HUNTINGTON BEACH – She is an AJGA champion and one of the top-ranked junior girls golfers in the nation, so every time Beth Lillie tees off for Troy she expects to shoot no worse than par.
“That is kind of my new goal. Last year, a few over was OK and under (par) was like, ‘Wow!’ ” Lillie said. “Now, I expect a lot more from myself.”
She got the even-par round she was looking for Tuesday, finishing with a par on Meadowlark Golf Club’s uphill, 306-yard, par-four ninth after landing her approach 5 feet from the pin. She carded a 36 to earn medalist honors in leading No. 3 Troy to a 206-227 victory against Marina (1-3).
Troy, Lillie said, has some high expectations this season as the Warriors (3-0) return their top four players from the 2013 team which won the first CIF-SS girls golf championship in school history.
“And the people who have come back have gotten better,” said Lillie, who won the AJGA Junior at Steelwood Country Club in Loxley, Ala., in June.. “Individually, we now expect a lot more from ourselves, so as a group that does nothing but help.”
It also helps having a No. 1 player on the roster like Lillie, who is coming off a summer in which she moved up 24 places in the AJGA Polo rankings. She is 53rd among the 656 players in the national standings.
On Tuesday, she was using her white-and-red AJGA championship golf bag that she received in Alabama, a prize which is almost coveted more than a first-place trophy.
“The bag is the confidence. Now, you walk into a tournament, set it down and say, ‘Yeah, … (I am a winner),” she said. “The confidence that comes with it (the bag) has been the most important thing.”
Troy once again is the only school in the Freeway League that fields a girls golf team, so the Warriors are a Freelance school.
This year, Troy coach Jerry Cowgill said, the CIF-SS, has decided to let eight individuals – instead of four – advance to the Southern Section individual regionals. However, if Troy wins the Freelance team competition, the Warriors can only qualify two players as individuals, Cowgill said.
In 2013, Lillie was among the four players who earned a spot in a CIF-SS regional championship.
