Silent Assassin: Lucy Li recorded five birdies in a six hole span

Today the Redwood Shores (Northern California) resident was matched up against fellow Californian Bethany Wu of Diamond Bar. Wu must have felt helpless watching Li -- looking innocent with pink outfit and matching flower in her hair -- play the part of silent assassin with her amazing play at San Diego Country Club.

Li mad seven birdies in thirteen holes, and not a single bogey. It was all Wu could do to win just one hole to staunch the bleeding, making birdie on No. 4 for a win after Li birdied Nos. 2 and 3 to go 2-up.

At that point, the players split pars at Nos. 5 and 6 and you wouldn't have seen the firestorm coming, but it did -- Li birdied five out of six holes from Nos. 7-12, starting with three in a row on Nos. 7, 8, and 9 and after a brief pause with a par at the challenging par-4 10th (playing over 400 yards with a deep, undulating green) she started at it again, making birdie on both the par 3 11th and the dogleg left par 4 12th.

Wu, should you be unfamiliar with her game, is a highly accomplished UCLA Bruin golfer who has excelled at the U.S. Women's Amateur. The 2016 USA Curtis Cup team member has advanced to match play at the U.S. Women's Am four out of the last five years, advancing to the semifinals in 2015 after being qualifying medalist the year prior.

To Li, 14, we suspect the opponent is the golf course, and old man par. We all know her from qualifying for the U.S. Women's Open at Pinehurst at the ripe old age of 11. But we just learned this week, through an excellent piece by Todd Leonard of the San Diego Union Tribune, that Li is a fan of the history of the game, and she recently struck up an email friendship with the legendary Mickey Wright, 82, who called San Diego Country Club home.

“I’m a huge golf history fan, and she was an amazing player – probably the best woman golfer of all-time,” she told The Union Tribune.

Leonard went on to write:

Li’s lucky enough to not just know of Wright through books or YouTube videos. In 2014, she and the 82-year-old Wright struck up a friendship via email, and it has continued, with Li contacting Wright recently to get her thoughts on how to attack San Diego CC.

The gist of the message: Be mindful of the slick greens. And Li mostly managed that in Monday’s first round in shooting 1-under-par 71 to stand in a tie for 10th.

Other match highlights:

Robynn Ree def. Tze Han Lin, 9&8Another lopsided victory was the one Robynn Ree recorded over Tze Han Lin, 9&8. That's just one less than the maximum margin of victory in an 18-hole match. The quick end to the match was due to a combination of Han Lin, the No. 60 qualifier, not having her best stuff while Ree played flawlessly, recording 4 birdies in the first 10 holes.

Shannon Aubert def. Agathe Laisne, 2&1This interesting match against two French born players went back and forth, as medalist Aubert was able to take early leads but couldn't shake Laisne, who after going two down early to birdies at Nos. 1 and 3 by Aubert, came back with birdies of her own on the par 5 9th and the par 4 9th, where the uphill approach shot to a plateau green is one of the most interesting (and challenging) short approaches on the course. All square at the turn, Aubert would take control again and never let go after a birdie on No. 16 left her dormie.