Ahead of her first CIF-Southern Section Individual Regionals, West Ranch freshman Eunice Yi only had positive thoughts.
“I just tried to like, think about the best possible outcome,” she said. “So I just tried to not think about it and tried to like, visualize how my shots were going to be.”
The mindset worked for Yi. Although she wasn’t able to move on to the next round of the individual playoffs, she had the best finish of any Foothill League golfer in the tournament, carding an 11-over 82 at River Ridge Golf Club on Monday.
Only the top 36 golfers in the event advanced. West Ranch’s Allison Hwang and Golden Valley’s Jasmine Reblando both went 13-over and Hart’s Emma Allen went 16-over. Valencia’s Ashley Song was 19-over and fellow Viking Sung Park was 20-over.
Yi wasn’t in the same group of any of the Foothill League golfers, giving the tournament a more serious tone.
“With other people that I know, it’s more of like, relaxed and I can joke around with them and stuff,” she said, “but since everyone is trying to do individually really good and trying their best without me knowing any of them, I was more able to focus on my game.”
It was Yi’s third tournament in three days but she was still able to do well in some aspects of her game. Her drivers were working well on Monday, especially on the 18th hole.
The hole was a par 5, but her initial shot got her right next to the hole to easily putt it in.
“I’m kind of bummed out that I couldn’t make it to the second round because there were some holes that if I didn’t mess up, then I probably would’ve done so much better,” she said. “But I’m also like, pretty proud because this is my third day in a row doing a tournament. I’m pretty proud that I was able to play like, not well, but okay considering how tired I was.”
Although there are no Foothill League golfers moving on to the next round, the postseason isn’t over for a handful of league golfers as the CIF-SS Division Team Championships are Nov. 4-5 at Costa Mesa Country Club, Los Lagos Course.
West Ranch, Valencia and Hart all will play in the Team championships. The top three teams in the tournament will advance to the CIF-SS SCGA Team Qualifier.
“I feel like I know like, what I should be practicing on and stuff, especially after today,” Yi said. “So I think if I practice and work on those parts of my game during the team round, it’ll improve my score.”
