Beth Lillie didn’t practice any differently this fall. Dave Hutchins is still her swing coach at Black Gold Golf Course, a role he has held for the past 10 years.
But the Troy senior knew something had to change if she was finally going to win the CIF State championship. She was down to her final high school season.
Next year, she will be teeing it up in college, for the Virginia Cavaliers.
She finally decided to set a concrete goal for herself. In past seasons, all she wanted to do was play, give it her best and see how far that would take her.
“I don’t think that gave me a firm enough thing to chase after, because that is not really chasing anything,” Lillie said. “This year, I set a goal. This year, every round that I played I was like, ‘OK, I need to play my best.’”
Lillie couldn’t have done any better, becoming the first player since 2003 to win the WSCGA Southern California Regional and CIF State championships in the same season.
She finished those tournaments a combined 11-under par. She was 4-under-par 70 at Red Hill Country Club in Rancho Cucamonga to become only the second girl from Orange County to win the state title.
For all of her accomplishments, Lillie has been selected by the Register as the Orange County girls golfer of the year.
“It feels pretty good,” Lillie said of her season. “Winning in California is an especially cool thing, because it is really competitive, and Southern California is super competitive, so that is really cool. It is probably the biggest thing that I have done.”
Bigger than qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open? Lillie did that in 2015, when she shot 3-under in a 36-hole sectional at Serrano Country Club in El Dorado Hills.
“Well, the U.S. Open probably tops this a bit,” Lillie said, “but this is a close second.”
Since she started playing on Troy’s varsity golf team four years ago, Lillie has evolved into one of the top junior players in the country. She landed on Golfweek’s list of the Top 25 recruits for the class of 2017.
But, until this year, she said she never seemed to peak in the postseason.
This season, her timing couldn’t have been any better. She was 19-under-par in six postseason tournaments, and she posted three rounds in the 60s.
Her 3-under-par 69 gave her a fourth-place finish in the CIF-SS Northern Individual Regional at River Ridge Golf Course in Oxnard. The 7-under-par 67 she posted at Arrowhead Country Club gave her a two-stroke victory in the WSCGA Southern California Regional. And her 3-under 68 at Jurupa Hills Country Club helped deliver the CIF-SS Eastern Team Regional Championship for the Warriors.\
“I will always just finish well. I am consistent like that,” Lillie said. “But I have never gotten as hot as I did this year and dominate like I did. I haven’t been one to win a bunch of tournaments.”
This year, she placed first in three of her five postseason tournaments, beginning with her second consecutive victory in the Freeway League championships. She finished the 36-hole tournament with a 7-under-par 137. She ended the year with victories in the So Cal Regional and State Championships, which came in a span of six days.
“This year,” she said, “I believed in myself.”
Did you see this?
The Register’s 2016 All-County girls golf team
