Juliet gets a hug from her mother, Katie Vongphoumy, as he father, Sam Vongphoumy looks on. The La Salle Academy freshman is the first girl to win the state high school championship. See a gallery of photos of Vongphoumy
The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach
CRANSTON -- Katie Vongphoumy didn’t hesitate when asked why she came to America from Laos in 1982, when she was 20 years old.
“To pursue a new life,” she said. “The culture here gives you more chances.”
What a life Katie’s 14-year-old daughter, Juliet, has in front of her.
Only a freshman at La Salle Academy, Juliet yesterday became the first girl to win the Rhode Island Interscholastic League golf championship,
“I want her to be independent,” said Katie, who walked the last few holes yesterday at sunny but windy Cranston Country Club as Juliet followed the even-par 71 she shot Tuesday with a 77 for a 36-hole total of 148 — two strokes better than anyone else in the field.
“I want her,” Katie said, “to be whoever she wants to be.”
Juliet wants to be a professional golfer some day, playing on the LPGA Tour. While that’s a possibility, what is a virtual certainty is that the second of Katie’s and her husband, Sam’s, four daughters will be playing college golf and receiving a scholarship to do so. It will open up opportunities for her that would have been undreamed of in Laos.
In these days of $4-a-gallon gasoline, falling housing prices, rising foreclosures, soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, all amid a heated presidential campaign, it is easy to become disillusioned with today’s America.
But then you hear about Juliet Vongphoumy and you realize that this truly is the land of opportunity.
“It’s an amazing story,” said her coach at La Salle, Susan Mouchon.
The story has its roots in Laos, where Katie grew up in the capital city of Vientiane, beside the Mekong River, and Sam lived in the ancient royal city of Luang Phrabang, to the north. They were called Khingthong and Sinpaseuth then, but Americanized their names after moving to the United States. They left their native land to escape a life of poverty.
“Under the Communists,” Katie said, “everybody was poor. Nobody had a car. Everybody had to walk. There was no TV, no phones. Sometimes, there was no food on the table. It was a very hard life.”
In hopes of a better life, Katie tried to escape to Thailand when she was 16, but was caught. She was supposed to go to jail, but instead was sent to a rural farm. Two years later, she was able to slip across the border. It was two more years, spent in a refugee camp in Thailand, before she was able to get to America.
She went first to Oregon, but jobs were hard to come by, so she moved to Rhode Island, where she had relatives. Her father went to California; when Katie visited him, she met Sam.
“For him,” she said, laughing, “it was love at first sight. And I wanted a family.”
They returned to Rhode Island to live and have four daughters — Junette, a sophomore at Classical; Juliet; Joanna, an eighth grader; and Janita, a fourth grader.
“My dad and mom are always saying how lucky we are to be in America and have these opportunities,” Juliet said.
Mouchon marveled yesterday at how poised Juliet was throughout her round.
“To be that young, that focused, and not get rattled — I’d have been shaking in my boots out there,” she said. Really, though, how much pressure is involved in getting out of a sand bunker when, at the same age, your mother was thinking about how to get out of her native country, willing to risk imprisonment, or even death, for a chance at a better life?
Part of the good life in America, Sam Vongphoumy felt, involved sports.
Because the family lived on Douglas Avenue, only about 10 minutes from the Button Hole learning center, he began taking his daughters there regularly — first to the putting green, then to the practice range.
“When Button Hole first opened,” Katie said, “they invited the community to visit. The kids wanted to try it. If we didn’t have Button Hole, Juliet’s game wouldn’t be this good. The children wouldn’t have had the chance to hit so many balls.”
“The entire family comes out,” said David Hanna, Button Hole’s executive director. “They’re here almost every day. They have a love for the game. Juliet is a special case, because her future in the game is very bright. But the nearly 2,000 mostly inner-city kids who were taught here last year have learned the core values of the game — honesty, courtesy, and respect for others — in a safe, nurturing environment.”
Juliet is proud of being a “Button Hole kid.”
“I never knew about golf before I went to Button Hole,” she said. “When we first went, my Dad wouldn’t let me go on the driving range. He’d only let me putt. That made me want to go to the range even more. I liked the idea of hitting the ball further than the other kids.”
Juliet is a small girl. At 5 foot 1 — “and a half,” she quickly adds — and weighing 92 pounds, she’s barely bigger than the golf bag she carries slung across her back as she strides along the fairway.
But thanks to a graceful, yet powerful, swing, distance off the tee isn’t a problem. Her iron play also is good. It’s her short game that needs the most improvement.
“The best part of her game is her driver,” Katie said. “She’s very consistent. What I want to see her work on is her chipping and putting.”
Sam studies golf videos and watches the Golf Channel to pick up tips to help his daughter, who’d rather watch movies.
“She’ll sit down with me for maybe 10 minutes,” he said, “then she’ll walk away. She doesn’t like to watch golf. But when she plays, she’s very focused.”
Juliet was all business yesterday, battling to protect the 2-shot lead she had after 18 holes against the state’s top boys.
“I was a little nervous,” she admitted, although she didn’t show it on the course. “I try not to think about anything out there other than the shot I’m hitting.”
“She’s amazing,” Mouchon said. “Her composure is amazing. Her dedication is amazing. She’s the sweetheart of the world, a wonderful young lady. She smiles all the time. She’s a straight-A student — a pleasure to deal with.”
Juliet loves golf. She says she’d rather go to the range than the mall.
Her parents are thrilled that her golf game can take her places far from the hard life they knew as children.
“Growing up in Laos,” said Katie, “I never really had a chance to be a girl. It’s so different for these kids. They’re so lucky.”
jdonalds@projo.com
