Kim Plays Best When It Counts

She was not a prolific golfer when it came to the number of matches played during the high school season.

Nor did she have a dominant record against some of the top golfers in the area.

But when it was time to choose The Times’ 2000 Valley/Ventura County region girls’ golfer of the year, senior Ina Kim of Harvard-Westlake was the logical choice.

Kim, who has signed with Northwestern, played in only 10 of Harvard-Westlake’s 19 matches, and teammate Emma Stachowicz finished ahead of her four times and tied her once.

But Kim defeated Stachowicz by a stroke to win her third consecutive Mission League title and followed it by winning her first CIF-Women’s Southern California Golf Assn. championship.

“Winning the last individual tournament of my high school career was an added bonus,” Kim said of the CIF-WSCGA event, featuring the top golfers from the Southern, San Diego, Central and City sections. “But the thing I’ll remember most about the season is the closeness of our team.

“I’ll remember the time we spent with [assistant] coach Darlene Bible and staying up in our hotel rooms until one in the morning watching movies when we had to play the next morning.”

Kim, the No. 7-ranked junior player in the nation by Golfweek magazine, won three American Junior Golf Assn. tournaments last summer and finished second in the U.S. Girls’ Junior championship, losing in the finals of match play. But she played sparingly during the first part of the high school season because of recruiting trips to Duke, Texas, Stanford, UCLA and Northwestern.

She opened the high school season with an uncharacteristic five-over-par 42, but she was a combined two-over in her next five matches before shooting a one-over 74 at Knollwood Country Club to win the Mission League title.

Her one-over 37 led Harvard-Westlake to victory in the Southern Section Northern team regional at Camarillo Springs Golf Club, and a nine-over 82 at Montecito Country Club in Santa Barbara helped the Wolverines place second in the Southern Section team final for the second year in a row.

Kim would have been among the favorites in the section individual championships at Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs, but she and other top players were committed to play in an AJGA tournament in Orlando, Fla.

“It was a little disappointing to not be able to play in the [Southern Section] tournament,” Kim said. “But it would have been worse if I had been the defending champion.”

Kim made up for her absence in the section championships by shooting a one-under 71 to win the CIF-WSCGA individual title at the SCGA Members’ Club in Murrieta, capping a season in which she averaged 37.7 strokes per nine holes.

“She doesn’t have any deficiencies,” said Coach Kanwal Kochar of Harvard-Westlake. She’s mentally very tough. Nothing seems to get her down.”

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ALL-REGION GIRLS’ GOLF TEAM

GOLFER OF THE YEAR

Ina Kim, Harvard-Westlake, Sr.

FIRST TEAM

Moah Chang, Burbank, Jr.

* Chang, a second-team pick last year, dethroned Sara Jones of Hart as Foothill League champion and tied for eighth in the CIF-Women’s Southern California Golf Assn. championships at the SCGA Members’ Club in Murrieta with a five-over par 77. She averaged 36.6 strokes per nine holes.

Sara Jones, Hart, Jr.

* Runner-up in the Foothill League championships, Jones was medalist in the Southern Section Northern team regional at Camarillo Springs Golf Club with a one-under 35 and shot 79 in the CIF-WSCGA tournament. She averaged 37.0 strokes per nine holes.

Emma Stachowicz, Harvard-Westlake, Jr.

* Stachowicz, runner-up to teammate and player of the year Ina Kim in the Mission League championships, led Harvard-Westlake to a second-place finish in the Southern Section team championships. She tied for second among region players in the section individual finals with a seven-over 79 at Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs and averaged 39.1 strokes per nine holes.

SECOND TEAM

Nikki Imaromna, Notre Dame, Jr.

* The third-place finisher in the Mission League championships helped the Knights tie for eighth in the Southern Section championships and shot 81 in the CIF-WSCGA tournament. She averaged 39.7 strokes per nine holes.

Mayumi Kobayashi, Notre Dame, Fr.

* Kobayashi was Notre Dame’s best player in the postseason, shooting 79 in the section individual and CIF-WSCGA tournaments after finishing fifth in the Mission League championships. She averaged 40.2 strokes per nine holes.

Julie McKenna, Newbury Park, Jr.

* McKenna sank a birdie putt on the final hole of the Marmonte League tournament to win her third consecutive league title and shot an 80 in the CIF-WSCGA tournament. She averaged 39.8 shots per nine holes.

Rebecca Norris, Thousand Oaks, Sr.

* The Marmonte League runner-up shot 38 in the Southern Section Northern team regional, 77 in the section individual finals to tie for 13th and 82 in the CIF-WSCGA tournament. She averaged 39.0 strokes per nine holes.