The Bentonville High School and University of Tulsa product finished T43 at Stage 1 in August, T21 at Stage 2 in October, and was one of four players to begin at Stage 1 and make the four-round cut at the final stage, where she turned in a 69th-place score to secure Epson Tour status.
By Chris Werner
USGA P.J. Boatwright Jr. Intern
December 11, 2023
Former Arkansas State Am champ Lilly Thomas earned full status on the Epson Tour through LPGA Tour Q-Series when she finished in the top 70 at the final stage last week.
The Bentonville High School and University of Tulsa product, who won the 2021 Arkansas State Amateur Championship at Fayetteville Country Club, finished T43 at Stage 1 in August, T21 at Stage 2 in October, and was one of four players to begin at Stage 1 and make the four-round cut at the final stage, where she turned in a 69th-place to secure Epson Tour status.
Per LPGA Tour rules, Thomas was forced to turn pro after the second stage of the Q-Series and will forgo her final semester of college golf.
LPGA INTERVIEW AFTER ROUND 1 AT FINAL STAGE
Thomas, who received a sponsor’s exemption into and made the cut at the LPGA’s NW Arkansas Championship earlier this year while she was still at Tulsa, said professional golf was on her mind as she prepared for her fifth and final year as a college player.
“I talked with my coach [Tulsa women’s golf head coach Annie Young] last summer, and I told her I would like to play in Q school,” Thomas recalled. “...My plan was, if I made it to Stage 3, you have to turn pro before Stage 3 now, so I was like 'If I make it to Stage 3, I would like to turn pro and she was okay with that.
“If I only had made it to Stage 2, I was going to stay and play the spring semester and finish out my college golf. That was the plan, and luckily, it worked out to play Stage 3, and I'm super grateful for that and that opportunity.”
By making it to the Final Stage of the Q Series, Thomas locked up 2024 Epson Tour Status in category C.
Thomas will stay in Tulsa until the Tour season begins in March and then finish her last semester of school online as she begins her professional golf career.
Thomas said she was more nervous playing as an amateur as a sponsor’s exemption at the NW Arkansas Championship than she was at the Q-Series, and that playing in and having success at an LPGA Tour event showed her she was ready for the jump to pro golf.
“I did expect to make it to Stage 3,” Thomas said confidently. “I think where the level of my game was, I knew that I could compete in all three stages. The Northwest Arkansas championship did help me set up for that. I'm very thankful to the people who have given me the exemptions to both last year's and this year's tournament. I really wasn't even nervous for Stage 3 because of that. I've been on such a bigger stage.”
Thomas knew she wanted to go to the Q-Series this season even before she got the last-minute exemption into the 2023 NW Arkansas Championship, so she treated the fall college season as a tune-up for the professional ranks.
“You have to make goals for yourself,” Thomas said, “My goal was to end the semester. As a professional golfer … That was my ultimate goal. Even playing fall [college] tournaments, I was still obviously there to help the team, and my goal in those was to get top 10s because if you take a professional-level golfer and you put them in a college tournament they will most likely always get a top 10.”
In Tulsa’s four fall tournaments in 2023, Thomas tailed two top 10 performances — a second-place showing at the Schooner Fall Classic and a tie for 10tth at the Dale McNamara Invitational — and two finishes outside the top 10 with a tie for 13th at the Sam Golden Invitational and a tie for 17th at the Ally, her final collegiate event.
In those four events, Thomas compiled a team-leading 69.7 18-hole scoring average.
Thomas’ scoring average improved every season as a Hurricane, getting at two strokes better than the year before as a sophomore and a fifth-year.
She attributes that improvement largely to coach Young at Tulsa and her personal swing coach Ted Tryba, a two-time PGA Tour winner.
“Throughout my college career, I had been incrementally getting better,” Thomas said. “you can pretty much see that in my scoring average. Most of that comes from Coach Young developing me as a player … I didn’t start playing golf until I was 14. In high school, I really was not the best golfer, coach Young took a chance on me. I've been slowly getting better.”
When Thomas began to seriously pursue golf as an avenue to become a college athlete, she first worked with Arkansas Golf Hall of Famer Stan Lee, had help from Red Apple’s Trey Miller, then trained under the guidance of coach Young at Tulsa, before meeting coach Tryba in Florida as a college sophomore.
Thomas credits Tryba for giving her the belief she could play professionally.
“I started working with [Tryba] and I didn't really have a coach at the time, so that helped start me down the road of having a coach making sure I make swing changes when I need to and, besides Stan Lee, he was the first coach that I had tell me ‘You can do this.’”
Thomas said Tryba doesn’t accept many students because he still plays from time to time on the PGA Tour Champions, so he has dedicated a lot of time to helping her game blossom.
“He doesn't really work with very many players,” Thomas said of Tryba. “Usually swing coaches, they have like 20 or 30 players so they have to divide their time between a million players and they can't really get to know how someone's game.”
Thomas said the extra time Tryba made a big impact because she started playing competitive golf a lot later than many of the players she was competing against on the college circuit.
Thomas also credited coach Young at Tulsa for providing her players with resources to succeed, noting that she began working with a mental skills coach before her fourth season with the Hurricanes.
As for the current state of her game, Thomas said it was in a ‘pretty good place’ during final stage.
He said her swing felt ‘a little loosey goosey,’ but it was nothing that couldn’t be fixed quickly.
Thomas said she was not discouraged by not earning LPGA Tour status but rather excited to see where the journey takes her.
“I knew whatever came out of it would be where I was supposed to be in God's timing,” Thomas said. “Even though you want to have higher goals, but the Epson Tour is obviously where I'm supposed to be but next year whether that's helped me prepare for the LPGA or we'll see. I’m excited to be there this whole next year.”
For now, Thomas will prepare for her first season of professional golf for the next few months in Tulsa before embarking on the Epson Tour in the spring.
