The path Riley Lewis hopes will lead him to his dream job makes its next stop this weekend at Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Washington.

Lewis, 22, began the journey as a youngster in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, moved on with his family to Prescott, Arizona, and now is playing out his senior season on the LMU golf team.

“I’ve definitely had dreams of turning pro,” Lewis said. "Obviously, it’s going to be really hard. But I have full confidence in my own game and the biggest thing for me it just maintaining that confidence on the golf course and trusting the process.”

“Our team, obviously, wants to win conference and get to nationals, win nationals. I think most teams feel that way. It would be huge,” Lewis said.  “This is the first time we’ve come in with one of the higher rankings in the conference. One shot at a time.”

The Lions are ranked 45th nationally by Scoreboard, highest among WCC teams. Pepperdine at No. 53 and San Diego at No. 56 also could challenge for the title.

Lewis lost a playoff to BYU’s Zac Jones for WCC individual honors last season. But he returns with a sparkling 69.57 season stroke average, and the confidence he got last fall after winning the USF/Howard Intercollegiate at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.

Lewis shot 67 and 68 over the par-72 layout in the first two rounds then assembled a college course-record 62 — with eight birdies and an eagle over the final 18 holes — to finish 19 under par and eight strokes clear of second place.

“Not too shabby,” Lewis said of his effort on the same course that hosted the 2020 PGA Championship. “It was awesome. I’ve had a lot of good finishes as a college player. Knowing I can win on a PGA Tour professional-level golf course is just a huge boost.”

Lewis hopes to cross paths with younger brother Trevor, a junior at UNLV, at the NCAA regionals in mid-May. “That would be a dream come true,” said Lewis, who has never competed against his brother in college.

From the regionals, Lewis will compete to earn a return to the NCAA Championships, May 24-29 at Carlsbad, California. Scott Lewis, the boys’ dad, has bigger dreams. “It would be great to see them both at nationals,” he said. “That would be the icing.” 

Riley and Trevor got started playing golf at ages 6 and 5 when the family lived in Idaho. But the weather was an obstacle. Couer d’Alene gets 70 inches of annual snowfall, and Scott Lewis said they had twice that much one winter.

“I knew if they wanted to keep playing golf, it was a lot tougher to find the right competition. And the winters up there, you immediately lost about five months of golf time,” Scott Lewis said. “It’s either basketball or play in the snow.”

So when Riley was 9 years old, Scott, a college professor, and his wife Mayumi, an accountant, decided to move their family to Prescott, about 100 miles north of Phoenix. The kids’ grandparents lived there, and they were greeted by a nearly year-round golf season, three times as many courses as in Idaho, and a well-respected state junior program.

Riley has come to understand how the decision his parents made provided opportunities he otherwise might not have had. “Endless appreciation, honestly,” he said. “During my rebellious years — I’m sure I had them — I wasn’t in love with any decisions they made. As I’ve gotten older I’ve understood how thankful I am for that.”

In fact, Lewis is an exceptional student, a National Honors Society member all four years at BASIS Prescott charter school and class salutatorian at graduation. Beyond that, he received the 2017 Presidential Volunteer Service Bronze Award after helping to set up church services every other week for nine years and coaching Special Olympics golf for seven years.

The week after the WCC Championship, Lewis will graduate with a degree in Information Systems and Business Analytics that he hopes he doesn’t need to utilize anytime soon.

“The way I see it, I might as well take golf as far as I can take it,” he said. “I love the game so much. I’ll keep playing, regardless. But I’m going to try to get really good at it the next few years and be the best at it.”