Booth Still Waiting for Her Shot
There’s no doubt Arizona State golfer Kellee Booth is a winner. She won the 1993 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship and more than a score of other junior golf trophies and is the nation’s top-ranked female amateur.
But after nearly two full years with the Sun Devils, Booth has yet to win a collegiate tournament. So is there a problem? Is Booth, who grew up in Coto de Caza and attended Santa Margarita High, losing it?
No way, said Arizona State Coach Linda Vollstedt. “Sooner or later she is going to win her first collegiate tournament,” Vollstedt said. “I keep telling her Wendy Ward didn’t win one until the end of her sophomore year and Pearl Sinn didn’t win until she was a senior.”
Ward and Sinn are only two of 12 former Sun Devils now on the LPGA Tour. Vollstedt is sure Booth will be one of the next: “Trust me, she’ll be there.”
It’s not that Booth hasn’t had her chances to win. She has finished in the top 10 in 15 of the 20 collegiate events in which she has competed. Twice last season, she finished second and twice this year she has tied for third, including at the NCAA West Regional Championship, May 9-11, in Omaha, Neb.
Starting today, she will get another shot. The NCAA championships are this week at the La Quinta Resort and Club near Palm Springs. Booth, Arizona State’s top player, will try to lead the Sun Devils to their fourth consecutive national title.
Booth likes her chances. The semester ended early this month and this will be the first tournament, she said, in which she can fully concentrate on golf. “School is really important to me and I have an opportunity to graduate in four years, which I’m really trying to strive for,” she said. “I don’t think people realize how hard it is to balance school and golf.”
Booth manages better than most, but it can be a grind. Mornings are taken up by classes and afternoons by practice. Playing sessions can extend into early evening, diminishing time available for studying. Trips for tournaments increase the pressure to stay current in school because of missed classes and assignments that must be turned in early.
Booth is a business major with a minor in sociology and a 3.56 grade-point average, and also was a student representative on a couple university boards.
Visions of homework running through her mind play havoc with the focus Booth usually achieves on the golf course, but school is her first priority. “Given the choice of working on a group project or practicing, she’ll work on the project,” Vollstedt said. “She knows golf is going to be there in the future and school is an opportunity she has only for a short while.”
Now that school is out for the summer, Booth can concentrate on golf. Although drained after recently finishing her final exams, Booth played solidly at the West Regional. She shot 72s on the first two days and was tied for the lead with seven holes remaining on the final day before fading.
“It was frustrating,” Booth said. “I knew I could have played really well and given [Arizona’s] Maria Baena a good tournament. In fact, standing on the 12th tee box, I was dead even with her.”
But Booth, struggling with her putting, made three bogeys and a birdie coming in and wound up with a 76. She finished tied for third, five shots behind Baena.
This week Booth should be well rested and ready. “I’ve been playing more consistently late in the semester, and now that school’s out,” she said, “it makes life a lot easier.”
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NCAA Golf Tournament
* What: NCAA golf championships
* Where: La Quinta Resort and Club
* When: Today through Saturday
* Tee times: 8 a.m. daily
* Orange County connections: Arizona State’s Kellee Booth (Santa Margarita High), Duke’s Alicia Allison (Foothill High) and UCLA’s Eunice Choi (Laguna Hills)
* Tickets: $6 daily, $12 tournament pass
* For information: (619) 564-7686