Tri-Metal

Ina Kim continues to lower her score and raise her profile.

Kim, a senior at Harvard-Westlake High, resumed her torrid summer streak Thursday by winning her third American Junior Golf Assn. tournament with a course-record eight-under-par 64 in the final round of the Nabisco Junior at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

Kim shot a 32 on each nine of the club’s Palmer Course, making four birdies on each to finish at 75-72-64-211, five under and five strokes ahead of Yvonne Choe of Temple City.

Hwanhee Lee of Cerritos finished third, six strokes behind.

Kim received a congratulatory hug from her sister, Hana, after making a par on the 18th hole, then celebrated by jumping into a nearby pond.

It has become a tradition for the winner of the Nabisco Championship, an LPGA major, to take a dip in the lake on the 18th hole of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course. Of course, it was much warmer Thursday than when the pros play at Mission Hills in March.

Kim will compete in the Rolex Tournament of Champions at Serrano Country Club near Sacramento beginning Tuesday.

“My iron shots were really on the pin [Thursday] and I was putting well,” Kim said. “Hopefully, I can keep my hot streak going. I don’t have any expectations. I just want to play as well as I can and if I win with that, then great.”

Kim twice made three consecutive birdies, on holes two through four and again from 10 to 12, en route to her third AJGA victory in four weeks.

A tournament spokesman said the previous course record for a woman is believed to be 65. Fred Couples holds the men’s record for the Palmer Course with a 61.

The performance was consistent with Kim’s string of success.

Kim has steadily emerged from the shadow of her sister, a recent graduate of Brentwood High and the Southern Section individual champion.

Hana Kim shot a 71 on Thursday, finishing sixth with a 75-77-71-223.

“My game has been pretty much the same as last year” Ina Kim said. “But I’ve been working on my mental game so I don’t crumble under pressure. My sister has a great mental game and she is very much like a coach to me. I don’t really feel like I’m a coach to her.”

Ina said the sisters’ decision to attend separate schools was simply a matter of different strokes.

“We wanted different things,” she said. “She wanted the small school environment, I wanted to go to a bigger school.”

That hasn’t prevented them from crossing paths on the golf course.

Ina was The Times’ region girls’ golfer of the year after winning the Mission League title.

Ina, 16, finished second to Northwestern-bound Hana, 17, in the section final at Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs in November. That has been the usual outcome between the sisters since they began golfing as young girls.

“She was 7 or 8 when she started,” Ina said. “I started about a year later. She was always ahead of me.”

Ina has closed the gap considerably in recent weeks. In June, she won her first AJGA tournament with a five-stroke victory in the Las Vegas Founders’ Legacy Junior. Her final-round 68 gave her a nine-under 70-69-68-207. Hana, with a course-record 64 in the final round, finished second at 212.

Last week, Ina won the girls’ title of the Osso Junior at Oak Tree Golf Club in Edmond, Okla., with a 76-71-72-219.

Having her sister to compete against has made all the difference.

“It’s so great because we give each other support,” Ina said. “We have healthy competition between us and it’s nothing too serious. It’s always better having her there.”

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ON THE GREEN: Learn how area golfers fared and what’s coming up on leaderboard and tee times. Page 14

After years of delays, work has begun on a TPC in Valencia, which is scheduled to open in 2002. Page 15