Beagley still gaining steam

Late-blooming golf standout Marin Beagley has caught up fast with golfing rivals who have played since they were little kids.

Beagley, who has only golfed seriously for the past two years, earned a trip to the IHSA State Tournament last year as a junior at St. Charles North and, this summer, picked up her first pair of summer tournament championships.

Can a college scholarship be far behind?

Beagley isn’t as confident as her instructor that Division I golf is in her future, but acknowledged the tournament wins have underscored her rapid rise.

“To be able to win a tournament, knowing I came from shooting 111 or 118 or something in my first year [as a freshman], it meant a lot to me,” Beagley said.

Both of Beagley’s tournament championships were on the Illinois Junior Golf Association circuit. Her most recent conquest, on June 26 at Blackberry Oaks Golf Course, came in a round of 75, just 3-over par.

“That got me really excited,” Beagley said. “I had been really upset. I couldn’t seem to break 80 for the longest time. To finally break it and shoot a 75 was just incredible for me.”

Beagley played junior varsity golf her freshman year, when triple-digit rounds were the norm.
She said watching successful North golfers like Brooke Bettis, who went on to compete at Michigan, motivated her to take the sport more seriously.

“Just watching them and what they accomplished, that definitely was inspiring to me,” Beagley said.

These days, there is no doubting Beagley’s conviction.

When she isn’t competing in tournaments, Beagley is refining her game seven days a week, typically at Mill Creek Golf Club in Geneva, where she trains with instructor Rich Flores.

“She just works very, very hard at it, and it’s paid off for her,” Flores said. “The biggest problem she has is she’s too hard on herself. If she can just ease up on herself, she’ll be OK.”

Much of Beagley’s work comes on Mill Creek’s nine-hole pitch-and-putt course, where the longest hole is 75 yards.

The short game has turned into a major strongsuit.

“She spends a lot of time chipping and putting,” Flores said. “She’s one of those ideal students where you tell her to spend more time on her short game as opposed to hitting golf balls, and she does.”

While Beagley is 2-for-2 in winning IJGA tournaments, she has not enjoyed the same level of success competing in the more challenging American Junior Golf Association tournaments – events that she says are “definitely humbling.”

“It makes me think I’m not practicing enough, like I need to be practicing five hours a day to be catching up with these girls who have have playing since they were 3 years old,” Beagley said.

A couple hours a day – every day – seems to be working well enough for Beagley, whose games has transformed remarkably since freshman year at North.

“It's made me enjoy the sport more, too,” Beagley said. “Hitting 111 strokes on 18 holes, it takes it out of you a little bit. To be able to score a lot better makes it a lot more enjoyable.”