USGA GIRLS’ JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS : Koizumi Well Placed Despite Late Bogeys

The exploits of Tiger Woods and Ted Oh, the prodigal sons of golf, have been well chronicled.

Make room for some prodigal daughters.

At the U.S. Junior Girls’ Championship, which started Monday at Mesa Verde Country Club, there were plenty of candidates. The 156-player field is made up of the finest junior golfers in the country--and several foreign nations--and might include a few LPGA stars of the future.

Take Fumi Jamie Koizumi of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, for example. Koizumi has fine credentials, but few know about them.

Like Oh, the 16-year-old from Torrance, Koizumi qualified for a U.S. Open Championship this summer. Like Woods, the 17-year-old from Cypress, she is a defending USGA junior champion.

Saturday, Woods won his third consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur title. Monday, Koizumi started her quest for a second.

Koizumi, 17, shot two-over-par 74 and is in a comfortable position entering today’s second round of stroke play. After today’s round, the top 64 players will advance to match play. Koizumi is tied with Natalie Wong of Montebello in seventh place, two shots behind co-leaders Cristie Kerr of Miami and Skyli Yamada of Sandy, Utah.

Lisa Penske of Bethlehem, Pa., a niece of auto racing’s Roger Penske, was one of four players at 73. But Penske had the best round by a player who started in the afternoon when the wind makes the 5,934-yard layout play longer.

Heather Graff of Kennewick, Wash., Kathryn Cusick of Jacksonville, Fla., and Jo Jo Robertson of Roswell, N.M., joined Penske at 73.

Kellee Booth of Coto de Caza, playing in the threesome with Koizumi, shot 76.

Booth, who was the top-ranked female junior in the nation last year, has been hot this year as well. She has won six of the last eight junior tournaments she has entered.

In the last one--the match-play Western Women’s Golf Assn. junior--she finished second to Grace Park.

Booth started on the 10th hole and struggled on her first nine, but recovered with birdies on the 501-yard par-5 fourth hole and the 299-yard par-4 sixth.

“I struggled with my swing the whole round,” Booth said, “but my putting seemed to come into sync on the backside.”

Koizumi reversed Booth’s pattern. On the 159-yard, par-3 18th, her ninth hole, Koizumi hit her tee shot to within an inch of the cup. Her birdie pulled her even, and after 15 holes she had moved to one under. But she took bogeys on her final three holes, hitting her approach into the water on No. 9.

“I’m pretty disappointed about the way I played on the last three holes,” Koizumi said. “But I’m still in a good position coming back for tomorrow.”

Koizumi has the advantage of experience at a higher competitive level.

A sophomore-to-be at Duke, she played in the No. 3 spot for the Blue Devils as a freshman this spring.

This summer, she played in the U.S. Women’s Public Links and was the youngest competitor at the U.S. Women’s Open. She failed to make the cut in the Open, shooting 76-82.

Will playing in such a prestigious tournament help Koizumi better deal with this week’s pressure?

“I may be able to handle it a little better, but then again I haven’t been doing that well lately,” she said. “There’s definitely a lot more pressure on me than there was last year. Last year, no one even knew about me.

“I’d like to live up to expectations, but I don’t want the pressure to weigh me down. I’m trying to go out and just play my game.”

Notes

Santa Ana’s Alicia Allison, who lost to Fumi Jamie Koizumi in the final last year, had 79. She is among 35 players who shot below 80. Two other Orange County golfers are in strong position to qualify. Jenny Glasgow of Corona del Mar, shot 77 and is in a five-way tie for 19th, and Candida Kim of Coto de Caza had 80. Other county performers were Brandi Harms of Lake Forest (85) and sisters Jane (87) and Susie Park (92) of Buena Park.