SAN BERNARDINO – Qualifying for the CIF State championship tournament is a lot hard than Lilia Vu makes it look.
Consider that out of the thousands of girls playing high school golf from Fresno to the Mexican border, only nine can advance to state.
Those are some long odds. Each season, though, Vu has beaten them, and for third time in her varsity career at Fountain Valley, she has earned a tee time at the prestigious tournament.
She made it this fall after birdying five holes to shoot a 4-under-par 68 at Arrowhead Country Club to become the second Orange County player to win the WSCGA So Cal Championships in three seasons. Canyon’s Jessica Vasilic is the other. She beat Vu by two strokes in 2012.
Danielle Lee (La Mirada), Nina Novilla (Torrance) and Robynn, Ree (Redondo) also posted a 68 on Thursday, but Vu was award first place on a card-off.
Thursday’s round gives Vu a 70.6 stroke average (1.4 strokes under par) through her three So Cal Championships appearances, two of which were made at The Golf Club at Rancho California in Murrieta.
“I am pretty proud. Such a small amount of girls make it. I am pretty happy about that (making it to state three times),” Vu said. “It means that I played well each round (of the postseason) and that I didn’t mess up (in one of the two previous tournaments). State means a lot to me. It has always been my goal to win state.”
So far, though, Vu hasn’t been able to do better than tie for sixth place. She did that as a sophomore in 2012 at Red Hill Country Club in Rancho Cucamonga, site of Tuesday’s CIF State Championship.
“I really like the course (Red Hill). It has fast greens and it is narrow,” she said. “I like narrow courses.”
While Vu celebrated with her friends, hugging and taking photos on the practice green, Ysabel Tran made nervous glances at the leader board, fearing that the next score would bump her 1-under-par 71 outside the cutline.
“I was telling myself if I shoot under and don’t make … I don’t know … Ahh!” Tran said. “That just wouldn’t be fair.”
She made it and become the first Troy girls golfer to qualify for state, quite a feat seeing as how this was the first season that the senior had ever played in the postseason.
“To calm myself down, I told myself, if you don’t make it that is Ok. Just play your best, and if works out then, that’s great,” said Tran, who won the CIF-SS Southern Individual championship with a 5-under-par 66 at Dad Miller Golf Course last month. “And it did. I am so excited.”
The Warriors had a chance to make it to state as a team, too. However, their 394 put them in fifth place, and only the top three teams made the cut. Felicia Chang was the only Troy golfer besides Tran to break 80, posting a 75.
Torrey Pines (372), Diamond Bar (372) and Rancho Bernardo (378) advanced
“To get here is awesome, so I told them no matter what they shoot we are fine,” Troy coach Jerry Cowgill said. “This is fantastic. And Ysabel is moving on, which is great.”
Valencia’s Brittany Park and Fairmont Prep’s Kristin Chung had a chance to join Vu and Tran Red Hill, too, after shooting a 72. They ended up in a playoff with Ali Morallos (Long Beach Wilson) for the one remaining tee time at state.
Park, though, bogeyed the first extra hole and was eliminated. Chung suffered the same fate on the second playoff hole. Chung, though, seemed more upset about being in the playoff in the first place. She was 2-under-par at one point, but took a double-bogey on her last hole after losing her ball in a tree.
“If I would have just bogeyed my last hole, I would have made it easily,” Chung said. “It is disappointing, but this is not the end for me.”
WSCGA So Cal Championships at Arrowhead Country Club, par 72, San Bernardino
Team Results
1. Torrey Pines 372*, 2. Diamond Bar 372, 3. Rancho Bernardo 378, 4. Walnut 380, 5. Troy 394, 6. San Marino 395, 7. Clovis West 399, 8. Granada Hills 429, 9. Buchanan-Clovis 457, 10. North Hollywood 530.
*-won on sixth player score
Individual Qualifiers for state
Lilia Vu (Fountain Valley) 68*, Nina Novilla (La Mirada) 68, Robynn Ree (Torrance) 68, Danielle Lee (La Mirada) 68, Brigitte Dunne (Oaks Christian) 69, Ysabel Tran (Troy) 71, Haley Moore (San Pasqual) 71, Hayley Tygret (North Torrance) 71, Ali Morallos (Long Beach Wilson) 72. *-won So Cal Championship on a card-off
Other County finishers:
Brittany Park (Valencia) 72, Kristin Chung (Fairmont Prep) 72, Hannah Ko (Sunny Hills) 74, Joan Soewondo (Dana Hills) 74, Alyaa Abdulghany (Corona del Mar) 75, Amy Lee (Brea Olinda) 75, Madie Chou (Foothill) 75, Brooke Graebe (Yorba Linda) 75, Jakeishya Le (Mater Dei) 75, Evelyn Nguyen (Villa Park) 77
