By Michael Wojtychiw

Meilin Hoshino has only been playing high school golf for two years, but those two years have been quite successful for the Young senior.

After moving to the United States from Brazil two years ago, Hoshino not only won the medalist honors at last year’s CPS city meet with an even-par 35, but won the regional title, finished tied for second at the sectional and finished tied for 14th at the state meet. 

Hoshino came back looking for her second consecutive individual title when the four teams (Lane, Young, Payton and Jones) and all the qualifying individuals gathered at Indian Boundary Golf Course Sunday, Sept. 25.

She not only won another title, she improved on last year’s score, shooting a two-under-par 33, while also helping the Dolphins win their second consecutive title with a team score of 170. Lane finished second with a score of 180, Jones third with a 195 tally and Payton with a score of 238.

“It was really the team spirit that pushed me today, we were really motivated,” she said. “When we got here, we all wanted to win it again, so it made me play even harder.

“My eagle on the seventh hole really helped too.

“Winning it again with all these girls is really exciting, especially since last year was our first time winning city. Keeping that streak going was really exciting and hopefully next year, even though Madison (Rozwat) won’t be here, they can win it again.”

Hyde Park’s Zell Wilson took second individually with a score of 37 and Lane’s Julia Heinrichs rounded out the individual medalists with a score of 42 to take third.

Last season’s Young championship was its first girls golf title in school history and the team brought back four golfers from last year’s squad, so the team had the experience coming into not only the season but the postseason as well.

Having that experience is something that really helped the team come together and bring home another title.

“We practice putting every day, sometimes up to half an hour, even leading up to the match,” Young coach Deborah Johnson said about the message coming into today. “A lot of this team has played together for a while, we only have one new freshman and one Co-Op from Ogden International, but the other four that are here have played together for a while. 

“Having that experience is big because they’re familiar with the courses, they know what to do in certain situations.”

A majority of Chicago Public League Girls Golf competition consists of playing nine holes, while IHSA state playoffs consist of 18. Many CPL golfers take it upon themselves to ready themselves with additional golf tournament play to prepare for the IHSA state tournament.

Johnson has done some other things to try to get her players to get more experience in playing 18 holes as well.

“During the summer I get the girls who can practice come out and play,” she said. “We’ve played this course (Indian Boundary) before, so it’s all about getting them practice. That’s tricky because of all the other things they do, but a number of them have played 18 holes before.”

“For me, I’ve been playing competitive golf outside of high school, so I’m used to playing 18 holes,: Hoshino said. “Sometimes it’s an entire week of 18 holes, so I think it’s just getting back to that routine. It’s an opportunity for things like more birdies, so it’ll be fun.”

After finishing 14th at state last season, Hoshino, who also plays on the Brazilian National Team, knows what she needs to do to not only get back to the state meet, but also improve on her score.

“Since State is two days, I just have to make sure to keep a good score,” she said. “Last year I shot even in the first round and then the second day I shot a little more, so I just have to stay more consistent. The most important part is my mental game. I think the second day last year my mental game was a little off so my score was higher. If I can stay ‘In the zone,’ I think I’ll be good.

“My goal is to go and win a state championship.”

IHSA regional and sectional assignments were recently released and the following CPL schools will be at the following locations:

Glenbrook North Sectional: Taft and Amundsen (both in New Trier Regional) and Jones, Kenwood, Lane, Lindblom, Payton and Young (all in St. Ignatius Regional). 
Sandwich Sectional: Rickover (Rosary Regional), Hyde Park (Providence Regional)