Golfweek - Golf News Magazine

By SEAN MARTIN
Assistant Editor

LAKEWOOD, Wash. – Kimberly Kim isn’t worried about the medalist curse. There’s a bigger downside to shooting the low score in stroke-play qualifying for the U.S. Girls’ Junior: 7 o’clock tee times.

Kim followed her record-tying 62 with an even-par 72 Tuesday at Tacoma Country & Golf Club to finish at 10-under 134, two shots ahead of Ha-Na Jang. U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links champion Mina Harigae – looking to become just the second female to win two USGA championships in one year – finished third at 7 under par.

Kim’s first-round match is scheduled to tee off at 7 a.m. Wednesday, which isn’t exactly her idea of a reward. As medalist, she'll have the first tee time in each round.


Most teenagers don’t like to wake up early, but that’s especially true for Kim. Her late tee time in the second round of stroke play allowed her to sleep in until 10 a.m.

She mentions her love of slumber not once, but twice, in her media fact sheet for this championship.

Under the section for interesting or unique personal facts, Kim wrote, “I like days that are overcast and gloomy because I get to sleep more.”

Coincidentally, it was overcast and drizzly when she shot her 62.

Jang, from Korea, follows a more strenuous schedule. She goes to bed at midnight every night and wakes up at 5 a.m. She only takes one day off every three weeks.

It’s paid off. Last week, she won the Callaway Junior World Golf Championships by 10 strokes. She also made it to the Round of 16 at the 2006 U.S. Women’s Amateur and this year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links and missed the cut by one shot at the U.S. Women’s Open.

Kim actually took five days off before this tournament, and said she hit the ball awful when she came to Washington for her practice rounds. She recovered to tie Christina Kim’s record for low round in a USGA girls’ or women’s championship in the first round, but wasn’t as sharp Tuesday when she could only manage an even-par score despite seven birdies.

“Today was up-and-down,” Kim said. “It was a lot of stress. I just didn’t want to hit any more trees.”

Kim started with birdies on two of her first three holes, and looked on her way to breaking Taylore Karle’s tournament stroke-play record of 130. Kim went bogey-bogey-double bogey on her next three holes after two hooked tee shots and a big block on the par-3 15th.

She alternated birdies and bogeys on her last seven holes.

Harigae had just two bogeys in stroke play. She was last year’s medalist, but happy to relinquish the title to Kimberly Kim.

“I’m fine. I don’t want to be medalist. I just don’t want to go off at 7 in the morning every day. It gets tiring,” said Harigae, No. 1 in the Golfweek/Titleist Junior Rankings. “I think I’m playing really well, I’m hitting the ball solid, I’m making good putts. I’m happy about my game. It’s not 62 status, though.”

The girl ranked right behind Harigae – Vicky Hurst – will not play match play. Hurst, runner-up in last year’s championship, won her first AJGA invitational last week, posting a five-shot victory at the McDonald’s Betsy Rawls. Hurst shot 74-79 this week to miss the cut by two shots. At 7 over par, it was the lowest cut in tournament history.

“This week, this tournament, it’s huge and there’s a lot of pressure on everyone,” Hurst said. “Everything was not really going well.”

Defending champion Jenny Shin also shot 9 over par to miss the cut.

Hurst and Shin will probably have plenty to think about while they sleep tonight. Kimberly Kim will just wish she had more time to do it.

• • •

Sean Martin is a Golfweek assistant editor. To reach him e-mail smartin@golfweek.com.

