Sunny Hills Golf Team Is Still as Strong as Ever

At the beginning of the golf season, Sunny Hills Coach Tim Devaney was in the dark.

“I had no idea what kind of team this was going to be,” Devaney said. “I usually never do.”

Usually, Devaney has one of the stronger teams in Orange County. However, only one starter was to return from the 1993 team. He had heard the buzz--that the Lancers were due to land some fine young players--but Devaney isn’t one to believe hearsay.

Seeing is believing. With three freshmen, a sophomore, a junior and a senior, Sunny Hills is proving to be one of the best teams around. Today, the Lancers will try to advance to the Southern Section team championship by finishing among the top three positions at the Northern Regional tournament in Santa Maria.

Their chances appear to be promising, and Devaney seems to be convinced.

“This is one of my most consistent teams as far as playing right around par,” he said.

When you consider the Lancers individually, it should be no surprise the team is so strong. Three are very good high school golfers:

--Senior Brad Knyal, who also plays quarterback for Devaney’s football team, averages 41.

--Freshmen Mike Kim and John Park, who average 40 and 39.

Three are among the best junior players in Southern California:

--Junior Jenny Lee, who averages 39.

--Sophomore Terry Noe, the holdover from last season, and freshman Jin Park, who each average 37.

Lee, Noe and Jin Park also have something else in common. They were each born in Seoul, South Korea, and have immigrated to the United States. Devaney said golf has helped each become accustomed to a new culture.

“In golf it obviously doesn’t matter who you are or what language you speak,” he said. “The game is the same, and they can fall back on it as they continue to become more fluent in English and adapt to this country.”

Lee, who has been in the United States four years, and Park, who has been here six, have mastered English more thoroughly than Noe, who has been here about 1 1/2 years, but Noe is learning quickly, Devaney said.

And on the golf course there’s little Noe can’t do. He started playing the game about six years ago--his father owns a factory that makes golf shoes in Korea, so it seemed like a natural sport for him, Noe said.

“He’s really very steady,” Devaney said. “Even on a course that is new to him, most kids fuss with that, but not Terry. I’ve seldom seen him lose track of his game.”

Noe, who advanced to the CIF-Southern California Golf Assn. individual tournament last year, recently has won four local junior tournaments.

“He’s just solid,” said Bob Livingstone, who runs the Southern California PGA junior program. “He has no weaknesses.”

Livingstone is also familiar with Jin Park’s game. Last summer at age 13, Park was the overall point winner in the SCPGA’s junior program. He has won three 13-14 age-group titles at American Junior Golf Assn. tournaments, most recently last month at The Woodlands in Texas.

Livingstone said Park is one of the most dedicated players around. Livingstone said he tried for weeks to reach Park by telephone, so he could return a pair of shoes Park had left behind on a trip to a tournament.

“I could never get a hold of him because he was always at the golf course,” Livingstone said.

That commitment to his game has served him well.

“I expect him to score from anywhere on the course,” Devaney said. “He may not hit the longest ball, but he’s consistent.”

By all accounts, Lee hits the ball a long way. She shyly admits to 240 yards-plus.

“She’s very long,” Livingstone said. “Some people say she hits it farther than any girl that we’ve ever had in the local junior program, including Kellee Booth and Brandie Burton.”

Even so, Lee, like all girls playing high school golf in California, is at a disadvantage playing against the boys on longer courses. But she has a deft touch around and on the green.

“She’s got a hawkeye; she can ring the cup with her putter,” Devaney said.

Lee moved to Fullerton from Hawaii with her family in November, partly so that trips to AJGA events wouldn’t be so grueling. Last month she won her first AJGA event, the same tournament Park won, and she is currently the seventh-ranked girl in the nation.

“Jenny just kind of showed up on the doorstep,” Devaney said. “The kids said there’s a pretty good player in school who’s a girl.”

Lee proved to be better than pretty good, and so did the Lancers (15-1), who were ranked third in the midseason county coaches poll.

No. 4 Huntington Beach narrowly beat Sunny Hills, 385-387, at Los Coyotes Country Club Thursday, but the Lancers won’t face any Orange County team in the regional. Because no other Freeway League school has a golf team, Sunny Hills plays a freelance schedule, which means the Lancers are in the Northern Regional today instead of the tough Southern Regional Tuesday at Green River Golf Course in Chino.

If, as expected, the Lancers advance from their regional, they will get a shot at the Southern Section’s best, May 16 at Canyon Country Club in Palm Springs.

“Anything can happen,” Jin Park said. “But we don’t expect to win. We just want to go out and play our best and see the results afterward. But there are a lot of other good teams.”