Daily Journal Boys’ Golfer of the Year: Crystal’s Edan Cui

But when Ho was meeting with Crystal athletic director Bobby Long for a preseason meeting, he was given some bad news.

“I found out talking to Bobby, ‘By the way, you don’t have Edan,” Ho said. “And he told me the whole situation.”

Cui, who had finished second and tied for sixth in the state tournament in 2022 and 2023, had suffered a serious knee injury in the fall of 2023 and wouldn’t be ready to go at the start of the 2024 high school season.

“I was stressed a little bit,” Ho said, who had spent the previous four seasons coaching golf at The Nueva School. “[Crystal] was the juggernaut team. They were beating everybody. I knew what I was inheriting.

“(But even without Cui) I knew this team is so deep … and we continued the march.”

By the end of February, Cui was cleared to play and let’s just say it was worth the wait. He didn’t skip a beat in his season debut in April and went on to have a tremendous postseason, earning him the Daily Journal’s Boys’ Golfer of the Year honor for the third year in a row.

“I could putt and chip, but I didn’t go to a full swing until about February. But it’s not swinging the club, it’s walking the course (that was the challenge),” Cui said. “I was itching to get back out there. But I had to be patient with it. I knew I also had to temper my expectations.”

Cui did temper his expectations, it’s just that his game is so good, he never skipped a beat.

After a practice round at Palo Alto Baylands, where Cui shot a 2-under, he teed it up live for the first time April 15, when Crystal faced off with Harker at Burlingame Country Club.

“I remember talking to Harker’s No. 1, Jonathan Zhang, on the first hole. I told him, ‘Dude, I don’t know how good I’m going to do today.’”

Cui went on to blitz the course, carding a 5-under 31 for just nine holes.

“On the eighth, Zhang said, ‘Rusty, huh?’” Cui said. “In a way, I didn’t have any expectations. It wasn’t like I thought I would do bad.”

Added Ho: “I’ve never seen a 5-under on nine holes at Burlingame (CC). That’s crazy. Burlingame is no easy course. … It’s penal if you’re not on your game. [Cui’s performance] was impressive.”

Cui followed that up with a 4-under 33 at Baylands the next day and Crystal, as team, went on the dominate the rest of the WBAL. After tying their first two matches without Cui, the Gryphons won out the rest of the way. Over their last five matches, the Gryphons won by an average of 23 strokes.

“When he did come (back), the hammer came back down,” Ho said of Cui’s return and the lift it gave his teammates.

Cui sat out the West Bay Athletic League championship round to rest his knee, with teammate Griffin Chiu finishing second. The Gryphons had already qualified for the Central Coast Section tournament as a team having received an automatic bid by virtue of winning the WBAL regular-season title.

Cui and the Gryphons played in the afternoon group for the CCS regional and Cui ended up having the lowest round of the day among 168 golfers, shooting a 2-under 69 to be the top qualifier into the championship round.

Cui put together an even better round in the CCS final. He and Nueva’s James Lee both shot 5-under 66s for the round and, on any other day, that would have been good enough to be a champion.

But on this day, Stevenson’s Luke Brandler played out of his mind, carding a 9-under 62, forcing Cui and Lee to share second place.

“I’m honestly so happy with that,” Cui said of performance in the CCS final. “[Brandler] shot a 62 and set the course record. … I definitely could have shot lower, but I don’t think I could have shot a 62.”

Obviously that qualified Cui for the Northern California championship round, but the rest of the Gryphons advanced, as well, as they finished second in the team standings.

Cui had his worst round of his truncated season in the Northern California championship at Berkeley Country Club in El Cerrito, firing a 4-over 76 to finish tied for 26th. But the rest of the team helped Cui get to the state tournament for the third time in a row as the Gryphons finished tied for second in Northern California.

“He just had an off day. I don’t know if Berkeley just doesn’t fit his eye or not. Sometimes courses just don’t fit someone’s game,” Ho said. “He felt bad, but that’s the beauty of team golf. His other teammates did what they needed to do to get in (to the state tournament).

They picked up where [Cui] faltered a little bit.”

But Cui was back on his game the following week at San Gabriel Country Club, site of the state championship round, where he finished in a tie for third with a 2-under 69. As a team, the Gryphons finished fifth in the state.

“I was very satisfied with how I played,” Cui said.

While the results are nice, Cui is the consummate golfer. One who is always working on his game and who takes each swing in stride. He understands golf is not about how good you can play when you’re on. It’s how well can you play when you don’t have your “A.”

“Hitting a perfect shot is so rare,” Cui said. “It’s about hitting better misses. It’s not about how good your good is, it’s how good your bad is.”

Cui found something else about himself during those six months of down time: he rediscovered his love of the game, which made this season better than last season, despite 2024’s brevity.

“One thing for sure, my love of golf grew. Last year, playing so much, it was almost getting mundane. This year, when I was away from it so long, I didn’t realize how much I loved the game,” Cui said. “I think this was a better season for me than last year. Just because of what happened (with the knee). I was very resilient, I’d say. I persevered the whole time. I worked so hard, to the point I almost overworked trying to get back.”

When you put together Cui’s mechanics with his mental outlook, the sky’s the limit, Ho said.

“[His game is] impressive,” Ho said of Cui, who is verbally committed to Stanford. “His touch around the green is uncanny. He has a pretty complete package to go far in golf. … His mindset is where it needs to be.

“He’s a real golfer.”