---

Scores with relation to par from the first round of the U.S. Girls' Junior, played July 23 at the par-72, 6,391-yard Tacoma Country & Golf Club in Lakewood, Wash.:

1. Kimberly Kim	62-72--134		-10
2. Ha Na Jang	69-67--136		-8
3. Mina Harigae	68-69--137		-7
4. Kristen Park	68-70--138		-6
5. Evan Jensen	68-72--140		-4
5. Sally Watson	69-71--140		-4
5. Jennifer Johnson	69-71--140		-4
5. Alexis Thompson	72-68--140		-4
9. Tzu-Chi Lin	72-69--141		-3
9. Michelle Shin	70-71--141		-3
9. Sue Kim	72-69--141		-3
12. Jane Rah	72-70--142		-2
12. Stacey Kim	72-70--142		-2
12. Felicia Espericueta	72-70--142		-2
12. Madison Pressel	69-73--142		-2
12. Courtney Ellenbogen	69-73--142		-2
17. Lindy Duncan	73-70--143		-1
17. Demi Frances Runas	69-74--143		-1
17. Kristina Wong	70-73--143		-1
17. Jennifer Hirano	70-73--143		-1
17. Cheyenne Hickle	69-74--143		-1
17. Danielle Frasier	72-71--143		-1
17. Cyna Marie Rodriguez	72-71--143		-1
24. Maria Uribe	75-69--144		E
25. Stephanie Kono	69-76--145	+	1
25. Alexandra Groetsema	70-75--145	+	1
25. Tiffany Lua	73-72--145	+	1
25. Cassandra Blaney	72-73--145	+	1
25. Brittany Altomare	72-73--145	+	1
25. Jennifer Song	74-71--145	+	1
31. Lila Barton	72-74--146	+	2
31. Tessa Teachman	71-75--146	+	2
31. Taylore Karle	71-75--146	+	2
31. Kiara Hayashida	73-73--146	+	2
31. Shanshan Feng	72-74--146	+	2
31. Diane Kwon	70-76--146	+	2
31. Haley Sanders	76-70--146	+	2
38. Cyd Okino	73-74--147	+	3
38. Mitsuki Katahira	74-73--147	+	3
38. Stephanie Kim	69-78--147	+	3
38. Sorelle Sedej	72-75--147	+	3
38. Alison Lee	74-73--147	+	3
43. Jessica Wallace	71-77--148	+	4
43. Elyse Okada	72-76--148	+	4
43. Suzie Lee	72-76--148	+	4
43. Wonjoo Choi	75-73--148	+	4
43. Kristen Schelling	74-74--148	+	4
43. Mary Michael Maggio	70-78--148	+	4
49. Maria Ronderos	80-69--149	+	5
49. Abby Cotter	75-74--149	+	5
51. Ayaka Kaneko	74-76--150	+	6
51. Becca Huffer	77-73--150	+	6
51. Tessa The	71-79--150	+	6
51. Ashley Edwards	71-79--150	+	6
51. Hunter Ross	76-74--150	+	6
51. Anne Ormson	74-76--150	+	6
51. Brittany Henderson	73-77--150	+	6
58. Danielle Kang	72-79--151	+	7
58. Karisa Akin	73-78--151	+	7
58. Katie Sylvan	78-73--151	+	7
58. Margarita Ramos	75-76--151	+	7
58. Jaclyn Jansen	72-79--151	+	7
58. Sarah Brown	75-76--151	+	7
58. Amy Ruengmateekhun	76-75--151	+	7
FAILED TO QUALIFY
65. Annie Park	77-75--152	+	8
65. Chihiro Ikeda	76-76--152	+	8
65. Hailey Koschmann	72-80--152	+	8
65. Joy Kim	77-75--152	+	8
65. Nikki Koller	73-79--152	+	8
65. Dottie Ardina	76-76--152	+	8
65. Christine Song	78-74--152	+	8
72. Kaitlyn Rohrback	74-79--153	+	9
72. Ginger Howard	75-78--153	+	9
72. Vicky Hurst	74-79--153	+	9
72. Jenny Shin	73-80--153	+	9
72. Sadena Parks	77-76--153	+	9
72. Kelly Shon	80-73--153	+	9
72. Natalie Reeves	74-79--153	+	9
72. Michelle Ahn	74-79--153	+	9
