Lotta Smiles After Golf Victory

With some of the top players in Southern California girls’ golf away for a national tournament in Florida, the stage was set for a little-known golfer from a little-known high school to make a name for herself in the Southern Section Individual Championships.

Karen Lotta of Los Angeles Marymount High happily obliged. The senior shot two-under-par 70 Tuesday at Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs and posted the most significant victory of her career.

Lotta finished three strokes ahead of Amie Cochran of West Torrance, Carling Cho of Dana Hills and Priscilla Park of Villa Park. Cochran earned second place when she made a 27-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole and Cho made a par on the second playoff hole to claim third.

Lotta, who birdied two of her first three holes, took advantage of a field depleted by a scheduling conflict with an American Junior Golf Assn. tournament in Orlando.

Junior All-Americans Ina Kim of Harvard-Westlake, Erica Blasberg of Corona, Elena Kurakawa of Redondo Union and Stella Lee of Irvine all made the trip to Florida, as did three others who finished in the top 15 in the Southern Section a year ago. Ten players skipped the Southern Section finals to play in Florida.

This is the first year for golf at Marymount, an all-girls school of about 400 students located near UCLA. Lotta, however, played the section final as an individual last year and shot 83. She qualified for the U.S. Girls Junior and won twice on the local scene over the summer, but said Tuesday’s victory tops her list of achievements.

“Coming in here and winning the Southern Section, that’s pretty big,” she said. “I hit my irons really well. I hit 16 greens [in regulation]. I was in a zone and I was hitting everything perfect.”

Cho, a junior at Dana Hills, also hit her irons well. She had four birdies, all after hitting to within 15 feet of the pin. She made back-to-back birdies on the 18th and first holes, surprising herself with crisp iron play after a bad day of practice.

“I was hitting it so bad [at the range], I was just hoping to make the cut,” Cho said.

The conditions for scoring were ripe, with barely a trace of wind and receptive smooth greens.

“I thought the scores were going to be lower,” Cho said.

Perhaps with the top players in the field some scores might have been lower, but one glance at the scoreboard was all it took for Cho to determine her feeling about their absence.

“It’s fine with me,” she said.

Megan Mulhaupt of Santa Margarita shot one of the best rounds of her career, a two-over-par 74, but may be haunted by thoughts of what might have been.

Playing steady golf all morning, she came to her 17th hole, the par-three 12th, even. She hit her tee shot into a bunker, played a sand shot to within about 15 feet, but three-putted for a double-bogey.

She finished in a three-way tie for fifth, the highest finish for a Santa Margarita girl since Kellee Booth won consecutive titles in 1992-’93, but a par on the 12th would have given her a solo second place and a bogey would have put her in the playoff for second.

Angela Won of University also shot 74 and tied for fifth. Leisl Hasbrouck of Aliso Niguel and Jamie Oliver of Los Alamitos each shot 76 and tied for ninth.

The top 40 finishers--not including players from University, Harvard-Westlake, Aliso Niguel and Villa Park who advanced regardless of Tuesday’s results based on their finish in the section team championships Nov. 13--advance to the CIF-WSCGA finals Nov. 28 at the SCGA Members’ Club in Murrieta.

Other county players who advanced: Jenn Sanders of Rosary, who shot 79; Allison Schauppner (Corona del Mar, 79); Taylor McCormick (Corona del Mar, 80); Stella Min (El Dorado, 82); Alexis Etow (Santa Margarita, 83); Eileen Jonas (Rosary, 84); Kandace Whiting (Troy, 84).