Daniel qi jue Lai was born in Guangzhou, China. After his sophomore year of high school, he moved to Victoria, British Columbia, when he was 16 years old. There, he finished his junior and senior years of high school before attending Langara College for two years in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Western Washington University offers two opportunities to play golf: the varsity men’s and women’s teams, which compete in Great Northwest Athletic Conference, and a club team that competes in the National Collegiate Club Golf Association.
Lai is a member of Western’s club golf team and is studying engineering, as his father is an owner of an engineering company.
“He brought me to his factory a lot when I was young,” Lai said. “I got interested in it, and that’s why I decided to become an engineer.”
He was thinking of attending the University of British Columbia but said its engineering program was very competitive. After Langara, Lai said he chose Western because of its decent engineering program and its golf team.
Lai’s dad got him into golf when he was 10 years old, but he didn’t like it at first. After a while, Lai started to find something interesting in it and chose to pursue it.
He also didn’t have many chances to play golf in China because it was very expensive. Lai said it costs about $150 to play a round. When he went to Canada, he was surprised by the difference in rates compared to China. He also said that golf is seen as a high-class sport in China, and if you tell people that you golf, they’ll think that you are a rich person.
There are also not many courses in Lai’s hometown of Guangzhou, now, or when Lai was growing up. He can remember maybe two or three, but the Chinese government has closed many courses down.
When Lai moved to Canada, he had many more opportunities to play golf. He competed in junior and amateur tournaments and joined the college golf team at Langara College as well.
“I learned that university golf in the United States is more competitive than in Canada, so that is one of the reasons I came to Bellingham,” Lai said.
Lai wasn’t selected for Western’s varsity team, but he’s had some amazing experiences on the club team.
“I got to compete with many different universities and play different courses,” Lai said.
“Daniel is a great asset to the team,” Dylan Hardwick, Western’s club golf president, said. “He is professional, respectful and a great role model for other players. [He] will always let you know when you hit a good shot and encourage you when you make a mistake.”
Lai was second on the club’s ladder during the entire fall season, and his performance earned him a spot in the Nationals Invitational tournament in South Carolina last November, where he tied for 84th place out of 128 golfers.
“So far, I enjoy studying at Western, and I am looking forward to the new golf season in April,” Lai said.
The club team travels to Yakima, Washington, in the beginning of April to compete in their first tournament of the 2022 spring season.
Click here to read about other international student-athletes at Western.
Taras McCurdie (he/him) is the sports editor for The Front this quarter. He is an aspiring sports journalist entering his final quarter at Western Washington University (WWU). Outside of school, you can find him freelancing for the Lynden Tribune, playing on the WWU club tennis team or running on the treadmill at the Rec Center. When chilling at night, he listens to throwback slow jams and ’90s hip-hop. You can reach him at tarasmccurdie.thefront@gmail.com.
