty anticlimactic.”
Until Anna arrived Palisades had never won a section girls golf title—a rarity on a campus where success is measured in championships. Four years later, the Dolphins are a powerhouse, having won four straight team titles. She won the individual title three times and set the finals scoring record along the way. She won the Post Cup Award in June as the school’s outsanding female athlete. Lauren is not the slightest bit jealous, only proud of the legacy her longtime practice partner leaves behind.
“I played a few junior events over the summer and I enjoyed it,” said Song, who started playing when she was 8, mostly because of Anna, who she admis she has always looked up to. “We practice all the time and we even played a Toyota Tour Cup event together earlier this year. I went to Spain to watch Anna at the Solheim Cup and I’m grateful for that.”
While their strokes are carbon copies their demeanors are not.
“I’m more outgoing and more social,” Song said. “I’m an extrovert, Anna’s more of an introvert.”
For senior captain Skylar Monahan, not having her friend Anna around is weird but she welcomes Lauren with open arms.
“I’m happy and sad,” she said. “I’ll miss Anna but I’m enjoying getting to know Lauren. The two have the same swing but different personalities. They’re both fun to play with in their own ways.”
Palisades coach Dave Suarez said Song’s potential “is off the charts.” He was in awe when the ninth grader had five birdies and finished three under par for nine holes to earn medalist honors in last Wednesday’s league match against Granada Hills and Cleveland at Woodley Lakes. She shot a 37 at Rancho Park on Monday versus Marymount and could have gone lower had her short putt not lipped out on the eighth hole.
“Her approaches are different but Lauren’s a very good ball striker and she’s competitive just like her sister.,” Suarez said. “I rereally don’t have to say too much. I let her go out and play.”
Song played for her school team at Paul Revere and her home course, which she knows so well, is Brentwood Country Club. She spends hours every week on the driving range or the putting green. She looks forward to watching her Anna play intercollegiate events in the Southland (one is coming up in October) and visiting whenever she has a free weekend.
According to teammate Chloe Suh, a senior captain along with Monahan described the sisters as “warm-hearted girls” and marvels at Lauren’s tactical mind, a trait seldom attributed to.
Though eager to follow in her sister’s footsteps, Lauren is also determined to blaze her own trail.
“Maybe I can be a four-time City champion,” she said. “I can’t look too far ahead. The most important thing is to keep our team streak going—Anna was proud of that. I think we can do it.”
Anna was second by a stroke to teammate Chloe Rahn at City Finals her freshman year, so if Lauren finishes first in November she will have done something her sister did not. She also has eyes on a state title. Anna came close as a junior, finishing second by three shots at Poppy Hills.
