Many Golfers to Skip Section Individual Tournament

Many of the top girls’ golfers in Southern California will skip the Southern Section Individual championships Tuesday and play in the AJGA Polo Golf Junior Classic in Florida, which begins the same day.

The AJGA tournament is among the most prestigious junior tournaments in the nation and falls on Thanksgiving week each year. Two years ago, the conflict resulted in a watered down field at the Southern Section championships. Last year, the Southern Section tournament was the week before Thanksgiving.

Among those who qualified for the Southern Section finals this year but will not play are junior All-American selections Stella Lee of Irvine, Ina Kim of North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake, Erica Blasberg of Corona and Elena Kurokawa of Redondo Union.

Kim was runner-up in the section finals last year.

“I would rather play in the Polo because it’s a bigger tournament,” Kim said. “I’m not going to be letting my team down because it’s an individual event. The only person I can let down is myself.”

Southern Section Commissioner Jim Staunton acknowledged the problem but said the section had secured its tournament dates before discovering the AJGA dates.

“I know it weakens our field,” Staunton said. “But there is nothing we could do. We were booked.”

He said the section golf committee has discussed moving the section finals to a different week but that might necessitate playing the team divisionals and the team finals in the same week.

“Then you are talking about missing a lot of school time,” Staunton said. “We want the best field we can have, but at the same time, I have to do what’s right for a kid’s education.”

Kevin Ostroske, director of junior golf for the SCPGA, sympathizes with Staunton. He must try and schedule local tournaments around national tournaments.

“How prestigious is winning a high school championship? To most of them, it doesn’t compare to a shot at a national championship,” Ostroske said. “But as administrators we have to be careful not to put kids in a situation where they have to choose.”