“Good things like this don’t happen to girls like me where I come from."

Lisa Mickey files an NY Times profile on LPGA rookie Lizette Salas who managed to find golf and thrive without the help of The First Tee. It'll be fun tracking Salas during today's Founders Cup opening round and throughout the year.

Salas says she knows what her L.P.G.A. membership would mean to many people in Azusa, her Los Angeles County hometown, a city with a population that is nearly 68 percent Hispanic. According to the Azusa Unified School District, nearly 82 percent of the students in the high school Salas attended are categorized as “socioeconomically disadvantaged.” The Azusa Police Department said 59 gang-related indictments were handed down in 2011.

“There aren’t many opportunities for girls, or if there are, they aren’t taking advantage of them,” Salas said. “There’s a different path here, one that often includes drugs, gangs and teen pregnancies. I was always sure I didn’t want to fall under those statistics for young Latinas.”

Salas is one of the lucky ones. Her parents were intent on seeing their daughter go to college.

Her mother, Martha, gave up her own aspirations of teaching business classes to rear her three American-born children. Her father, Ramon, struck a deal years ago with the director of golf at Azusa Greens Golf Course, a public course where he works as the head mechanic for the grounds crew.

“I asked Ramon to help me out with a few things at my house, but when I tried to pay him, he wouldn’t take my money,” the head pro Jerry Herrera said. “Instead, he asked me to teach his children how to play golf.”