Evergreen – If the hills at Hiwan Golf Club don’t get you, those greens surely will.
That’s what the nation’s best young female golfers were saying – and lamenting – Wednesday after signing their opening-round scorecards at the 54-hole Rolex Girls Junior Championship.
Of the 84 entrants, only 16- year-old Jane Rah of Torrance, Calif., managed to break par. Rah finished with four birdies against two bogeys for a 2-under-par 68 on the 6,361-yard layout that is considered long and demanding by American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) standards.
Rah holds a two-stroke lead over Mina Harigae of Monterey, Calif. Rah bogeyed No. 18 but stayed out of trouble by hitting 11 greens and 11 fairways. She needed only 27 putts but called two of her birdies “lucky” because they caught the edge of the cup and curled in.
“Some of the girls have a tough time (on the greens),” Rah said. “It happens. So you have to learn to deal with it and move on. I remembered the breaks from last year, so that helped.”
In last summer’s AJGA Tournament of Champions at Hiwan, Rah settled for 11th place in that 72-hole event after following an opening-round 68 with an ugly 79.
“Last year I got mad at myself because I wasn’t playing like I did in the first round,” Rah recalled. “I have to think of tomorrow as a completely different round and not think about what I did today.”
Harigae, a senior-to-be who has given an oral commitment to Duke, three-putted her last two holes after playing subpar golf most of the day.
“I like the speed of the greens, but the breaks – some of them I can’t read,” Harigae said.
Alexis Thompson would agree. Thompson, who Monday became the youngest (12) U.S. Women’s Open qualifier in history, shot a 5-over 75.
“You have to go by the mountains (to read the greens), and they’re fast,” Thompson said.
Also at 75 was 15-year-old Kimberly Kim, the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur Champion.
Footnotes
Kayley Kempton, a recent Heritage High School graduate bound for Louisiana State, led a trio of Coloradans with a 3-over-par 73. … Andrea Watts, the 2006 Class 4A medalist at Kent Denver, has given an oral commitment to play golf at the University of Florida, beginning with the 2008 fall semester. Watts transferred to the Pendleton School in Bradenton, Fla., for her final two years of high school so she could hone her golf game at the IMG-Leadbetter Academy. She opened with a 77. … Becca Huffer, a senior-to-be at Littleton High School and the 2006 Class 5A medalist, said she is considering Notre Dame, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Virginia and Northwestern. An excellent student, Huffer shot a 6-over-par 76. “A little bit of everything (went wrong),” she said.
Staff writer Tom Kenslercan be reached at 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
