Top five: TWLC alum Misa Truong

I recently received a letter from one of our students, Andrew ‘Misa’ Truong, and he is such a great example of why I love my job that I had to share the top five reasons Andrew is a standout TWLC alum. It’s also a good reminder that something as simple as a golf lesson is much deeper for a child than it may seem at the time. 

1. He started at the TWLC in 2008 taking marine biology and the Saturday golf program.

2. He fell in love with the game of golf and quickly joined our Player Development Program.

3. He discovered that the Tiger Woods Foundation really cares about kids in need and participated in our enrichment classes, workshops and golf outings throughout middle school and high school.

4. He became fascinated with marine biology because of our programs, and he ended up working part-time at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, where he was a SCUBA dive employee taking care of the many exhibits. He’ll be studying marine biology at UC Santa Barbara in the fall. 

5. Misa is his birth name, but most people know him as Andrew. Mr. B (Nick Badel, golf outreach manager) and I still call him Misa.

An excerpt from the letter Misa sent me: 

To Mr. G, one of my childhood heroes,

I never was the best golfer (definitely not even close), but because of you, learning about the game of golf became about much more than just being able to hit the fairways and sink putts from across the green. Through the game of golf, you taught me how to be humble and not only to receive instruction, but seek it myself when I needed it. You taught me how to seek consistency in my game. You taught me how to develop a process so that I could strive for results, not once, but time and time again. This lesson has endlessly rewarded me in my academic work and every other pursuit of passion that I’ve had.

The most important thing was that, you, along with the rest of the TWLC staff, afforded a kid from a lower-class family in Anaheim opportunities I could not have even dreamt of otherwise. Through golf outings, enrichment classes and workshops, the scope of my world was blown wide open, and for that, I can never thank you enough.

I want you to know that at the end of September, I will be moving up to UC Santa Barbara to study marine biology, but I’ll never forget the values you and the game of golf have instilled in me. You set me on the right path, and I hope I can walk far enough on it to make you proud.

-Misa Truong