Trojans' Mahlberg signs to play golf in Crookston
Dec. 19—WORTHINGTON — There was a time in Lilly Mahlberg's high school golf career when she wasn't thinking of a college career.
As a sophomore, she fell into what she called a "rut." She wasn't shooting very well, and, of course, golf is never fun when you're struggling.
But then came her junior season, where she turned it all around. She placed sixth at the Big South Conference meet at Dakota Ridge Golf Club in Morton, which earned her All-Conference status.
"That success just showed me how I love the sport," Mahlberg said Monday at the Worthington High School media center, where she signed a letter of intent to play college golf at the University of Minnesota-Crookston.
Mahlberg, who still has another season of golf eligibility to play for WHS, believes that when she gets to Crookston she'll be more than ready.
"I'm excited. I love Crookston. I reached the coach (Bryant Friskop) in August. I heard about him and the golf program from a friend. And I toured (the campus) and I just fell in love with it. It feels like Worthington. It's a small town and the school's small too, but it has big-school resources," Mahlberg said.
Mahlberg's golf career started with lessons at a young age. She made the high school varsity team as an eighth-grader, and it was then that she realized she had potential.
It comes natural for her to hit the ball far. But she's had to adjust to coaching, and some necessary prodding to get her cured of bad habits. As a junior high student, she used a 7-iron to tee off on long holes because that's what she'd been comfortable with. She later changed her grip from an open grip to a closed grip, which she admitted was difficult because she didn't feel, at first, that the closed grip gave her enough control.
By her junior season, Mahlberg was mature enough so that she didn't let one bad shot affect her for the rest of the round. She practiced hard to become a better putter.
She says she's not done improving yet.
"Golf is a mental game, and I think there's still a lot I can improve on," she said, adding that at college consistency is important.
"I think it's just, I need to be better at staying consistent. My scores tend to fluctuate, and my coaches want to see my scores more consistent," she said.
Performances like the one Mahlberg put together to earn All-Conference status went a long way in developing confidence. Last spring, conference rankings weren't determined by just one meet, but several. Looking back, Mahlberg said she purposely chose not to know where she ranked among her peers until the final tournament was nearly complete.
"My coach came up to me at the last hole and said, 'You're probably going to be seventh or sixth.' And I was really excited," Mahlberg recalled. "Going into the sections with a good turnout at the conference really gave me confidence to perform well at sections."
At the section tourney, she finished just seven strokes away from a state berth.
