Due to of their outstanding performance on the Grand Ledge golf team, Vienne Sereseroz and Sam Bennett earned the opportunity to go to Australia and compete in a tournament with people across the United States and Australia.

   “If I learned one thing from our trip to Australia, it would be to never judge a book by its cover,” Vienne said.

   Vienne admittedly said the U.S. were no match for the Australian team, despite the age gap.

   “When I was sizing up the competition, all of them were significantly younger than us,” Vienne said. “So I thought it was going to be easy but… well they were way better than I thought.”

   The way the tournament worked was, everyone from the United States competed and then the best would be chosen from the group, and the same went for the Australians. In the second phase of the tournament, Australia and United States went against each other.

   “Their average day would be my best day,” Vienne said. The U.S. lost pretty badly in the tournament, but it is an honor that they even got to go in the first place, because it is an offer not many athletes can say they have received.

   “In the end we got beat pretty bad,” Vienne mentioned “but being able to go on the trip was very fun and I think I learned a lot.”

   Vienne mentioned all the sightseeing she did while she was in Australia. She got to dive at the Great Barrier Reef and she saw a beautiful array of sea life; one of the most interesting being Mako sharks. Vienne also was able to visit the zoo.

   “I got to see weird animals like emus,” said Vienne. “Those guys are scary, but we also got to play with baby kangaroos which was a lot of fun and they were super cute.”

   The girls flights to and from Australia were and adventure of its own.

   “The flight to Australia was all right because I got the seat to myself and had plenty of room to sleep and do whatever I wanted,” Vienne said. “But the flight back I had to sit next to some dude, which was not much worse because there was a lot of privacy because of blockers between every seat but it was still meh, because it was 18 hours of sitting next to a stranger.”

   Vienne and Sam earned this opportunity and were very thrilled to travel to another country. For the girls, it was more about them representing their state rather than their city.

   “There were only a handful of people from every state,” Vienne said. Vienne and the rest of the U.S. took home the second place medal for the whole tournament. Despite there only being two teams, second place is still a accomplishment.

   This trip was a once in a lifetime experience and provided growth for the girls as golfers.   

   “I was glad I got the opportunity to go on this trip,” Vienne said “I learned a lot and I think I improved as a golfer, and the sightseeing was beautiful.”