Carondelet sophomore Lily Peng medalist at NCS golf championships
CONCORD, CA (Nov. 20, 2024) — Carondelet sophomore Lily Peng is the latest Cougar golfer to shine after winning the North Coast Section Division I individual championship this month at Paradise Valley Golf Course in Fairfield with a round of 68.
Peng led her Carondelet team to third place at NCS and to a berth at the Northern California Championships at Berkeley Country Club. She placed third individually at the Northern California Championships with an even par 72 while her Cougars team was eighth.
She will conclude her sophomore high school season next Wednesday, Nov. 20, at the CIF State Championships at San Gabriel Country Club.
The 15-year-old was East Bay Athletic League MVP as a freshman and was low scorer by six shots at this year’s league championships to nail down a first-team all-EBAL berth. The Cougars were second in team league meet scoring.
Great athletic and academic program
Peng’s home course is Crow Canyon Country Club in Danville. Her dad encouraged her to play when she was five and by the time she was seven she was taking part in small Bay Area tournaments like U.S. Kids Golf. She also swam for the county recreation champion Crow Canyon Sea Lions until she was 10.
The San Ramon resident decided to attend Carondelet “because of the great athletic and academic program.”
Carondelet has a strong golf program in the section’s best league which includes Dougherty Valley, now two-time defending NCS champions. Since 2004, five different EBAL girls teams have contributed to the league’s 16 titles in the past 20 NCS tournaments.
In golf and tennis circles in particular, high school competition takes a back seat to the junior circuit and Peng is no different than other top amateurs.
She won her first American Junior Golf Association tournament last October in Florida at the Billy Horschel Junior Championship presented by Zurich where she had 11 birdies in the three rounds.
This year she has five Top 5 finishes including tying for fifth at the California Amateur in a field of women golfers of all ages and ninth at the U.S. Junior Championships the week before.
In current AJGA rankings she is 24th and 16th among American golfers with all but three girls ahead of her graduating from high school before her in 2025 and 2026.
Yealimi Noh
Peng’s exploits remind observers of Concord’s Yealimi Noh who was a standout at Carondelet as a freshman and sophomore in the 2015 and 2016 fall golf seasons. Noh helped the Cougars to the NCS championship as a freshman and second place in Northern California. Her sophomore year Noh was medalist at NCS and NorCal.
Following her sophomore year, Noh was home schooled to more readily concentrate on golf. She is now in her fifth year on the LPGA tour and the 23-year-old had a resurgent late season run that included top 17 finishes in six of her last seven tournaments, which included 16 of 26 rounds in the 60s. Noh has $2.2 million in tour earnings to date.
Peng has not met Noh but “I enjoy watching her on the LPGA.” The young golfer must picture herself on that tour someday like her fellow Cougar.
Jay Bedecarré
Jay Bedecarré is a long-time resident and writer in Concord and Clayton. He began his newspaper writing career while still a senior at Mt. Diablo High School and he has been part of The Pioneer since its inception in 2003. Jay also operates Bay Area Festivals, presenting events around the San Francisco Bay Area including Bay Area KidFest annually in Downtown Concord.