EL CAJON — When Indie-Reign Dornan was 6 years old, her father asked her a heavy question.
What do you want to do with your life?
To which she replied: “I want horses, a big house with a pool and a car with a fridge and TV.”
Thinking social work wouldn’t grant those wishes, Lucas Dornan figured his daughter would have to make it big in business or sports — specifically tennis or golf. Indie-Reign didn’t take to tennis, but when dad put a golf club in her hands, she hacked away.
Fast-forward to Tuesday afternoon. On a toasty 85-degree day, Indie-Reign, now 8, shot a 6-over-par 78 at Singing Hills Golf Club’s Oak Glen course, good for second place in the girls 7-8 division of the Uswing Mojing Junior Golf Championships.
Standing all of 4-foot-5 and weighing 63 pounds, Indie-Reign routinely smacks the ball about 170 yards off the tee. Her round featured some deft scrambling, not to mention draining a 42-foot birdie putt on the par-3 13th hole.
“I figured (the putt) was going way long,” said Indie-Reign. “I thought, ‘Oh, no!’ Then I saw it go in and I was like, ‘Wow! That was good.’”
Dornan, who now manages a hedge fund, has a sports background. He played professional soccer into his early 20s. A muscular gentleman, he later turned to golf. Swinging out of his shoes, Dornan won a United Kingdom long drive contest, his tee shots often eclipsing 400 yards.
He apparently likes to go big or go home, saying he was once timed hitting a tennis serve 140 mph.
It may have been divined by the cosmos that Indie-Reign picked up golf clubs. When she was 5, her father walked out of the men’s locker room at the Bear’s Club in Jupiter, Fla., and there was Indie-Reign, spread across Gary Player’s back, while Player, now 89 and famous for his fitness, cranked out push-ups.
“Do you have any idea who he is?” Dornan asked his wife.
“Is he famous?” she asked.
“Just a little bit,” he replied.
About a year later, Dornan bumped into Player again, this time at the Wentworth Golf Club in Surrey, England. Player recalled the meeting a year earlier. Dornan told Player his daughter wanted to take up golf. A day later, Player literally gave a hands-on lesson.
Dornan whipped out his cellphone Tuesday and called up a video of Player, hands on Indie-Reign’s waist, teaching her how to fire on the ball.
Asked what she likes about golf, Indie-Reign paused for a moment, said, “Ummmm,” then added, “I like beating my dad and also going out and seeing all the animals, nature. Deers, skunks, coyotes.”
While the Dornans list England as home, the family has lived in Laguna Beach for two years, Southern California’s year-round climate being more conducive to golf than England’s dampness and gray.
Indie-Reign has played in just one tournament since last year’s Junior World Championship. While his daughter was near the top of the leaderboard Tuesday, Dornan said he’s not a fan of junior golf.
“I feel junior tournaments have a more negative effect on young golfers than positive,” he said. “They last too long. (Tuesday’s round stretched more than five hours.) There’s always controversy, every group always cheating.
“I feel the girls don’t come away having fun, which is the main thing.”
Indie-Reign, though, plays regularly, routinely practicing for five hours, father and daughter say, plus 60-minute fitness sessions. They play skins games at Orange County courses and match play events.
Lucas, too, is not shy about pushing his daughter’s social media presence. She has more than 43,200 Instagram followers, her posts including pictures with the LPGA’s No. 1-ranked golfer, Nelly Korda.
She’s sponsored by LA GOLF, the company that supplies Bryson DeChambeau’s shafts.
Indie-Reign’s shafts are pink, as was the top, golf shoes and scrunchie she wore Tuesday.
Dad serves as daughter’s caddie, and it was evident Indie-Reign enjoys Lucas being by her side.
While waiting to hit her approach on 18, she playfully punched her muscular father. When Indie-Reign’s tee shot on the par-3 No. 6 found the green, dad told her: “If you don’t make birdie here, there’s no pool (later in the day.)”
“Oh, I’m going to the pool,” said Indie-Reign.
She missed that birdie putt, sank the 42-footer seven holes later and, sure enough, splashed about in a pool before sunset.
Originally Published: July 8, 2025 at 7:02 PM PDT
