St. Charles North freshman Kayla Beu is the 2024 Kane County Chronicle Girls Golfer of the Year

It can be a lot of pressure telling a fellow player during the first practices of the season that they’re hoping they can help lead the team back to state for the first time since 2018.

Let alone telling a freshman during her first days of high school sports.

And yet it’s a situation that St. Charles North freshman Kayla Beu found herself in just days before the tryouts, with one of her teammates approaching her and saying how she hoped the freshman could help lead North back downstate.

But even with the pressure on, she didn’t let it get to her. The freshman became the top golfer for the North Stars, earning medalist honors in the DuKane Conference championships, while also helping North make its first team appearance at state for the first time since 2018.

“I just remembered thinking ‘Oh wow, that’s a possibility,’ ” Beu said. “And that’s what ended up happening, and I’m very grateful. There wasn’t a lot of pressure, it was just work hard, and then go play to have fun.”

For her efforts, Beu has been named the 2024 Kane County Chronicle Girls Golfer of the Year.

“She didn’t come in as a normal freshman, who’s really nervous or introverted. She already had a few connections and played a bit of competitive golf over the summer, so she already sort of had a place,” North Stars coach Steve Dodd said. “Usually, you expect your freshmen to trickle in and find their footing after a few weeks, or even a month. But not Kayla, she was in and did well right from the start.”

While Beu said that it was a bit of an adjustment balancing golf with her school work, she and Dodd felt that her transition into playing team golf was relatively flawless, as she slid into the No. 1 rank from the start of the season. Dodd said that a good part of that success was also due to her senior teammates, who not only accepted Beu early on in the season but also encouraged her to take that top spot.

“Rather than having the thought that she was going to take an older member’s spot on the team, the older members were telling her that she had to take their spots,” Dodd said. “And I think the way that the seniors approached the freshmen, telling them that there is an expectation on them and it starts from the start of the season, I loved that leadership from them.

“And credit to Kayla. She took that on the shoulders and rolled with it.”

Beu’s success on the golf course was noticeable from the start of the season, in which she earned medalist honors in six of her first seven golf matches of the season. And even with the postseason emerging, Beu knew she needed to make a change to her style of play to keep her success going.

“She said she wanted to play more ‘boring golf,’ where she took less off the driver off the tee, focused on approach shots and had a really tight game around the green,” Dodd said. “And that’s what she executed. It’s very mature the way that she approached that change.

“She started to be intelligent in the way that she played. And that was very different from the start of the season, where she just played golf the way that everyone expects you to play.”

The approach worked in her favor, as not only did she take home the conference title, she also finished third at regionals and took a fifth-place finish at sectionals to lead St. Charles North back to state.

Dodd said that he only noticed Beu struggle once all season, and that was during the first round of the state tournament, but it didn’t take long for him to realize why. The freshman was teeing off alongside the top players from Glenbrook North, Hinsdale Central and Lincoln-Way East, who were all upperclassmen who led their teams to top-five finishes at state, with Glenbrook North eventually winning the team title.

Despite the daunting position, Beu still managed to keep pace at state, finishing 39th with a 17-over par to lead the North Stars to seventh place as a team.

“To be alongside that level, being two or three years younger that them in terms of experience, that was tough,” Dodd said. “But she still went out and scored, competed with them, and brought home a lot of experience. And I’m sure that experience is going to push her on even further.”

Beu wasn’t the only freshman on the North Stars’ roster to make an instant impact. Abby Gizewicz also emerged as another top freshman for the program, usually as the team’s No. 2 golfer.

“Having Abby was amazing,” Beu said. “Her and I could share the same experiences and navigate freshman year together as a team, and it’s great to have her as a competitor. We’re also friends outside of golf, so it’s nice that we can share that trait and that we got to succeed in the golf world together this season.”

With both players having three years of golfing left with the North Stars, Dodd said that he couldn’t be more excited for Beu and Gizewicz to develop into the leaders on the team and hopefully lead them back downstate for years to come.

And while Beu also hopes to make it back to state, her goals are a little bit bigger.

“I definitely want to perform better on the course and qualify for state, and granted I get down there the next three years, perform as good as I can,” Beu said. “Who knows, maybe if it all lines up, maybe I can win a state championship, and maybe play Division I golf in college. That’s the dream.”

All-Area first team:

Kayla Beu, freshman, St. Charles North

Bridget Brennan, junior, St. Francis

Molly Brennan, senior, St. Francis

Paige Flanigan, junior, Geneva

Abby Gizewicz, freshman, St. Charles North

Izzy Krosse, senior, St. Charles North

Kailey Kunstman, junior, Kaneland

Manuela Ramirez, senior, St. Charles East

Natalie Salazar, senior, Aurora Central Catholic

Nora Schwartz, sophomore, Aurora Central Catholic

Abby Sheehan, sophomore, Batavia