Golf: Alyaa amazing for CdM
Alyaa Abdulghany realizes the power of first impressions.
At 4-foot-11, the Corona del Mar High sophomore stands out on the golf course for her height — or lack thereof.
“Quite the short one,” Abdulghany said, flashing a big smile that reveals her braces-covered teeth.
Yet, when one sees Abdulghany drive the ball more than 200 yards, one might get a different impression of Abdulghany and her golf game.
She certainly plays bigger than her height. She’s been showing people that, spectators and competitors alike, for years now.
“I know that’s how people look at me, definitely,” she said of her diminutive stature. “I totally use that to my advantage. Maybe people I just met that day, they wouldn’t expect much.”
Abdulghany expects a lot of herself. Her first name is pronounced, Ah-lee-yuh, just like the late R&B singer. This Alyaa might be famous one day too.
She definitely wants to play college golf, maybe even go pro. But that’s in the future. The present is also turning into something pretty special for Abdulghany.
For the second straight year, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week is the last Newport-Mesa girls’ golfer remaining in the postseason. But Abdulghany is doing more than just surviving, she’s thriving.
She won the Pacific Coast League individual championship on Oct. 23 at Costa Mesa Country Club’s Mesa Linda course, firing a two-day total of one-under par 139. She wasn’t done there.
On Monday, she placed third at the CIF Southern Section Individual Regional at Dad Miller Golf Course in Anaheim, firing a 66 to easily be one of the top 36 athletes advancing. On Thursday, Abdulghany was the medalist at the CIF Southern Section Team Southern Divisional back at the Mesa Linda course.
Although the Sea Kings didn’t advance as a team, Abdulghany fired a 67, tops among the 120 golfers competing. She had four birdies and just one bogey in her round.
“Recently, I’ve gotten toward the next step,” Abdulghany said. “I have much higher goals for myself. I always tell myself, every round I have a requirement of at least two-under [par]. Obviously, depending on the course, how easy it is. But the requirement would be to be going under [par].”
CdM Coach Mike Starkweather said that in her 12 dual matches this season, Abdulghany was medalist or co-medalist in all 12, and her average was indeed under par. But that doesn’t surprise him, nor Abdulghany’s coach Alan Ochiai, a teaching pro at Oak Creek in Irvine.
“She’s been playing really well for quite a while, and I’ve been looking forward to her starting to shoot consistently in the 60s,” Ochiai said. “I knew she could do it, she just needed to do it a couple of times to start feeling comfortable doing it. This is a good time for her to start peaking. I think she’s really starting to play superbly.
“We have worked a little bit more on expecting more. We did a playing lesson, and she’ll hit a ball from a not-too-far distance to maybe 15 feet. It’ll be a good shot. She’s kind of had this idea, ‘[It’s a] good enough shot.’ I told her to try to hit it in the hole, and she started hitting it closer. I think she’s starting to recognize that she can achieve a little bit more. She can expect a little bit more now.”
What Abdulghany wants and expects is to make it to the CIF State Championship meet, on Nov. 18 at Red Hill Country Club in Rancho Cucamonga, for the first time. She’s two matches away. She will need to be one of the top 28 individual golfers at the CIF Southern Section Individual Championship on Thursday, at Western Hills Golf Club at Chino Hills.
Abdulghany played a practice round at Western Hills recently. She knows the course will be challenging.
“That course is definitely going to be something different than Dad Miller and Costa Mesa,” Abdulghany said. “I just have to keep my goal up again, shooting under [par]. It’s quite hilly, and it’s definitely constricted to making sure you pull off the right shot.”
If she can advance, the last tournament before state would be the WSCGA Regional State Qualifier, Nov. 13 at Arrowhead Country Club in San Bernardino. She would need to be one of the top nine individuals not on a top-three team to advance to state.
Ochiai, who has been working with Abdulghany for more than four years now, expects her to go far.
“For being such a tiny girl, she hits it as far as the other girls,” he said. “Her short game has improved tremendously the past year. She’s always been a good driver of the ball ... All she has to do is play her game, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she won everything.”
For CdM this year, Abdulghany was a rock, helping the Sea Kings finish third in league. She was one of just three varsity returners from last year, the others being senior Lauren Nakamura and sophomore Gabby Finear.
One key player who didn’t return was junior Amy Matsuoka, last year’s PCL individual champion. Matsuoka, who also is coached by Ochiai, said that she decided to take this year off from high school golf to focus on academics.
It just meant more responsibility for Abdulghany, but she said she didn’t mind.
“Obviously, if Amy was there the team would be a lot better,” she said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s been a burden [this year]. Everybody on CdM works as a team together.”
Abdulghany works on her game for hours and hours, up to five or six hours on what she calls the bad days. She’ll go somewhere with lights to practice, late into the evening.
The practice is paying off. Abdulghany is a mainstay in top-level American Junior Golf Assn. tournaments, enough so that the organization named her an honorable mention Rolex Junior All-American. She had four top-five AJGA finishes in 2014, including a runner-up finish in a tournament at River Ridge in Oxnard.
Abdulghany’s game keeps growing and growing.
But not her ego.
“I’m not super-biased or anything about my matches,” she said. “Even though it is a high school match, I always try to keep it at a very professional level. I always try and shoot under [par] and stuff, keeping my goal. I guess [the Pacific Coast League season] was good. There were days where I could have done better.”
There’s less and less of those now for Abdulghany.
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Alyaa Abdulghany
Born: April 2, 1999
Hometown: Newport Beach
Height: 4-foot-11
Sport: Golf
Year: Sophomore
Coach: Mike Starkweather
Favorite food: Pinkberry frozen yogurt
Favorite movie: “Dracula Untold”
Favorite athletic moment: Last year, shooting six-under par to win a Future Champions Golf tournament at PGA West in La Quinta.
Week in review: Abdulghany shot one-under par on Oct. 22-23 to win the Pacific Coast League tournament at Costa Mesa Country Club’s Mesa Linda course.
