As the final minutes of her freshman season unknowingly slipped away, Ashley Gilliam calmly strode toward the 18th green.
The Mississippi State golfer was as serene as ever despite the franticness of the moment as the Bulldogs battled Oklahoma in the final round of the Westbrook Spring Invitational on Feb. 24 in Peoria, Arizona.
Mississippi State faced a five-stroke deficit headed into the back nine of that decisive third round, but unbeknownst to Gilliam — one of the last golfers to finish her 18 holes — her team had closed the gap.
The freshman, who would finish in a tie for second place in the individual standings, made her par putt to finish a round of 5-under-par 67. As Gilliam stepped off the green, she had one question for her fellow Bulldogs: “‘Where do we stand?'”
Gilliam’s teammates embraced her, happy to deliver good news: Mississippi State and Oklahoma were tied.
Not long after, Mississippi State found out something even better: Thanks to solid play by Gilliam and freshman teammate Abbey Daniel and a late charge by junior Blair Stockett, they’d edged the powerhouse Sooners by a stroke to win as a team for the first time since 2014.
“We came out on top, so it was a really cool feeling to finally get the win,” Gilliam said.
It was a fitting last hurrah for the Bulldogs and their star freshman. Two and a half weeks later, just before heading back to Arizona to compete in the Clover Cup, Mississippi State’s season was suspended due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Soon afterward, the rest of the season was canceled.
“Obviously, it’s not what we all wanted to happen, but I think we all understand the reason why it had to end that way,” Gilliam said.
Gilliam, whose showing in Peoria earned her SEC women’s golfer of the week honors, lost out on a chance to compete in three more tournaments and excel in postseason play.
Named an honorable mention all-American by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association on Tuesday, the freshman still has plenty of room to improve in three more seasons with the Bulldogs.
“You’re talking half a shot here, a quarter of a shot there, and you’re looking at first-team all-American,” Mississippi State coach Ginger Brown-Lemm said. “The sky’s the limit.”
The making of a Bulldog
Gilliam didn’t come out of nowhere to have the freshman season she did, finishing in the top 10 four times in a row and setting the Mississippi State record for stroke average at 70.64.
The Manchester, Tennessee, product was a well-regarded junior golfer before she ever came to Starkville. She tied for eighth in the 2018 American Junior Golf Association girls championship, then qualified for the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur in August at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point.
“That was probably one of my favorite events that I’ve ever played in,” Gilliam said. “It felt like I was home.”
By then — just two weeks before her first semester of college started — she already was. Gilliam and the Bulldogs train at The Barn across the street and have access to Old Waverly and Mossy Oak golf courses.
Those resources and the “family” ambience Gilliam found at Mississippi State were her reasons for picking the Bulldogs in her freshman year of high school, back when the NCAA still permitted for golfers that young to commit to colleges.
“She’s just been a Bulldog since then,” Brown-Lemm said.
Brown-Lemm said she was happy that Gilliam, the daughter of former standout Ole Miss golfer Jennifer Gilliam, chose the Rebels’ rival instead.
“For her to support us and love us and be OK with her daughter’s selecting our institution to send her to, it was just a blessing all the way around,” the 10th-year Bulldogs coach said of Jennifer.
During her high school career, Gilliam also made trips to West Point to work with Old Waverly teaching professional VJ Trolio on her swing. Watching Gilliam hone her skills, Trolio could tell the Tullahoma High School star’s talent was real.
“She’s just a hardworking girl that loves the game and is a real role model for young junior golfers out there,” Trolio said. “She’s been good at every level she’s played at.”
But in Mississippi State’s first two tournaments of the season — the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational and the Mason Rudolph Invitational — Gilliam struggled a bit more than usual, tying for 23rd place in each event.
Realizing she wasn’t eating enough to stay strong on the course, she started working with Brown-Lemm and the Bulldogs’ strength and conditioning staff to improve her nutrition habits. By taking in more carbohydrates and calories, adding protein to help with workouts and eating more than just three meals per day, Gilliam began to swing faster and send balls flying farther.
“There’s just a lot that goes into playing this elite-level golf, and she embraced it,” Brown-Lemm said. “It took a little while, as any kind of new skill takes, but the result stands very, very clear.”
Gilliam tied for third place in her next two tournaments — the Schooner Fall Classic in Norman, Oklahoma, and the Magnolia Invitational at Old Waverly.
On a windy day in Paradise Island, Bahamas, she tied for sixth against a strong field to close out the Bulldogs’ fall schedule; at the Westbrook, she shot a 13-under-par 203 even after rain wiped out her practice round for the first time all season.
For her coach, looking back, the midseason improvements Gilliam made were tantalizing as to what she could have offered had the season been played as scheduled.
“To see her move forward like that as a player, kind of coming into her own — her own confidence level at the elite collegiate level of the SEC; shooting 13-under par for the Westbrook — one can only dream about what the finish was,” Brown-Lemm said.
‘Firing on all cylinders’
For Gilliam, the best way to stay positive — and stay in shape — in the absence of regular competition has been to keep things as normal as possible. At home, she’s training and working out to maintain a schedule similar to the one she had before her season was canceled and her classes moved online.
Every other week, she’s even making the 4.5-hour trip to West Point to work with Trolio on her swing. Accustomed to the drive, Gilliam said she always heads straight to Old Waverly and back to Manchester without staying overnight.
To her coach, Gilliam’s unwillingness to forgo her lessons is part of the inimitable competitive drive she possesses.
“She wants to be a great player,” Trolio said. “She has all the stuff that I’ve seen in people before her that were really good players.”
And with the NCAA’s recent ruling that spring sport student-athletes will receive an extra year of eligibility to compete, Gilliam could have four years left in Starkville to make her mark.
She’ll do it alongside a talented group of teammates at Mississippi State, too. Stockett, who will have two years of eligibility remaining, tied for third at the Magnolia Invite and excelled late with four birdies on the back nine to help her team make a charge at the Westbrook.
Senior Clara Moyano, whom Brown-Lemm is excited to get back next season, finished in the top 20 four straight times before the team’s final two events.
Junior Aubree Jones, whose highest finish was a tie for fifth at the Mason Rudolph Invite, and freshman Abbey Daniel will likely round out the Bulldogs’ starting lineup next season, giving Gilliam plenty of support when Mississippi State finally hits the course again.
Just take the Westbrook for example: Behind Gilliam’s tie for second place, Daniel tied for sixth, and Stockett tied for 12th. Moyano, who finished tied for 37th, also made the top 50 to help the Bulldogs pull off the victory.
“That’s when you win: when everybody’s firing on all cylinders,” Brown-Lemm said. “It took everybody, and everybody contributed.”
Gilliam said she’ll be ready the next time she’s called upon to play a tournament, whenever that is. Until then, she’ll be preparing at home, set for the stellar future she’s sure to have — and still remembering the moment of triumph on which her first college season ended.
“It was a really cool event to see everyone come together and finally get a win,” Gilliam said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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