PaliHi’s Yang Is Earning His Medals

For someone who admits he once hated his chosen sport, Ray Yang has come a long way in golf–both literally and figuratively.

Playing the front nine at Woodley Lakes for the very first time last Thursday, he birdied the first hole on his way to a 2-over par 38 that earned him medalist honors–something that is becoming all too familiar for the 14-year-old Palisades High freshman.

Born in Beijing, China, Yang moved to California when he was 10 and in short order he made a name for himself. As an 8th-grader at Paul Revere Middle School he was excited about the opportunity to play for PaliHi, so Yang emailed Coach James Paleno and the rest is history. 

“I thought I should’ve done better because this is a really fast, straightforward layout compared to Rancho [Park],” said Yang, who lives with his mom Ero in Playa del Rey. “There are less trees here and these greens aren’t as hard to read. Hopefully next time I’ll do  a little better.”

Yang has already won several Southern California PGA tournaments and, at 13, was the youngest player to make the cut in the 18-and-under flight last year at the LA City championships, held at Encino and Balboa golf courses.

“I like every part of high school golf,” Yang said. “My teammates are awesome and I’ve made great friends. We go to the Westchester driving range twice a week and we have to qualify every week to play.”

Paleno requires his players to  shoot 3-over par or lower to qualify for that week’s match.

“Last week we had nine kids playing for four spots,” Paleno said. “I take the seven lowest scores and let the cream rise to the top. If the ninth-graders beat out the seniors, that’s the way it goes.”

Yang’s aim, though, is always the same.

“I hold myself to a really high standard,” he said. “Under par is my goal, to try and beat the course and play smart. Normally, ball striking is my strength and I know I can do better. I haven’t shot a great round yet this season.”

Yang said the sport is getting more and more popular in China: “The government’s trying to build a really good golf program.  Schools are opening up all over the place. The one difference is that in Beijing all the courses are private.”

Upon relocating to America, Yang had to learn English and although his father introduced him to the sport at a young age, he had no desire to play.

“My dad started taking me to the driving range when I was 4, but I hated it,” Yang said. “My hands hurt all the time and I thought it was a dumb sport, even though I was quite good. I didn’t play at all for four years, then one day my school took a field trip to the driving range [at Gauhoa Country Club] and I had such a great time. I’ve been playing ever since.”

Yang fired a 4-under par 68 last year in the Long Beach City match play event, an amateur tournament held at El Dorado Golf Course. Last week, he shot 4-under in a practice round at Penmar. Always a student of the game, Yang tries to emulate the likes of European pros Robert Rock and Rory McIlroy. His goal is to major in sports medicine while playing at Stanford, then take his chances on the PGA Tour.

As luck would have it, PaliHi started a sports medicine class this year, taught by LA Sparks personal trainer Courtney Watson, and three PaliHi golfers are enrolled: Yang, Michael Lerner and Jason Simon. 

Yang’s two older sisters also excelled at golf. Eleanor, 20,  played in the state finals for Westchester High and is now a sophomore at UC Berkeley. Renee, 19, also played for Westchester before moving to Taiwan for college.

His dad, K.C., still lives in China but Yang said he sees him about three times a year in addition to talking via Facetime or Skype.

“My dad’s actually pretty famous back in Asia,” Yang said. “He’s a wine collector.”

One of Yang’s closest friends on the team is sophomore AJ Vaatete, who played basketball with Yang at Paul Revere and didn’t take up golf seriously until six months ago.

“I was the point guard and shooting guard [at Revere] so I knew Ray from basketball,” said Vaatete, who lives in Culver City. “He’s kind of mentored me and we’ve become better friends. He’s very confident and and tries to encourage you a lot when you play.”

Yang was only a 7th-grader when he played on Vaatete’s team  and was thrilled when the two were reunited.

“I walked into Coach Paleno’s room for the team meeting and there was AJ,” Yang said. “We hadn’t seen each other for a whole  year and I was like ‘Hey, I didn’t know you played golf.”

Yang was the Dolphins’ low scorer in three of their first four league matches and he turned heads two weeks ago when he shot 3-over par to share medalist honors with Van Nuys junior Jisup Hwang, the reigning City Section individual champion.

Last Thursday against Woodland Hills Taft, three players carded 40s: Simon, Jake Schultz and sophomore Max Hagar, who was the medalist the week before against Chatsworth. Lerner and Grant Ebner each shot 44 and Vaatete shot a 46 as PaliHi prevailed,   202-269.

The defending City champion Dolphins hosted Woodland Hills El Camino Real at Rancho Park yesterday and Paleno was hopeful defending 6A League champion Charlie Dillon, who missed the team’s first four matches with shoulder injuries, would be back in the lineup.