MENOMONIE — All the way from New England, Julia Imai is paving her path at UW-Stout. In just her freshman year, Imai is the only WIAC golfer to be named to the Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-Region Team.
Back in October, the WIAC Championships were held at the Reedsburg Country Club. UW-Stout placed second overall, and Imai finished first in the player standings. She shot a score of 229 over three days, giving her a seven shot win in the tournament.
Imai said winning the WIAC was a special, memorable moment she shared with the team.
“I remember very vividly playing my last hole on the last day, finishing with my last putt and the whole team coming around me and congratulating me,” she said.
Imai, from Brookline, Mass., created a resume of honors in her first season at Stout. She was also named WIAC Golfer of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.
“I think performance wise, this season was very solid for me. I was very happy with how I finished in many tournaments and how I played,” Imai said. “I’m very proud to represent Stout and to be the one player from the WIAC who got All-Region, but I know there’s also a lot of other women in the conference who are more than capable and can definitely earn that award as well.”
Imai finished eighth in the PGA Works Championship on May 7. She shot a 238 over three rounds.
As Imai enters her sophomore year, she is ready to grow the UW-Stout golf team and program as a whole.
“Nationals with the team is something we all dream about and I know we’re more than capable of doing that. I’m really excited to see how our team does in the next couple of years,” Imai said.
Imai being from New England is something UW-Stout is not used to seeing. Blue Devils coach Sophia Connett said having Imai commit to the university was a unique situation.
“Andrew Delong (the Director of Golf) and I get a lot of emails regarding kids that want to play college golf and when we looked at this one, we were honestly just shocked,” Connett said. “We looked her up and everything was legit. And obviously with her resume, we were super interested in her. She’s such a great golfer talent wise, but she’s also a great person.”
In high school, Imai was a two-time Bay State Conference Medalist and four-time Bay State Conference All-State. She also made four state championship appearances.
Both of Imai’s parents are from Japan and being from Boston herself, Connett said Imai has brought a lot of culture to the Blue Devils.
Imai always has had a competitive drive. She grew up playing competitive golf and would fly to tournaments as a junior player.
“Even though she is a freshman, she is a leader on our team,” Connett said. “Not just because of her talent, but also because her work ethic is incredible. She’s always looking for more things to do at practice, she wants to be challenged, she wants to be thrown in against the boys. She wants to be given something that she maybe can’t complete at practice.”
Connett said Imai has not tapped her full potential and she is just at the start of her career with the UW-Stout golf program.
“We really want to give everyone the best student-athlete experience that they can ask for,” Connett said. “The next three years it is definitely our goal to compete at the national level and get our team out there. I think that’s a really cool experience and just to be able to travel to competitive tournaments.”
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