Evergreen – Young Soo Kim, father of 15-year-old golf star Kimberly Kim, tried to remain polite but hoped to sidestep what he knew would be the next question.
Will Kim Kim, as almost everyone calls her, follow the lead of Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel and others and turn professional without playing college golf?
“A lot can happen in two years,” the proud father said. “We decided not to say anything.”
The fact the Kims are staying mum speaks volumes. Although Kim Kim has yet to enter her junior year of high school, wears braces and was among the youngest entrants in the Rolex Girls Junior Championship at Hiwan Golf Club last week, she already has shown the ability to compete with the women’s golf elite.
“A lot of the girls out here played junior golf with the Paula Creamers and Morgan Pressels, and they think they can do the same things on the LPGA Tour without college,” said Rob Coleman, the AJGA’s chief communications officer.
Kim shot 73-76 at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship last week in Havre de Grace, Md., missing the cut by two strokes. The only amateur in the field, Kim hit 22 fairways and 24 greens but couldn’t figure out the greens (66 putts). The 5-foot-4 Kim lacks the towering stature of Wie, a fellow Hawaiian. But Bulle Rock’s 6,596-yard length proved to be no problem for Kim. Her average driving distance for the tournament was 264 yards. That average would rank 11th on the LPGA Tour for 2007.
Going with the flow
A year ago, Kim became the youngest player to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur. The sky’s the limit. But will it include a higher education?
Six of the top 15 money winners on the 2007 LPGA Tour did not play college golf.
Less than two years ago, Pressel was named 2005 AJGA player of the year. Angela Park, who is 14th on the LPGA money list, earned AJGA All-America honors in 2004 and 2005.
Wie qualified for an LPGA event at age 12 and annually plays in several majors and other men’s and women’s events. She is not eligible for full-time status on the LPGA Tour until she turns 18, although she turned pro Oct. 5, 2005 – six days before her 16th birthday. The LPGA will grant special permission to apply for membership to those 15 to 18 who show ability and financial responsibilities.
Wie has announced plans to attend Stanford but won’t be eligible to play golf for the Cardinal, having already banked a Nike endorsement contract believed to be worth about $5 million.
“It’s definitely becoming a trend for top players to skip college,” said Donnie Darr, an assistant for the Oklahoma State men’s and women’s golf teams. “I think it’s a shame. Those kids are missing a great part of their life with the college experience and the team experience.”
Girls have an advantage
Darr and other college recruiters scouting the field at Hiwan can’t be certain if they’re wasting time on some prospects. Esther Choe, a recent high school graduate from Scottsdale, Ariz., tops the AJGA points list but announced two weeks ago she plans to enter the LPGA qualifying tournament this fall rather than accept a scholarship offer from the University of Arizona.
Choe earned 2006 AJGA girls player of the year honors. Another Scottsdale resident, Philip Francis, was named 2006 AJGA boys player of the year. Francis will play golf at UCLA this fall and has said he never gave much consideration to the thought of turning pro this soon.
“Girls mature at a faster rate than boys do, so from a physical standpoint they’re closer to the level of the LPGA Tour,” Darr said. “If you take the best girl here, there is a significantly smaller gap with LPGA players than if you go to the (AJGA’s) Footjoy Boys Championship and compare them to the PGA Tour players. That’s a much bigger jump.
“There’s a bigger opportunity for the girls to jump. The problem is, the money is not the same. You’d better not even think about going pro unless you’re pretty sure your game is good enough to finish in the top 30 of the women’s tour.”
Placing 30th on the 2006 LPGA Tour was worth $392,847. On the men’s side, the PGA Tour’s 100th-place finisher earned $879,965 and everybody in the top 93 banked at least $1 million. No. 100 on the LPGA’s money list last year earned just $74,260.
And, save for Wie, there aren’t many lucrative endorsement opportunities for female players.
“If you’re at the top and you’re blowing everybody away, obviously you have a better chance of going pro early and making it,” said Vicki Hurst, a senior-to-be from Melbourne, Fla., who ranks No. 2 behind Choe on the AJGA points list. Hurst said she will weigh her scholarship offers before deciding whether to go pro or play college golf.
“But when I see Morgan Pressel and Paula Creamer, they’re way better now than when they played junior golf,” she said.
Mina Harigae of Monterey, Calif., fourth in AJGA points, said she considered turning pro early but decided instead to give an oral commitment to Duke, the reigning women’s national champion.
“I realize that I’m not mentally or socially mature enough,” Harigae said. “I want a chance to grow up and have fun in college.”
School of hard knocks
For a teen, life on a professional golf tour can be lonely, if not frightening. Ohio State coach Therese Hession played 12 years on the LPGA Tour.
“If you get out there and don’t do well, it will destroy your confidence,” Hession said. “And other players don’t care if you don’t do well. As a matter of fact, they’re happy you’re not because that’s just more money for everybody else. It’s not all chummy-chummy.
“If you don’t have a good support system and can’t let a bad week roll off your back, you’ll drop back to the Futures Tour before long.”
Staff writer Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
Degree needed for big bucks
Six of the top 15 on the LPGA Tour money list did not play college golf:
Player Rank Earnings
Suzann Pettersen (left) 2 $1,023,133 Paula Creamer 3 $668,974
Brittany Lincicome 5 $653,389
Morgan Pressel 7 $556,857
Karrie Webb 11 $401,790
Angela Park 14 $358,764