72. Hillary Packard	74-79--153	+	9
72. Kayla Mortellaro	76-77--153	+	9
72. Betsie Johnson	77-76--153	+	9
83. Andrea Watts	76-78--154	+	10
83. Doris Chen	75-79--154	+	10
83. In-Ah Park	75-79--154	+	10
83. Seohee Moon	74-80--154	+	10
83. Kyle Roig	78-76--154	+	10
83. Samantha Esguerra	79-75--154	+	10
89. Julia Thead	79-76--155	+	11
89. Emily Childs	73-82--155	+	11
89. Haley Wilson	74-81--155	+	11
89. Brittany Weddell	77-78--155	+	11
89. Caroline Powers	76-79--155	+	11
89. Cheyenne Woods	77-78--155	+	11
89. Chessey Thomas	75-80--155	+	11
89. Katy Nugent	76-79--155	+	11
97. Kelsey Conway	78-78--156	+	12
97. Andrea Messer	78-78--156	+	12
97. Maria Juliana Loza	75-81--156	+	12
97. Gabriella Dominguez	76-80--156	+	12
97. Gretchen Huhnerkoch	80-76--156	+	12
97. Leigh Henderson	78-78--156	+	12
103. Rebecca Lee-Bentham	75-82--157	+	13
103. Tracy Martin	77-80--157	+	13
103. Beverly Vatananugulkit	81-76--157	+	13
103. Emily Tubert	81-76--157	+	13
103. Caroline Prebul	78-79--157	+	13
103. Nicole Zhang	78-79--157	+	13
103. Joy Trotter	81-76--157	+	13
103. Daffodil Sanchez	83-74--157	+	13
103. Amy Beth Simanton	79-78--157	+	13
103. Meghan Chapman	78-79--157	+	13
113. Avery Sills	81-77--158	+	14
113. Valentina Fontaine	78-80--158	+	14
113. Darlea Carr	79-79--158	+	14
113. Tanya Wadhwa	79-79--158	+	14
113. Courtney Mckim	80-78--158	+	14
118. Samantha Formeck	76-83--159	+	15
118. Kalynd Carson	81-78--159	+	15
118. Bethany Buchner	78-81--159	+	15
118. Sarah Almond	79-80--159	+	15
118. Katie Craig	79-80--159	+	15
123. Christina Stringham	81-79--160	+	16
123. Kalyn Dodge	76-84--160	+	16
123. Alyssa Randolph	76-84--160	+	16
123. Nicole Agnello	77-83--160	+	16
123. Lauren Smith	82-78--160	+	16
123. Katrina Delen-Briones	80-80--160	+	16
129. Brittany Penny	83-78--161	+	17
129. Ani Gulugian	76-85--161	+	17
129. Erin Sharpee	83-78--161	+	17
129. Kyung Kim	81-80--161	+	17
129. Hannah Yun	77-84--161	+	17
134. Paula Andrea Hurtado	79-83--162	+	18
134. Stacy Kim	79-83--162	+	18
134. Hanule Seo	83-79--162	+	18
137. Ashley Mckenney	79-85--164	+	20
138. Lauren Greenlief	82-83--165	+	21
138. Eleana Collins	83-82--165	+	21
138. Beth Sellers	85-80--165	+	21
141. Candice Wiley	77-89--166	+	22
141. Kaitlin Coons	86-80--166	+	22
141. Carry Barbee	83-83--166	+	22
144. Olivia Weber	86-81--167	+	23
144. Kelsey Podlesny	79-88--167	+	23
144. Lauren Varnas	88-79--167	+	23
144. Stephanie Wagstaff	86-81--167	+	23
148. Stephanie Smith	86-82--168	+	24
148. Julia Strandberg	84-84--168	+	24
150. Stephanie Corey	84-85--169	+	25
151. Ali Nelson	82-88--170	+	26
151. Blair Bonner	80-90--170	+	26
153. Lindsey Thomka	87-84--171	+	27
154. Maria Battaglia	83-89--172	+	28
155. Jordan Essman	90-86--176	+	32
156. Ellen Ceresko	94-85--179	+	35

Posted: 7/24/2007

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