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Jennifer Song Owns 2-Up Lead At Midway Point Of WAPL Final
Erin, Wis. – Jennifer Song of Korea will take a 2-up lead over Tiffany Joh into the afternoon session of Saturday’s 36-hole championship match at the 2008 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship, being played at the 6,158-yard, par-73 Erin Hills Golf Course.
The 18-year-old Song, an incoming freshman at the University of Southern California who was the co-low amateur at the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles, played steady golf and capitalized on mistakes by Joh to win several holes.
Joh, 21, of San Diego, Calif., and a senior-to-be at rival UCLA, is trying to become the fifth multiple winner of this championship, following Kelly Fuiks, Lori Castillo, Pearl Sinn and Jo Jo Robertson. The first four won back-to-back titles, while Robertson won it in 1995 and ’97. Joh won this championship in 2006 at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo, Colo., defeating Kimberly Kim of Hilo, Hawaii. Kim later won the U.S. Women’s Amateur that summer.
“I played OK,” said Joh. “I have to stop three-putting. I left a lot of strokes out there.”
Song never trailed the entire morning 18, grabbing a 1-up lead at the first hole with a par. Joh, a member of the victorious 2008 USA Curtis Cup team and the runner-up at the NCAA Division I Women’s Championship last month, responded with a winning birdie at the second. Song built a 2-up lead through seven holes, only to have Joh stick a wedge approach from 70 yards to 4 feet for a winning birdie at the eighth. Song regained the 2-up advantage with a two-putt par at the ninth after Joh failed to get up and down for par from a greenside bunker.
Joh birdied the 10 th to get one hole back and then squared the match with a winning par at No. 13. Two holes later, Song, who has qualified for next week’s U.S. Women’s Open at Interlachen Country Club outside of Minneapolis, registered a winning par and got another winning par at the par-4 17th.
With the usual match-play concessions, Song shot the equivalent of 1-over 74, while Joh had a 75.
The afternoon 18 is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. CDT.
Story written by USGA New Media staff writer David Shefter. E-mail him with questions or comments at dshefter@usga.org.
| Championship Facts |
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Women's Amateur Public Links PAR AND YARDAGE Erin Hills Golf Course will play at 6,178 yards and a par of 36-3773. COURSE SET-UP The championship setup will result in a USGA Course Rating® of 75.8 and a Slope Rating® of 130. Teeing ground Height of grass .45 of an inch SCHEDULE OF PLAY Monday and Tuesday, June 16-17 Qualifying, 18 holes, stroke play (field of 156 reduced to the lowest 64 players, who advance to match play). ADMISSION Admission is free. Tickets are not needed for this USGA championship, and spectators are encouraged to attend. ARCHITECTS Ron Whitten, Michael Hurdzon and Dana Fry collaborated to design Erin Hills Golf Course, which opened in 2006. ABOUT ERIN HILLS Robert Lang purchased the property in 1999 and a year later, he invited Whitten, Hurdzon and Fry out to look at the landscape with the hope of building a golf course. The natural setting proved to be perfect for a championship layout. Construction began in September 2004 and completed in 2006. The course had such potential that the USGA awarded the 2008 U.S. Womens Amateur Public Links Championship before it opened to the public. This past February, the USGA awarded Erin Hills a second championship, the 2011 U.S. Amateur.
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