Matchups Between 12 Year Olds, Sisters Won't Happen

Sunriver, Ore. — Any potential final between sisters — or 12 year olds — were doused on Thursday as the match-play portion of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links commenced.

Hana and Ina Kim, sisters separated by only one year, had hoped to meet up in the championship match since each was in a different half of the bracket. “I would love to play my sister,” said 18-year-old Ina, the younger of the two siblings from Los Angeles.

Ina certainly took care of her business, defeating Rachel Smith in the morning round, 2 and 1, and then blistering 17-year-old Laura Cross, the No. 8 seed, 6 and 5. Kim closed out the match with a birdie at the par-3 13th. Ina has good memories from Oregon, having reached the finals of the 2000 U.S. Girls’ Junior at Pumpking Ridge outside of Portland. In fact, Ina just finished her freshman year at Northwestern University prior to the start of the WAPL. “I was home for like three days,” said Ina. “I was pretty dead [from finals].”

Meanwhile, Hana, 19, needed 20 holes to close out Jennifer Johnson in the morning match. Hana entered match play as the No. 2 seed. But in the afternoon round-of-32 match against Jeanne Cho of France, Hana could not put her opponent away. She led by as many as three holes on the back nine, but was pushed to extra holes again when she failed to get up and down from behind the 18th green. At the 19th hole, Hana’s drive hit a tree on the left-hand side and her second shot went over the green. Again, she failed to get up and down for par, while Cho two-putted to take the match.

“I started to get a little tired around 14 or 15,” said Hana, who attended Northwestern with Ina this past year but has decided to transfer to UCLA to be closer to home and play in better weather conditions. “I tried to drink a lot of water. My adrenaline was going, so I didn’t want to put anything [in my stomach] that would make me jittery.”

While one 12 year old did advance to today’s third round (Michelle Wie), the other did not. Kim Rowton, a former American Junior Golf Association All-American and a current member of the Stanford University women’s team, halted Mina Harigae’s run with a 2-and-1 victory. Harigae captured the California Women’s Amateur last November. In her first WAPL, Harigae managed to defeat Leslie Green, 31, of The Woodlands, Texas, 3 and 2.

“That’s amazing,” said Green. “She’s a great player. Golf looks pretty easy when you hit it down the middle and on the green and putt well.”

Rowton and Harigae were all square heading to the par-3 16th, when Harigae found the front bunker with her 4-iron tee shot. She skulled her second over the green and made a five to Rowton’s two-putt par. At the par-5 17th, Harigae’s second shot landed in the rough just above the lip of the front bunker. She salvaged a five, but Rowton holed a 10-footer for birdie to close out the match.

Harigae played all day wearing a Duke hat, something that Rowton astutely noticed. “She lives in Monterey,” said Rowton. “We might be able to sell her [on Stanford]. I’ll get my coach started on her. We don’t want to lose anymore players to Duke.”

When asked about Harigae’s game at such a young age, Rowton added: “They are getting younger and younger, and better and better. It’s just amazing. I just wanted to beat her. Last year, one of my teammates (Hilary Homeyer) lost to [Wie] in the second round.”

Amanda Wilson, who at 14 seems almost over the hill when compared to Wie and Harigae, also advanced to the third round by beating Alexis Wooster. Should Wilson and Wie win their third-round matches, they would face each other in the quarterfinals. Both players are from Hawaii. Wilson finished second in the girl’s Hawaii high school finals this spring. Wie is still in junior high.

Wilson, new to match play, did not even know she had won her morning match over Heidi Chua of the Philippines. In fact, her caddie, Rich Taylor, informed Wilson that she had advanced and told her to go shake hands with Chua. Wilson participated in the 2000 U.S. Girls’ Junior at Pumpkin Ridge as a 12 year old, but failed to advance to match play.

“I’m a lot longer now,” she said. “That course [then] was too long for me.”

This story was written by David Shefter, associate editor of Golf Journal. E-mail him at dshefter@usga.org.