It didn’t take long for freshman Sofia Young to establish herself as the best female golfer at Benicia High.

IT DIDN’T take long for Benicia High freshman Sofia Young to start dominating the Solano County Athletic Conference.

Young, 14, earned medalist honors in three of the first four Solano County Athletic Conference matches she played in and took first place earlier this month in the Yellowjacket Tournament at Stevinson Ranch.

“She’s very talented and works very hard at it,” said Benicia golf coach Nan Prolo. “She plays in a lot of junior tournaments and pushes herself to be better all the time. She’s pretty awesome. Her work ethic is just phenomenal.”

Young recently came close to getting a chance to play at Augusta National – site of the PGA’s Masters Tournament – after some stellar performances at the annual Drive, Chip and Putt Championships, a nationwide junior skills competition. Competing in the girls 14-15 division, Young finished third during local qualifying at Poppy Ridge in Livermore back in July, then won the Subregional Tournament, also at Poppy Ridge, back in August. Needing to win the Regional Tournament to reach the finals at Augusta, Young took eighth place at Torrey Pines in San Diego.

“I went to a golf camp at Poppy Ridge over the summer and my dad found a poster for the competition and had seen it on Golf Channel,” Young said. “I surprised myself, especially in the second round when I played really good, and Torrey Pines was a beautiful course and was really fun.”

Young picked up her first club only three years ago and has been playing competitive golf for two years. Her father, James, has been teaching her the finer points of golf.

“My dad started playing about two months before me and he got me into it,” Young said. “I’ve liked it ever since then. It’s the most challenging sport I’ve been into and all of the courses are different.”

Young moved to Benicia from the Walnut Creek area two years ago and was home schooled for seventh and eighth grade, giving her a flexible schedule to compete in various junior tournaments. Now attending school full time at Benicia High, Young is getting used to playing with and against girls two or three years older.

“She had a couple of rough rounds at the beginning of our season but I think that was just her playing team golf for the first time and being a freshman competing against seniors,” Prolo said. “But she’s such a good role model for the rest of our girls. She has an excellent set-up in that she sets up the same way every time.

“She’s tiny. She couldn’t weigh 100 pounds dripping wet. But she gets a lot of good club-head speed and hits the ball long and accurate. I just don’t see her missing shots.”

“I’m more consistent in my long game and I’m still working on my short game,” Young said.

As for playing against juniors and seniors?

“I don’t think much of it,” Young said. “Your age doesn’t really matter in golf. It’s all about skill.”

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