Team’s Work Allows Kim to Win Title

When Ina Kim of Harvard-Westlake High shot the best individual score at the CIF-WSCGA girls’ golf championships Tuesday at the SCGA Members’ Club in Murrieta, not many in attendance were surprised.

But when Kim picked up the first-place trophy, she was as shocked as anyone.

Kim, who shot one-under-par 71 to win by one shot over Allison Martin of Bakersfield Centennial, is a junior All-American who was runner-up in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship over the summer and was considered the favorite heading into Tuesday’s tournament.

But the senior from Encino, who is No. 7 in the girls’ national rankings, thought she wasn’t eligible for the individual championship.

Kimand nine other top girls in Southern California, skipped the Southern Section individual final Nov. 21 to play in a national tournament in Florida. Only the top 40 finishers in the section final advanced to the CIF-WSCGA finals Tuesday.

But Harvard-Westlake qualified as a team in a separate tournament, and players on qualifying teams were exempt from individual qualifying. Kim is the only player who skipped the individual tournament who played Tuesday.

“I was surprised,” said Kim, who has signed with Northwestern. “I thought my score would only count toward the team score.”

Del Mar Torrey Pines won the team title, shooting a three-player total of 233, 12 shots ahead of runner-up Aliso Niguel.

Hanna Jun and Avery Kiser each shot 74 for Torrey Pines, which upset defending champion Irvine University. The Trojans returned three players and were expected to repeat but finished tied for third with Harvard-Westlake.

“Honestly, I knew we could win it if we played an average round,” said Torrey Pines Coach John Olive, former basketball coach at Loyola Marymount. “This is the first year for girls’ golf in San Diego and for a team from that area to win is phenomenal.”

Kim made 15 consecutive pars to start her round, then finished birdie, birdie, bogey.

‘It was kind of a boring round,” she said. “This means a lot because it’s my last high school competition, but I wish my team had done better.”