Nam Becomes Ace of Clubs

Young Nam spends his summers playing golf.

Not just a round here and there. Nam plays and practices, he said with only a hint of exaggeration, “24 hours a day.”

Nam, a senior at Marshall High, apparently factors in the hours he spends sleeping and dreaming about eagles and birdies in addition to those he spends laboring at the driving range and around the putting green.

Golf was hardly Nam’s passion seven years ago when his father Frederic took a tennis racket out of his 10-year-old son’s hands and replaced it with a three-iron.

“I didn’t really like the game at first,” Nam said of golf. “I saw all these old people out there and said, ‘Dad, this is not my kind of sport. All you do is chase after this little ball that I can’t even hit.’ ”

But as his father predicted, Nam caught on quickly. By the time he was 11, he shot par over nine holes at the Lakewood Country Club.

Recalls Frederic: “When he did that, I thought, ‘This guy is going to be really good.’ ”

Father knew best.

Last week, Nam won his second consecutive City Section individual golf championship with a one-over-par 143 in the 36-hole tournament at the Balboa and Encino courses.

Leanne Wong of Eagle Rock won the girls’ title.

Nam, 5-foot-8, 130 pounds, was an outstanding age-group tennis player when he was 9. But after he collapsed from exhaustion during a match one hot day, his father decided that golf’s pace better suited his son’s physique and stamina.

Nam’s proficiency in his new sport resulted in his participation in junior tournaments throughout Southern California. It also took him on competitive tours of France, Asia and the United States. Two years ago, Nam led a Korean team to the championship of the Asian Junior Games in Manila.

“I really started enjoying the traveling,” Nam said. “I started missing a lot of school. I was sort of happy about that too.”

Academic problems during his sophomore year at Marshall prevented Nam from competing for the school’s golf team. Travel and some uninspired friends contributed to Nam’s ineligibility.

“I hung out with sort of a bad group,” he said. “In 11th grade, I started getting more involved in school activities like leadership class. I knew I had to shape up.”

The same could not be said about Nam’s golf game, which was in good shape from the time he enrolled at Marshall. “During the school year, I don’t get as much time to practice as I do in the summer,” Nam said. “So, I rely on my short game, which helps me a lot.

“If I hit a bad shot, I can get up and down and make pars.”

Indeed, last year Nam won his first City championship with one birdie, one bogey and 16 pars in the final round at Griffith Park.

Last week, however, Nam demonstrated a flair for the dramatic with a come-from-behind win for his second City title.

Nam was trailing Aki Amaya of Birmingham by three shots after shooting one-over-par 73 in the first round.

Nam picked up two strokes with a 35 on the front nine of the second round. Amaya and Nam were tied going into the par-4 14th hole at Encino Golf Course, a 330-yard dogleg right.

Nam pushed his drive into the trees while Amaya split the fairway with a 250-yard drive.

“All the people watching thought I was going to bogey that hole,” Nam recalled. “I thought I was going to double-bogey.”

Nam put his second shot 10 feet from the pin and putted for a birdie that gave him the lead for good. He finished with a two-over-par 70 for the round and a total of 143 that gave him the title over Amaya by two strokes.

This summer, Nam will play in amateur events. He will enroll at College of the Desert in the fall, sharpen his game at courses in the Palm Springs area, and, he hopes, transfer to Pepperdine next year.

“I’m trying to succeed at this game,” Nam said. “My goal is to become a professional golfer and I’m going to do everything it takes to do that.”