Lim first picked up a golf club at the age of eight. Early on, she played because she liked riding in the golf cart and because she enjoyed spending time with her father, Andy Lim. When she began playing tournaments at age 11, her father attended every tournament he could and often caddied for her.

Early on, he could see the elegance in the young player’s swing. “It had power and beauty,” he said in an email. Still, the process of growth was not straightforward or simple.

The Rolex Junior All-American put it bluntly: “When I first started, I was really bad. I was shooting high 90s, really bad.”

The Yale Intercollegiate Tournament was only the second tournament Lim had played in without her father watching. While Lim was thriving under pressure, her father was having trouble handling the anxiety.

“I did struggle to go to bed at the conclusion of the second round when I found out online that Tiffany was one stroke behind the leader,” he wrote.

Going into the tournament though, the accomplished golfer had some butterflies in her stomach.

“I was nervous because I knew I had a lot of expectations going into the tournament,” she said. “[But] I knew I was prepared,” she said. “And if I just played my own game everything would turn out fine.”