Viveka Kurup: Girls' Golfer of the Year

And to top it all off, she was struggling during the PAL championship tournament on a Poplar Creek course she owned the week before in a practice round, firing a 5-under 66.

“Last year, it was different playing in the lower league. This year was a little more stressful,” Kurup said, citing the jump in the level of competition being the biggest difference.

In the end, Kurup did just enough, shooting a 5-over 76 to claim her second PAL individual championship. She followed that with the highest CCS finish of anyone from a San Mateo County school and will end her sophomore season as the Daily Journal’s Girls’ Golfer of the Year.

“I’m sure she could have played better (during the PAL tournament), but it was good enough to win,” said Carlmont head coach Johnny Hsu. “I know she was very stoked she won again.”

Just chalk it up the competitor in Kurup. It was that late-season slide and her meetings with San Mateo’s Huang that kicked Kurup’s focus up a notch. It would be easy for Kurup and the Scots to get lackadaisical after playing nearly two seasons without losing a team match. But Hsu kept reminding them that a roll like that was the exception, not the rule.

When the Scots did lose their first PAL match in nearly two seasons, 222-239 to San Mateo, Hsu said Kurup may have taken it harder than anybody.

“We won a lot of matches, but you’re going to lose eventually,” Hsu said. “The first time we lost this year … that was not a day Viveka wanted to be in the van (for the ride home).”

Kurup and Huang, as the No. 1 golfers for their respective teams, played in the same group during both team matches. The two both shot rounds of 38s during the first Bearcats victory. The second time around, Huang topped Kurup by a shot — 37-38 — as San Mateo completed the season sweep with 212-234 victory.

“When she beat me that time, I said it was time to get it together for PALs,” Kurup said.

Kurup was also confident once postseason tournaments expanded to 18 holes, instead of nine holes played during team matches, her skills would put her over the top.

It didn’t go as smoothly as she had hoped and while Kurup is not one to keep close tabs on what her playing partners are doing, she has a general sense of the situation.

But even she was not sure she had done enough to win a second PAL title until their scores were added up at the end of the round. Kurup’s 76 was one stroke better than Burlingame’s Jody Chiu and two strokes better than South City’s Catherine Batang.

“I had a really good front nine. The back, my energy or focus went down and I started losing it. [Chiu] was having a better back nine,” Kurup said. “(But) I don’t really pay attention to [the other scores]. I used to focus on that — she’s plus-2, I’m minus-2 or whatever. That distracted me.”

Sometimes, however, a distraction is needed and Kurup is usually the one to provide it. For all of her laser focus on the course, she is kind of the team goofball off of it.

“Our practices are after school, so everyone is tense,” Kurup said. “I try to tell a couple jokes. I’ll try to get everyone in a light-hearted mood.”

Hsu believes Kurup’s ability to connect with everyone on the team, coupled with her skill, has been a benefit for the team as a whole. 

“If I’m the head coach, she’s the assistant,” Hsu said. “We’re trying to build the team as a whole group, but when she needs to go and work on something, (she’ll) go and do it. But if she feels the need to help people, she will.

“She’s a good teammate. She’s worried about the team.”

Kurup had only a week or so to enjoy her PAL title as she and her Scots teammates were prepared to make a second straight CCS appearance and once again, Kurup proved to be the class of the Peninsula with a tie for 13th-place finish following a round of 5-over 77 on a difficult Laguna Seca course in Monterey.

“Like my dad tells me, ‘If you’re playing a short amount of holes, anyone can win. But playing 18 holes, it really determines the better players,’” Kurup said.