A golfer from Queenstown, Liam Judkins attended Wakatipu High School, captained the school golf team, and arrived at California State University Northridge in the autumn of 2023. In his sophomore season in 2024-25 he led CSUN with a 73.94 scoring average, recorded two top-10 individual finishes including eighth at the Big West Championship, shot the team's low round of the season with a 5-under 67, and earned Big West All-Academic honours. He is entering his junior year in 2025-26.
Liam Judkins grew up in Queenstown, one of the most scenically remarkable places in New Zealand and, as it happens, one of the better places in the country to learn golf. The Queenstown Golf Club at Kelvin Heights sits on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Wakatipu, surrounded by the Remarkables mountain range, which is a very different environment from the flat, sun-baked fairways of Southern California's San Fernando Valley.
When asked why he chose California State University Northridge, Liam was direct: "California's weather and lifestyle." That honesty says something about who he is. He knew what he wanted from the experience beyond the golf, and that clarity of thinking tends to produce better decisions than chasing a programme purely on reputation.
He captained the golf team at Wakatipu High School and also started for the school's Football XI at right wing, a multisport background that is consistent with the competitive instincts he has brought to the CSUN programme. In two seasons at CSUN he has already become the team's most consistent performer, and he is entering his junior year with his best golf still ahead of him.
Liam developed his game through the Queenstown Golf Club at Kelvin Heights, competing on the Senior A Pennants team and winning the Chisholm Park Open U19 before heading to the United States. The Chisholm Links course in Dunedin is one of New Zealand's South Island experience courses, which means a U19 victory there carries genuine competitive weight rather than being a local club event.
His top-five finish at the Under-17 National Tournament confirmed his standing in New Zealand's junior golf picture before he left the country. What those results and his Pennants team experience provided was exactly what college coaches look for when assessing international recruits: a consistent competitive record across different formats and different courses, built over multiple years.
Liam arrived at CSUN for the 2023-24 season and competed in all eight tournaments across the year, finishing with a 75.75 scoring average over 24 rounds. His best individual finish was tied for 35th at CSUN's own Bill Cullum Invitational, and his lowest round of the season was a 70 at the Vanharte Orange County Collegiate in February 2024.
The team result that deserves most attention from that freshman year is less obvious than any individual finish. CSUN qualified for the Golfweek National Golf Invitational, the programme's first postseason tournament appearance since 2001. A programme returning to postseason competition after a 22-year absence is significant, and the squad Liam joined as a freshman was part of that moment.
Liam's sophomore season in 2024-25 was the clearest indication of what he is capable of in a Division I environment.
He competed in all 11 tournaments and 33 rounds, leading CSUN with a 73.94 scoring average. He recorded two top-10 individual finishes, sixth at the Bill Cullum Invitational in October 2024 with rounds including a 3-under 69, and eighth at the Big West Championship in April 2025, where he shot a final-round 5-under 67, the lowest round by any CSUN golfer across the entire season. His tournament total at the Big West Championship was 4-under 212, finishing among the conference's better individual performers at the season's most important event.
He also earned 2025 Big West Spring All-Academic honours, one of only two Matadors to receive that recognition, reflecting the standard he maintained in the classroom alongside a full Division I tournament schedule.
Entering his junior season in 2025-26, his career scoring average sits at 74.40 across 57 rounds, a number that has improved meaningfully from his freshman to sophomore year and that points toward further development as he accumulates experience in the conference.
Liam's story is a useful one for families thinking about golf and the college pathway because it charts a realistic development arc without any of the headline drama that makes some stories in this series particularly compelling.
He did not arrive at CSUN as an established international champion or a nationally ranked junior. He arrived as a well-prepared, competitive young golfer from Queenstown who had captained his school team, won a regional U19 title, and finished top five at the national U17 level. He then spent two years getting better, consistently, at a Division I programme in California.
The result, leading the team in scoring average as a sophomore, shooting the team's low round at the conference championship, and earning All-Academic recognition, reflects what that kind of steady, patient development produces when the athlete and the environment are well matched.
For most families, that is the more honest picture of what the college golf pathway looks like in practice. Not a signing announcement that immediately transforms into headlines, but a four-year arc of improvement, competition, and development that leaves a golfer measurably better than when they arrived.
If you are a student-athlete or parent trying to understand the U.S. college pathway, start with a conversation. Platform Sports can help you understand your options, your timeline, and what the right fit could look like.
