Torrance’s Park Wins Individual Golf Title

Angela Park arrived Thursday at Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs disheveled after a 4 a.m. wake-up call and a two-hour drive from Torrance.

She left in mint condition after rallying from a poor start to shoot three-under-par 69 and win the Southern Section individual girls’ golf championship.

Park, a sophomore from Torrance High, made a 20-foot birdie putt on her final hole -- the third -- for a one-shot victory over playing partner Kim Lorenzana of Long Beach Wilson.

Many players opt to stay in an area hotel the night before a tournament, but Park and two teammates decided to drive Thursday morning.

Park, who acknowledged sleepwalking through her warm-up routine upon arrival, said she hardly realized that she started with a double bogey and a bogey.

“I wasn’t fully awake,” Park said. “After the bogey ... I was like, ‘OK, this is not going to go this way.’ ”

She meant it. She played the next nine holes in four-under par -- a stretch that included an eagle at the 417-yard, par-five 14th -- to take a one-shot lead over Lorenzana, a senior who has committed to UC Irvine.

Lorenzana made a birdie at No. 18 to pull even with three holes to go. Both parred No. 1 and No. 2, setting up Park’s winning putt at the No. 3.

“I knew I needed to make it to finish ahead of Kim,” Park said of her final putt. “Other than that I didn’t know where I stood. I knew I at least had a chance.”

The top 22 finishers advance to the CIF-WSCGA championships Monday at the PGA of Southern California Golf Club in Calimesa. Five of those players, including Park, have withdrawn from the CIF-WSCGA tournament so they can play in a national junior tournament in Florida.

The others are: Esther Choe of La Quinta, Jennie Lee of Huntington Beach Edison, Marina Choi of Redondo and Grace Woo of Burbank. All but Woo finished in the top 10 Thursday.

Peter Yoon

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In girls’ tennis:

Beverly Hills 10, Laguna Beach 8 -- Tova Hausman defeated Lorren Butterwick, 7-6 (1), in the final round-robin set as the Normans (16-2) defeated the Breakers (20-2) in the Southern Section Division I semifinals for the second consecutive season.

Beverly Hills, second-place finisher in the Bay League, will face league rival and top-seeded Peninsula for the title on Monday at the Claremont Club.

Hausman’s victory was one of several narrow decisions or comebacks by No. 2-seeded Beverly Hills, which won the last four sets. The Normans had to rally from a 4-2 first-round deficit.

The No. 1 doubles team of Tessa Tran and Anna Litovsky rallied from a 5-1 deficit and won, 7-5, against Laguna Beach’s top team in the first round to keep the Normans in the match.

Tran and Litovsky won their other sets, 6-1, 6-0, and No. 1 singles player Riza Zalameda won three sets, including a 6-3 victory over the Breakers’ No. 1 player, Claire Rietsch, in other key decisions.