Marilyn Weng, a Fremont student, completed her 2025 golf season just a few weeks ago after participating in the North Bay Local Tour with the U.S. Kids Golf Foundation. After five tournaments in two months, Weng has gathered the most points among her 8-and-under age group. Weng has accomplished all this at just five years old.
Weng’s mother, Anna Zhang, shares just how Weng began her love of golf at such a young age. “On my daughter’s second birthday, we gave her a gift that was a set of plastic golf clubs, and she had a blast playing with them everyday,” said Zhang. “I took her to play mini golf when she was around three years old and she loved it.”
At about four years old, Zhang took her daughter to observe a tee class. Weng’s focus for the class at such a young age surprised the instructor. After seeing her daughter’s continued interest in golf, Zhang wanted to put her in a golf program, but because of her young age no coach was willing to take her in for training just yet.
With only the knowledge of being a golf fan and playing golf as a hobby in college, Zhang made the decision to take on the role of coach herself. Zhang completed a course and earned a U.S. Kids Golf Foundation coaching certificate. With a degree in early childhood development and as a former Montessori school teacher, Zhang was excited to have a point of connection with her daughter through golf. “It’s a good parent-child education moment, that we can do something together. So that motivates me to do this thing with my daughter,” said Zhang.
For Weng her favorite part about playing golf is the time she spends with her family. “Our family of three works together as a team,” said Weng. “I play golf, my mom caddies, and my dad cheers.”
Much of Weng’s practice happens at random moments. “Sometimes we will be at a shopping mall and she goes, ‘Mommy look at my swing,’” said Zheng. In those moments of excitement, she takes advantage of the chance to give her daughter tips on how to improve. “We [practice] when she wants to do it. We’re not trying to push her, but this is what she likes,” said Zheng.
Since the U.S Kids Foundation has a minimum age to enter in tournaments, just after her fifth birthday in mid-April, Weng was able to enter her first tournament. “She was so excited. Everything was brand new to her,” said Zheng. “Usually when we have practice it’s only me and her. But when we went to the tournament, she was like, ‘Wow, there’s a group of girls.’”
This fall, Weng entered five different tournaments traveling from American Canyon to Napa. At each tournament Weng was the youngest player on the course with girls in her age group ranging from seven to nearly nine years old.
Through the fall season her first tournament score on Aug. 30 was 62, leaving her in second place. In her latest tournament, the Valley of the Moon tour championship, Weng saw much improvement already with her score jumping to 41, earning her first place in the Santa Rosa tournament.
As much as Weng enjoys playing golf, she also loves to share her skills with her friends anytime she can. During playdates Weng tries to teach her friends how to hold a club, adjust their feet and swing. Weng has already shared with her mom, “I want to be a golf coach when I grow up.”
The goal for now is to keep entering into as many tournaments as Weng is interested in. The family already has their eye on the U.S. Kids World Championship in North Carolina next summer. However, Weng’s mother focuses on the love that her daughter has for the game. “I want her to have her own passion for what she does,” said Zheng. “We just try our best to support her.”
