DiLisio enjoying time on greens at Notre Dame
Mount Saint Joseph grad set to play at Ravens Claw in May
Flying out of Detroit Wednesday night, the Notre Dame women’s golf team had to sit tight for a bit, their departure delayed for a couple of hours.
For Isabella DiLisio, that meant two things: hitting Starbucks and hitting the books.
“It’s hard being a student athlete. It’s hard,” DiLisio says, able to laugh about her jampacked schedule. “I’m hangin’ in there.”
The business analytics major earned All-American honors from the Women’s Golf Coach Association as a sophomore and is on her way to achieving the same distinction as a junior.
Last year she finished the season with a 74.77 stroke average (second lowest on the team) and had the lowest single-round score with a 67 in the first round of the Notre Dame Clover Cup.
DiLisio and the Irish are headed south, competing in this weekend’s Bryan National Collegiate in Greensboro, N.C.
“The college game’s been a lot of fun. Very competitive,” the Mount St. Joseph grad said. “I love my teammates.
“It was so easy to pick Notre Dame (as my college choice). It’s the prettiest campus I’ve ever seen. Teams that come to visit say how nice it is and it’s like ‘wow, I get to go here every day.’”
DiLisio, the 2013 PIAA-3A State Champion and a key
part of a Mount Saint Joe’s squad that won back-toback state titles as well as four straight Catholic Academies League crowns, has two main goals driving her along.
“I want to get my degree, which I’m close to doing,” she says, “and just keep playing golf and see where it takes me.”
Coming home
DiLisio will be competing in the inaugural Valley Forge Invitational May 21-26 at Raven’s Claw Golf Club in Limerick Township. The event features the up-and-coming stars of the LPGA Symetra Tour taking on the challenge of one of Montgomery County’s finest public courses.
The Symetra Tour, previously known as the LPGA
Futures Tour, is the official developmental golf tour of the LPGA Tour. Tour membership is open to professional women golfers and to qualified amateurs, including DiLisio.
“I like to think of it as a small taste,” she says, “if I wind up choosing golf as my career.
“I wanna work on my short game and keep hitting the ball as solid as I can. Once I’m done school, I’ll have a lot more time to spend on it.”
Familiar territory
DiLisio knows the greens pretty well at Ravens Claw.
“Yeah I’ve been golfing there since I was 10 or so,” she says with a laugh. “It has a really cool layout and it’ll be great for the course to be hosting an event like this.
“Montgomery County is home to some really great courses.”
The Hatfield resident
will also be vying for her third straight Montgomery County Amateur Golf Womens Championship later in the summer.
Advice to the young’uns
The Valley Forge Invitational will provide young golfers in the area the opportunity to see some of the best in the sport performing live and up close.
Asked what advice she has for the kids coming up, DiLisio said: “It’s really important to play as many sports as you can. I played four or five before I narrowed it down to golf. It really helps build different skills and develop your hand-eye coordination.
“You have to be having fun. It’s important to stay focused, but if you’re not having fun, you’re gonna eventually burn out. You have to put your heart and soul into it.”