It was great to celebrate Lily O’Grady, individual state champion golfer in community time!

This is what Mr. Heerema shared about Lily:

Lily O'Grady is a junior at Grand Rapids Christian High School and a stand-out on the varsity girls golf team.  As a freshman, she came onto the high school golf scene and won the individual conference championship, the individual regional title, and tied for fourth in Division III at the state tournament that season. 

Her sophomore season included another regional championship and a tie for second place at the state tournament. 

This past season, in her junior year, LIly had a 9 hole average score of 35.1 (which is a stroke under par), she had an 18 hole average of 71.5 (which is 1/2 a stroke under par on average) and she won seven of the eight 18 hole tournaments the team played in, including the individual conference championship, the regional championship and the Division 3 individual state title! 

Lily's state title run took place over two full rounds of 18 holes on a Friday and Saturday in October at Bedford Valley Golf Course near Battle Creek.  Her two rounds included a score of 75 on the first day (which had her tied for first place after Day 1) and on the second day LIly turned it on and shot an incredible 2 under par score of 70, which won the state title by 9 strokes over the 2nd place finisher! 

Her second round included solid driving and putting but the standout statistic was Lily hitting 18 of 18 greens in regulation, which means that every shot that she had a chance to land the ball on the green, she did.  That is an incredible achievement as professional golfers hit the green 2 out of 3 times on average.  Lily's ball striking that round was amazing. 

Her coach, Coach Davies, said that was the most fun round he has ever been a part of.  “All I had to do was talk with Lily about where to hit the next shot, we would agree, and then she would hit the ball right where we talked about. It was incredible!  I also didn't tell her all day where she was sitting on the leaderboard, and we agreed ahead of time that knowing that information could just be a distraction.  We just focused on hitting one shot at a time and making that shot the best it could be.  For her final two holes we agreed to make a strong final push, and Lily charged out, hit two fantastic drives, proceeded to hit great shots on the green and drained two putts to make birdies on those final two holes.  It was a fantastic finish to a fantastic state championship round!”

Lily has been a great leader and teammate on the golf team, she is fun, supportive and willing to help coach and help fellow teammates grow in their golf games as well.  She is a strong worker and puts a lot of time and energy into her own game year-round, always looking to get stronger, improve her mental and physical abilities and constantly improve.  The Grand Rapids Christian High Girls Golf team and our whole school community should be very proud of Lily O'Grady and all that she works for and represents.