On the Move

The bustling, noisy karaoke bars and Korean restaurants where Donald Rhee likes to play one game are a long way from the tranquil, serene golf courses where he plays another.

No problem for Rhee, however. The El Toro High senior has made a life of adapting to new surroundings. Moving from South Korea to New York to four addresses in California has helped develop those skills.

So have his two favorite games.

Through golf, Rhee has played and practiced enough to meet just about everyone who has stepped on a South Orange County course.

He tees up again today when he takes on the top players from the Southern, San Diego, Central and Los Angeles City Sections in the CIF-SCGA championships at the SCGA Members Club in Murrieta.

But it’s through the other game that the real social giant emerges.

It works like this: Any time Rhee and his buddies are out singing karaoke tunes or in a crowded restaurant and they make eye contact with a girl, they ask her for a pager or phone number. Whoever ends up with the most, wins.

Occasionally, Rhee will use one of the numbers, but more often than not, he just tallies the numbers then forgets them.

“I hardly ever call them,” he said. “I just take the numbers and tear them up. Girls bother you. They usually mess up your golf game.”

Not a lot has messed up his game lately. Consistent from the outset this season, Rhee has a 36.4 stroke average over nine holes this year and has rounds of 76 and 72 to advance to today’s tournament.

Champion of the tough Sea View League in 1998, he finishing fourth this year. But even that hasn’t fazed the confident Rhee.

“I’m not intimidated at all,” he said. “I plan to do well there.”

Born on a farm in Pusan, South Korea, Rhee has not had the advantage of wealth that many of the top junior golfers do today. As a result, he does not have a lengthy resume filled with national tournament experience and that has hurt his scholarship chances.

But results speak volumes. Rhee got an offer from Loyola Marymount despite the fact coaches there had not seen him play.

“I just told them what he had done,” El Toro Coach Bob Bosanko said. “I told them that Donald had finished better than two of the players already on the team and they made an offer on the spot.”

Rhee’s strength is his strength. He averages close to 300 yards off the tee and his seven-iron goes about 170 yards.

His practice habits are impeccable. Though he bought a new set of irons less than a year ago, a quarter-sized circle has been worn into the sweet spot of each.

He took up golf when he was 10. His father would take him to the driving range after church on Sundays and make Donald watch. But after three or four trips, Donald grabbed a club and started hitting balls.

“I was bored just watching,” he said.

Rhee said his parents started force him to practice too much and he felt he was on the road to burnout. But a hot streak two summers ago fixed that.

“I was playing every week and I told them I didn’t want to play anymore,” Rhee said. “Then after two weeks off, I won two tournaments. I told my parents that it isn’t the quantity of practice, just the quality and they haven’t bothered me since.”