Open this photo in gallery Michelle Liu isn’t a ceremonial golfer at this week's Canadian Open, gifted a spot in the field as a gimmick. She earned her way in by finishing as the low Canadian at the Canadian Women’s Amateur in late July. Rob Wallator/The Canadian Press

Michelle Liu got a big hug from Lydia Ko and advice from Christina Kim, and she met some of her other golfing idols that she had only seen previously on TV, including Canadian superstar Brooke Henderson and Ariya Jutanugarn. It’s been a special week already for the 12-year-old from Vancouver and the golf hasn’t even begun.

Liu is the youngest player in the CP Women’s Open this week at Magna Golf Club in Aurora.

When she tees off Thursday at 12 years, nine months, six days, she’ll also be the youngest in the national championship’s history, smashing the record for precociousness set by Henderson, who played in 2012 as a 14-year-old.

Story continues below advertisement

“I’d definitely say crazy is a good word for it," Liu said Tuesday with a wide smile that showed off her braces.

It’s quite an accomplishment for the slight, five-foot preteen who hasn’t yet begun Grade 8 at the private all-girls school, Crofton House, she attends in Vancouver. But it seems like almost a natural extension of the rapid progress she’s making in the game.

Liu isn’t a ceremonial golfer this week, gifted a spot in the field as a gimmick.

She earned her way in by finishing as the low Canadian at the Canadian Women’s Amateur in Red Deer, Alta., in late July. She placed 12th over all in the championship but, more important, was one stroke better than the nearest Canadian – Quebec’s Brigitte Thibault, a member of the national amateur team who represented the country at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur this spring.

Liu’s accomplishment adds to a playing record that also includes winning her age category at both the IMG Junior and the U.S. Kids Golf world championships, two majors in junior golf, in 2017. In one round at this year’s IMG, held in San Diego and area, she shot eight-under-par 65, a course record.

Open this photo in gallery Liu hits an approach shot on the ninth hole during a practice round on Tuesday ahead of the CP Women's Open. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

“It exceeds my expectations," her mother, Jenny Xu, said Tuesday, walking outside the ropes, under an IMG Junior World umbrella and watching her daughter play a practice round with Daniela Darquea of Ecuador. “She’s really grown and improved lately and I’m very proud of her.”

(The family cheering section will grow as the week goes on with the addition of Liu’s grandmother, who is flying in from China to see her granddaughter play for the first time in two years, and Liu’s father.)

Story continues below advertisement

A day earlier, Liu joined the gregarious Kim and M.J. Hur in her first trip around Magna. “I think I really got to learn something from them,” Liu said, “and I especially [appreciated] how warm and welcoming they were to me.”

Fans have also been kind to her. She said she’s been approached for autographs. “I feel like I’m getting pretty famous,” she said, laughing. “It’s a new experience for me, so I would say that’s definitely pretty cool.”

When she’s been on the practice range this week, she has met LPGA Tour regulars in between hitting shots under the watchful eye of Rob Houlding, her coach since almost the time she began the game at the age of 6. Liu’s visit with Henderson included getting a picture together.

Henderson saw glimpses of herself, a former amateur phenom who played in (and even won) professional events before she joined the LPGA Tour as a rookie in 2015.

“Very sweet girl,” Henderson said. “It’s pretty cool that she got an invite here. I played my first event [the CP Women’s Open] when I was 14 and it was life-changing. I learned so many great experiences from it. Met a lot of pros, which was pretty cool. I was pretty star-struck. I think maybe if she can get past that and just try to play her game, that would be best.”

Houlding, whose students at his Richmond, B.C., academy include other high-performing juniors, will also serve as Liu’s caddy this week, if nothing else to give her a sense of normalcy. His student’s prodigious talent might be still limited by her size (although she has grown three inches or four inches this year and is hitting the ball farther) but she has something rare, he said.

Story continues below advertisement

“Her mind is way ahead of everyone else’s,” Houlding noted, calling her patient, driven to perfection and mature beyond her years.

Liu followed her older sister Lucy and friends into the game (Lucy plays on the women’s varsity team at Yale University) and she practises every day except Monday for three or four hours at Houlding’s academy or at her home club Shaughnessy, which coincidentally is playing host to the CP Women’s Open next year. Houlding added she’s extremely good at organizing and managing her time.

But there’s more to the Vancouver girl than just golf. She said she enjoys basketball and volleyball as well as art. She has competed in a national debating competition in the United States and, with a couple of friends, started a charity, the Hope for Girls Foundation, to help impoverished children in the Guangxi province of China get an education. They raise money through bake sales. She also has a goal to make a web comic.

Those pursuits can wait at least a week, though. One more day of practice awaits Wednesday, then it’s game time for the first round Thursday and her LPGA Tour debut. Although playing as an amateur she is not eligible to take home any prize money.

"Probably still pretty nervous,” Liu said of her expected state by Thursday. “But I would say it’s just a matter of simplifying it [the game] to each shot instead of thinking too much about who is watching, what’s going on, that sort of stuff.”