After Years on Ice, Cho Finds Success on Dry Land

Irene Cho has won tournaments before, but there was always that little doubt that she belonged among golf’s elite.

Funny then, that a second-place finish would be the key to erasing that doubt. Of course, it wasn’t just any second-place finish.

Cho, from Fullerton, placed second at the American Junior Golf Assn. Polo Junior championships in Orlando last weekend. Along the way she knocked off Aree Song Wongluekiet, the top-ranked girls’ golfer in the nation, in a semifinal match.

With that type of finish in one of the top tournaments in the nation, Cho has risen from the ranks of those with high potential and established herself as one of the elite.

“After this finish, I was like ‘Oh my God, I can do so good now,’ ” Cho said. “I’m totally motivated to stay at that level.”

It’s not as if Cho was a nobody before beating Wongluekiet, the 14-year-old phenom who grabbed national attention when she finished 10th at the LPGA Nabisco Championship.

Cho won a 15-and-under AJGA tournament in Ohio over the summer, finished second in the AJGA Taylor Made Adidas Championship and was fifth in the AJGA Sacramento.

She also won the Southern California PGA junior section championship and advanced to the national finals. She finished in the top three in all seven SCPGA junior events she has played.

She is No. 50 in the girls’ national rankings, but will move up Friday to reflect her performance in Florida.

Not bad for someone who didn’t even start playing golf until three years ago.

Bobby Lasken, Cho’s swing coach, attributes her success to coming from a golfing family, her athleticism and a burning desire to succeed.

“She really wants to win,” Lasken said. “Mentally she’s real tough, she’s a real good competitor.”

Cho’s background is in ice skating. She skated from the time she could walk and in all the big competitions, but she grew tired of the time commitment required to maintain a top level.

Her father, Steve Cho, a scratch golfer, suggested she try golf.

“Ice skating was really hectic,” Cho said. “It was really tiring for my parents and I just got sick of it at a young age.”

Pretty soon after she started, she went to see Lasken. Cho’s parents had taught Irene the basics of the swing, but Lasken saw that she still needed work.

“They came for lessons and I made all these suggestions,” Lasken said. “And they were like ‘Oooh, that’s too many changes to make. She took a couple of lessons, then quit.”

She came back and Lasken rebuilt her swing, but the results were not instantaneous.

“She suffered,” Lasken said. “She did not play well for a couple of months.”

That all began to change at the end of last year. She finished eighth in the Southern Section high school championships and was 12th in the CIF-WSCGA championships, the highest finish among Orange County players.

Last spring Cho, who plays on the boys’ team at Sunny Hills because there is no girls’ team there, was medalist in a match against Santa Margarita, a team that won the Southern Section and CIF-SCGA titles.

This year, her goal is to improve. She did not play in the CIF-WSCGA finals Tuesday because she skipped the qualifier to play in Florida.

She figured the Florida event was a better tournament and would get her better exposure. It also offered the opportunity to play in a match-play situation, something she had not done before.

“I kind of liked it,” she said.

Q-SCHOOL UPDATE

Pat Burke of Coto de Caza and former Valencia High and Oklahoma State golfer Chris Tidland begin the final stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying tournament today at PGA West in La Quinta.

Burke, who finished 36th on the 2000 Buy.com Tour money list, has advanced to the PGA Tour three times via qualifying school.

Tidland has not qualified for the PGA Tour in four attempts, but has qualified for the last three U.S. Opens.

The six-round final stage runs through Dec. 4.

SENIOR QUALIFYING

Ray Carrasco of Irvine shot one-under-par 71 and is tied for 39th after the first round of the Senior PGA Tour qualifying tournament at Bonnett Creek Golf Club in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Alan Tapie of Dana Point shot 74 and is tied for 77th.

The top 16 finishers in the 72-hole event will receive 2001 tour cards, with the top eight getting full exemptions. Carrasco is two shots out of a top-16 spot with three rounds to play.

CLUB NEWS

Dirk Kingma of La Jolla has been elected the 76th president of the Southern California Golf Assn. Kingma takes over the one-year post from Jim Izu.

Dennis Harwood of Corona del Mar, the former president of Big Canyon Country Club, is one of three new members of the SCGA Board of Directors. Bob Jones of San Fernando and Dr. Thomas Lindgren of Indian Wells are the others.

JUNIOR CLINIC

The Family Golf Center in Westminster is offering a free clinic for junior golfers Friday at 4 p.m.

The clinic is an introduction to a new junior program at the practice facility that will run year round at a cost of $6 for a one-hour class. Information: (714)-897-7099.