Girls’ golf: Van Nuys’ Vongchaisaree wins City title

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Jann Vongchaisaree of Van Nuys won the City Section girls’ golf championship Monday with a three-under-par 70 at Balboa Golf Course in Encino.

The Wolves’ senior finished three strokes in front of defending champion Monica Petchakan of North Hollywood, who was second at even par.

‘I was playing in the group right behind her [Petchakan], so there was a little less pressure,’ said Vongchaisaree, whose previous low score at Balboa was 71 in a practice round. ‘For the most part I was getting the ball on the greens today. Most of the putts here are pretty straight so I just read the line and if it went in, it went in. Putting and chipping are my strengths.’

Vongchaisaree sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the second hole and a 15-footer for birdie from off the green on No. 4 to get to two-under. After bogeying No. 8, she tapped in a three-foot birdie at the 11th and rolled in a 15-footer to move to three-under par for her round.

Vongchaisaree finished 14th as a sophomore (shooting an 85) and shot 80 last fall for fourth at City Finals. Her only disappointment this time around was that her school fell short in its bid for a third straight team title.

‘My main goal was to help my teammates as best I could and maybe take some of the pressure off them,’ Vongchaisaree said. ‘Even though we didn’t win, we still qualified for Regionals so at least we get to keep going.’

Qualifying as individuals for next Wednesday’s Southern California Regional Championships in Murrieta were Monroe’s Vanessa Bognot (81); Cleveland’s Vicky Ma (83); San Pedro’s Amanda Leake(85); Westchester’s Maiya Nesbit (87), Craytoya Taylor (92) and Eleanor Yang (98); Granada Hills’ Megan Tyni (91), Sharon Chee (98) and Connie Kim (100); Chatsworth’s Madison Lomas (96); and Kiska Piper (93) and Jennifer Aceret (97) of Venice.

-- Steve Galluzzo