When I was told that her name was Victoria Elizabeth, I was certain she wasn’t from Dayton.
Turned out I was wrong. She had lived here, but she had a different name at the time. She was Victoria Elizabeth Kiser. She was the junior girls champion at NCR Country Club at ages 11 and 12.
Shortly after I met her Thursday at the NCR clubhouse, she pointed to her name on the junior golf plaque in a hallway.
Victoria is in her second year on the LPGA Tour. Although she has never officially changed her surname, she goes by Victoria Elizabeth to separate herself from the father she says physically and mentally abused her, her mother and her sister, Alexandra.
Although she has lived in many cities and currently has a place in Kissimmee, Fla., Victoria still calls Dayton home.
“It’s the one place I’ve felt truly at home,” she said. “I have such great memories of golf (while) growing up here.” When in Dayton, she stays with her grandparents, who live in Miami Township.
The 5-foot-6 Victoria is adjusting to the LPGA competition this year. She has made five cuts in 13 starts and is 105th on the money list with earnings of $39,696. She is averaging 256.8 yards per drive — 3/10ths of a yard less than Michele Wie and 27th on the tour.
As a rookie in 2013 she made one cut in 12 LPGA events.
“I’ve made a lot of progress between this year and last,” she said. “I was struggling with ball-striking last year. And now when I get over a putt, I feel like I’m going to make it. Once the putts start going in, I’ll be winning.”
Did she say winning? Yes, she did.
“I learned so much last year. Now I know the golf courses, I’m better with time management and I have an awesome trainer — Jamal Gibson.” She also has a new swing coach, Justin Sheehan.
Larry King of Trenton has been her instructor since she was very young. “Larry has had the biggest influence in my life and my career,” she said.
Born in Dayton in 1992, Victoria lived in Oakwood. She attended Harmon Elementary school before the family moved to Florida in 2004 so she could cultivate her tennis and golf talents at the IMG Academy in Bradenton.
Eventually she attended the David Leadbetter golf school in Orlando. She won seven times on the American Junior Golf Association tour in 2007 and 2008.
Victoria hasn’t seen her father in the six years since the family obtained a protective order against him and moved back to Ohio.
Against this backdrop and with little money, she turned professional at 17 in 2010 and earned $7,681 on the Symetra Tour.
In 2012 she had $300 in her bank account when she missed the cut in the first Symetra event of the season, but she met a couple of businessmen at the pro-am party who, in exchange for her willingness to wear their logo, wrote a check that covered her expenses for the year.
She was runner-up twice before scoring her first professional victory on July 29, 2012, at Syracuse, N.Y. She finished third on the money list with $46,565, which earned a spot on the LPGA Tour in 2013.
“Last year was a tough year,” she said. “I was under tremendous pressure, and I needed to have a clear mind. It’s like it wasn’t even me. I ended up taking the last two fall events off to get ready for Q school.”
At the LPGA Qualifying Tournament last December, Victoria needed to finish in the top 20 to retain full playing privileges for 2014 and was 27th going into the final round. Nine players were ahead of her and six had the same total.
She responded with a sensational performance. She birdied four of the last six holes to shoot 67, the low round of the day, and tied for 13th place at 7-under-par 353 for the 90 holes.
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