Yim and Kung Shoot Par but End Up Losing Playoff

It could have been a shootout between two of Orange County’s best, but Redlands East Valley sophomore Gina Umeck stole the show.

Umeck sank a 15-foot uphill putt to birdie the fourth extra hole, a 122-yard par-three, to defeat Woodbridge’s Yon Yim in a playoff and win the Southern Section girls’ individual title Monday at Mission Lakes in Desert Hot Springs.

“I was putting really well today,” Umeck said. “I just stayed aggressive and shot at the pins in the playoff. That’s the only way to win one.”

Umeck shot par 72 on the 5,390-yard course and was tied with Yim and Fountain Valley’s Candie Kung after 18 holes. The three-way playoff began on the first hole, but both Yim and Kung could have avoided a playoff.

Both barely missed birdie putts down the stretch in the shotgun format. Yim’s 15-footer on the par-five ninth hit the back of the hole, popped up and landed just outside the cup.

“What can you do?” Yim said. “I missed some other short birdie putts today. I had three putts lip out.”

Kung, a junior who had two birdies and two bogeys, also had a chance to finish at one-under. But her eight-foot birdie putt on the par-three second hole stopped just short.

The three-way playoff began with each player getting par on the 503-yard par-five first. Then Kung, who just returned Saturday from a family trip to Taiwan, was eliminated on the second playoff hole when she missed a four-foot par putt on the 121-yard par three.

Kung finished second to Yim in an American Junior Golf Assn. tournament last summer at Aviara. But Yim, the 1996 section champ, couldn’t find that magical winning touch Monday.

Yim fought her nerves to stay alive in the playoff. With Umeck in the fairway of the 347-yard par-four third, Yim hit a fairway wood from 175 yards into the wind from the right rough on the right side of the green to help save par and extend the match.

Although Umeck’s birdie on the next hole won the title, Woodbridge still recorded two of the county’s top-six scores. Yim’s teammate, sophomore Channing Lovejoy, shot a 79.

Mission Viejo’s Carla Legaspi shot 75 to tie for fifth with Pasadena La Salle’s Melissa Martin.

Legaspi, a junior, shot two-under 35 on the back nine and also had the shot of the day, making a hole-in-one with an eight iron on the 133-yard 15th.

Notes

Players who shot 84 or better qualified for the SCGA finals, June 2 at the SCGA Members Club in Murietta. Capistrano Valley’s Jennifer Tunzi (78), Brea Olinda’s Jeri Costello (79), Sunny Hills’ Lynne Chiao (80), Cypress’ Lisa Choi (80), San Clemente’s Nicole Bloch (81), Edison’s Lauren Brown (83), Mission Viejo’s Brianna Keilar (83), Valencia’s Nikki Glowin (84) also qualified.