Trailblazing 10-year-old: Lily Wachter to become first area girl in Drive, Chip and Putt finals

Lily Wachter has literally learned to love golf from the ground up.

She was first exposed to the game as a toddler when her father, Kevin Wachter, a project superintendent for MacCurrach Golf, would take her to work with him. She watched in wonder as her father boarded a tractor and began crafting the dirt into fairways and greens, shaping the contours that eventually became a lush, emerald-green golf course.

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Indeed, 10-year-old Lily said the experience has stayed with her, especially when she plays a course her father helped build.

“I can see the greens a little better because I saw them when my Dad was working on them ... before they put grass on them,” she said.

And it's on the grass that Lily has proven to be every bit the artist with her clubs that her father is with construction equipment.

The first, from the First Coast

In almost every way, Lily is a normal 10-year-old girl.

The Timberlin Creek Elementary School fifth-grader loves puppies, drawing, playing backyard badminton and fishing with her father.

She also eats too much ice cream and candy if her parents aren’t watching closely and of course she fights with her 7-year-old brother Kevin Jr.

Here’s what sets Lily apart: she is one of the top junior golfers for her age on the First Coast and is about to make a bit of history — on April 2 she will become the first girl from the area to participate in the Augusta National Golf Club’s Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals.

The Drive, Chip and Putt is in its seventh year. At each step, local, sub-regional, regional and national finals, participants hit three drives, three chips and three putts, from 6, 15 and 30 feet.

Points are awarded for the longest drives (but within a grid) and how close players come to the hole with their chips and putts.

Telling Lily Wachter that she will be a trailblazer and in competing at the legendary Augusta National Golf Club brings shy giggles.

At this point, she seems to consider it just another practice session with her coach, Robert Forde.

“I like golf,” he said. “I get to be outside and spend time with my friends and family and be a little more active.”

Nervous? Maybe not

Except this particular play day will be in the shadow of the Augusta National Golf Club, on the same putting green and practice areas that legends such as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods prowled to get ready to win another green jacket.

“She’s seen the club on TV and I can see her getting a little nervous talking about it,” her father said. “All the cameras and the people who are going to be there … I think all the kids are going to be a bit nervous.”

However, Lily has a track record of performing under pressure. She won the US Kids 8-year-old national championship in 2021 at Pinehurst by six shots — playing 27 holes at 11-under par.

Wachter thinks that once the competition starts, his daughter will take a deep breath and attack the skills challenges.

After all, she posted the highest score of any of the 10 regional champions in the girls 10-11 age group last October at the Bear’s Club in Jupiter, with 148 points. No other regional winner had more than 134.

Lily can drive the ball close to 200 yards. She hit all three of her chips at the Bears club to within 2 feet or closer and got two of her three putts within inches of the holes.

She almost made it a clean sweep: She won the driving and putting competition and tied for first in chipping.

Lily improved her scores every step of the way, starting with 118 points to win a local qualifier at the Slammer and Squire and 131 to win the sub-regional at the TPC Sawgrass.

“Once she starts a round of golf, she’s got a pretty good temperament,” said Kevin Wachter. "In a tournament, I can never tell if she’s 5-under or 5-over. I think this is something five years from now, 10 years from now, she’ll tell herself, ‘that was pretty cool to experience that.”

Two years in Korea were pivotal

Kevin Wachter said a turning point in Lily’s love for the game came when the family moved to Korea in 2017 and 2018 when Wachter helped with the renovation of the Nine Bridges Golf Club on Jeju Island ahead of the launching of the PGA Tour’s CJ Cup.

Indeed, it was a great experience for the entire family because Wachter’s wife, Min He, is a native of Korea. As a result, their two children got to experience a part of their heritage.

While Wachter worked on the course, his daughter would go to the practice range. She met several members of the Korean LPGA who were practicing, and they began working with her.

“Mostly about my swing and tempo,” Lily said.

“The people at the golf course and the KLPGA players really took to her,” Kevin Wachter said. “They enjoyed working her and she loved it.”

Motivated on the putting green

Lily was second in the Drive, Chip and Putt regional last year by seven points. She faltered in the putting competition and she and Forde knew what they had to work on.

“That motivated her a little bit,” Forde said.

As a result of hundreds of hours of work on the practice green at the Golf Club of South Hampton (Lily goes to the golf course five or six days a week), she’s become lethal with the putter and won that part of the competition twice and finished second in the three qualifying spots.

The driving likely will take care of itself: Lily won that portion of the competition at every qualifier. Her primary focus has been on the short game, which comprises two-thirds of the competition.

“The short game is the main part of the Drive, Chip and Putt because it’s the main part of golf,” said Robert Forde, her swing coach. “Her short game is one of the best I’ve ever seen for someone her age.”

As far as nerves on the big stage of Augusta National, Forde said they’re working on that, too.

“We tell her to think about her tempo and routine,” he said. “The better show follows her process, the better she plays. If she focuses on her results and score, she gets a little nervous.”

And Lily can always fall back on her primary reason for playing golf.

“It’s fun,” she said.

Past First Coast Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals participants

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Lily Wachter is first First Coast girl in Augusta's Drive, Chip and Putt finals