At first glance, the fact that Davina Xanh is currently rewriting the Cal State Fullerton women’s golf record book makes no sense. A cursory glance at Xanh’s background, her upbringing in a small, coastal English town best known for giving Monty Python funnyman John Cleese to the world, leaves no breadcrumbs leading her to Southern California.
The whole scenario sounds as improbable as one of Cleese’s iconic skits. Yes, it’s not uncommon for international players to find their way to the United States. And yes, CSUF has grabbed its share of them. The current women’s golf team roster includes players from England, Austria and Denmark.
And one thing CSUF women’s coach Kathryn Hosch realized very early in her coaching career is, when it comes to finding players, you do not leave stones unturned. Even if those stones exist in unlikely places — like the southwest coast of England.
This is why Xanh’s odyssey to Fullerton — and what she’s done once she arrived — comes with the can-you-believe-it aura that sounds like it came from the fertile audacity of Monty Python.
How does someone from Weston-super-Mare, the aforementioned town of 82,418, find her way to Orange County, then find herself as the Big West Golfer of the Year as a sophomore? And how does this happen in the throes of COVID?
Hosch, herself, still has a hard time wrapping her head around it.
It was the late summer of 2021 when an agent reached out to Hosch about this English player who had just de-committed from Kansas State. These agents, people who link international players with American universities, are common, and Hosch has netted several players in such a fashion.
“At first, I was reluctant to recruit her. I knew she was a talented player, but situations like hers often raise red flags,” she said. “After some procrastination, I decided to set up a Zoom call with her and my assistant coach at the time, Margo Dionisio. We probably had three or four calls, and after each one, I remember telling Margo, ‘I don’t think she’s interested.’ She didn’t show much excitement or enthusiasm.
“Little did I know, Davina was just being a typical Brit. I still tease her about it because she rarely shows outward excitement — like fist-pumping after making a big putt on the course. When we finally had the Zoom call where she said she wanted to commit, I was shocked. Her excitement level seemed to go from a 0 to a 2.”
Xanh’s measured reserve is still there. She answers questions in a thoughtful, deliberate manner. But the excitement she’s displaying on the course is anything but.
Xanh picked up in the fall where she left off in the spring, earning back-to-back Big West Golfer of the Month honors — her fourth career monthly honor. She began October finishing second in the Pat Lesser-Harbottle Invitational in Tacoma, Wash., leading the Titans to the team title. Along with her 6-under-par 201, Xanh secured her 13th consecutive top 10 finish and eighth consecutive top-five.
Two weeks later, Xanh finished 13th in the difficult Stanford Invitational, bookending a second-round 75 with twin 68s. This followed a T3 finish in the fall season’s opener, the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Classic in Albuquerque, N.M., and a solo third in the Ptarmigan Ram Classic two weeks later in Fort Collins, Colo.
There were plenty of breadcrumbs that Xanh’s breakout sophomore campaign foreshadowed the beginning of her junior season — a consistency that Hosch said has yet to be matched in program history. Xanh finished in the top 10 in all 10 CSUF tournaments last spring and her 13 consecutive top 10 finishes in college events and 17 overall (including summer events) is a program record. So is her scoring average of 71.43, which broke Martina Edberg’s record by less than a half-stroke.
Xanh’s metronomic consistency, born of a technically sound tee-to-green game that Xanh knows so well that she can diagnose any issues on the range after a round, does come with its own frustration. That victory in Washington is the only one she has to show for those 17 top 10 finishes, and Hosch said that for all Xanh’s reserve and savant-level course management, patience can be an issue.
Xanh won’t argue the point. When she was growing up in Weston-super-Mare, Xanh loved the competitive aspect of the game. What she didn’t love was the cruel byproduct that comes with that competitive aspect of a game that defies perfection. She would practice and grind on the course and the range. And yet, the results didn’t correspond to the hard work.
Her goal was to make the English National Girls Team. Xanh was grinding away in tournaments, getting close, but not grabbing that signature victory that would do more than put her on the radar of coaches scouting for talent.
“I always had this issue where I translate what I work on and practice into a competitive situation,” she said. “I didn’t have very high confidence in myself until I could see the results. I wouldn’t perform to my standard, how I could perform at tournaments. I was struggling on the golf course, and I was in a rut with my progression.”
The rut ended in 2020 at Sandy Lodge in Hertfordshire, England. Xanh found herself in a sudden-death playoff with Abbi Rowlands for the English Girls’ Amateur Stroke Play Championship. The pair were tied through 36 holes when rain washed out the last two rounds and mandated a playoff, which Xanh won by draining a 20-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole.
“That’s the most nervous I ever felt in my whole career in golf,” she said. “When I played that tournament, there was a lot of pressure on me because I was tied for the lead before they called off the rest of the tournament.”
Shortly thereafter, Xanh was named to the England Girls U18 National Team, which — along with the prestige of playing for her country — brought Xanh another byproduct. She started working with sports psychologist Rosie Collins, which helped Xanh handle her penchant for blaming herself for the bad parts of her game and not giving herself credit for the good parts. Which by this time, were considerable.
And getting more considerable. The victory unlocked something in Xanh, springing her game to heretofore unseen levels. That’s what eventually put her on Hosch’s radar. More work with the Titans’ mental coach Neale Smith has Xanh concentrating on the present and focused on finishing strong.
“I had never been to America before, and it was like a bucket-list place for me, regardless if it was for golf,” she said. “When I came out here, I really got along with everyone. I liked the facilities, and I really liked coach Hosch. Plus, the weather was everything I wanted.
“It took a little time to get used to the conditions and the heat on the courses. I played links golf back home, where everything is different. That took a little bit to get used to. One thing I didn’t realize is that we’d have to play 36 holes in one go without stopping. I’d have to be up at 5 in the morning. But you get used to it in the season … I can be a morning person, but I think 5 is a little too early.”
Xanh is nothing if not adaptable. When you think about it, that makes the breadcrumbs leading her from southwest England to Orange County easy to digest.
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