As a Pepperdine freshman, Somin Lee was not pleased with her effort last week at the NCAA golf championship. But the former Overland High School standout is bent on making amends at the HealthONE Colorado Women’s Open.
She’s off to a terrific start.
Facing windy, difficult conditions while playing in the afternoon wave, Lee fired a 3-under-par 69 on Wednesday at Green Valley Ranch and matched 2011 runner-up, professional Joy Trotter of Chino Hills, Calif., atop the leaderboard. Trotter also played in the afternoon.
Lee earned low-amateur honors at last year’s Colorado Women’s Open with a tie for sixth place and aims higher this time, bidding to become only the second amateur to win the 18-year-old event, along with 2006 champion Paige MacKenzie.
“(The pros) are golf players, and I’m a golf player,” Lee said. “It’s good to play against them and one day be one of them.”
Lee recorded three consecutive birdies to begin her back nine. On the par-4 10th, she rifled a 200-yard hybrid shot to within 2 inches of the cup. She rolled in birdie putts on Nos. 11 and 12 after knocking pitching-wedge approaches to within 10 to 12 feet. She would have scored lower but missed two other makable birdie opportunities coming in and settled for a three-putt bogey on the par-5 18th.
“The ball was wobbling (in the wind) and I rushed it,” Lee said of putting the finishing hole.
Lee finished her first NCAA championship in a tie for 77th place at 16-over-par 304.
“I was disappointed in my results, but I learned a lot,” Lee said.
It shows.
Legends tour veteran struggles.The biggest name in this year’s Open, former LPGA Tour player Cindy Figg-Currier, stood 5-over after her first six holes before settling down to finish with a 76. Figg-Currier, 52, won an LPGA Tour event in 1997 and now plays most of her golf on the Legends Tour — the women’s senior tour. She has three career victories on the Legends Tour, which is largely unknown to most golf fans because events are not televised.
Obtaining TV exposure will be critical to the success of the Legends Tour, Figg-Currier said, but she is encouraged by its growth. There are nine tour stops this year, compared with five in 2011.
“We’re moving forward,” Figg-Currier said.
A Michigan native who played golf at Texas and remained in Austin, Figg-Currier said she would be thrilled to see the Front Range land a Legends Tour event (or even an LPGA Tour stop). She acknowledged, however, that any progress in that effort likely will be delayed until after the 2013 Solheim Cup matches at Colorado Golf Club.
New Hall of Famer. Hollis Stacy, a three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion and holder of 18 LPGA Tour titles, splits her time between residences in Lakewood and Bradenton, Fla. She arrived in Colorado after the cross-country drive on Monday — three weeks after her induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fla.
“I was humbled, shocked, flabbergasted,” Stacy said of becoming a Hall of Famer.
Also enshrined were Phil Mickelson and Sandy Lyle, author Dan Jenkins and broadcaster Peter Alliss.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
