Shearer Loses Title in Playoff

Krystal Shearer of Alemany High missed her first hole-in-one by inches and narrowly lost in her first Southern Section girls’ individual golf championship Monday at Mission Lakes Country Club.

Shearer shot two-under 70 on the 5,390-yard course, but she finished tied with Cerritos Gahr’s Young Pak and Long Beach Millikan’s Vivan Phosomran for medalist honors. Pak won the championship with a birdie on the third playoff hole.

Pak, Shearer and Phosomran each parred the first two playoff holes. Then Pak, a sophomore, put her six-iron approach shot within 18 inches of the cup on the 347-yard, par-four No. 3 hole before making the short putt for the victory.

Shearer began the shotgun tournament, which featured 105 players, with the same near perfection.

Her tee shot with a five-wood on the 179-yard, par-three eighth hole ended up “only about five inches away,” Shearer said.

Shearer also finished strong, making birdies on holes three and four before finishing with a par on her final hole, the 336-yard, par-four seventh.

“I’m really happy with how I played,” Shearer said. “I was really nervous for the playoff, but I figured if it was meant to be . . .”

Shearer was one of 50 players who qualified for the SCGA finals at the SCGA Members Club in Murrieta in June.

Noticeably absent from the tournament field were Notre Dame’s Anne Lee and Harvard-Westlake’s Ina Kim, who were in Florida, playing in the American Junior Golf Assn.’s season-ending tournament.

Other qualifiers included Agoura’s Charlene Alfonso (78), Harvard-Westlake’s Emma Stachowicz (79), Crescenta Valley’s Courtney Renfro (81), Hart’s Alexis Arnold (81), Agoura’s Mollie Begalla (82), Newbury Park’s Julie McKenna (83), Thousand Oaks’ Kelly Struyck (85), La Reina’s Jennifer Marshall (85) and Hart’s Sara Jones (86).