Booth Wins National Golf Title by 5 Strokes

Kellee Booth of Coto de Caza shot a 76 Thursday to finish with a tournament-record total of 218 to win the Betsy Rawls Girls’ National Golf Championship by five strokes in Wilmington, Del.

Booth completed the 54-hole tournament at 2-over, five shots in front of Lisa Cornwell of Fayetteville, Ark. Cornwell shot 72 Thursday.

Booth, 15, admitted she played tentatively throughout the final round of the American Junior Golf Assn. event, making two birdies and six bogeys to hang on for her second victory of 1991.

“I wasn’t really aiming for the pin today,” Booth said. “I just wanted to make par. Nobody can really catch you when you have that big of a lead and you keep making pars.”

Earlier this year, the sophomore at Santa Margarita High School won the Oklahoma Junior Classic and followed it up with a second-place finish at the Rolex Tournament of Champions.

“Kellee is too good a player to mess up a big lead,” Cornwell said. “She has such a good future in golf. If I can’t be the one to win, I’d like to see Kellee in the winner’s circle.”

After making a bogey on the 14th hole in the pouring rain, Booth knocked in a birdie putt on the 15th to all but seal the victory and break two-time winner Tonya Blosser’s record of 222, set in 1989.