Lee hopes local course yields her first AJGA victory

Andrea Lee appeared four years ago in the "Faces in the Crowd" page in Sports Illustrated after winning the San Diego Junior Championship, where she highlighted her victory with her first hole-in-one.

She eliminated now professional Moriya Jutanugam of Thailand in a match-play event a couple years back.

She earned medalist honors at a U.S. Women's Amateur qualifying event last year and later qualified for match play through the stroke-play portion of the tournament. She then ousted friend and current top-ranked AJGA player Alison Lee, an 18-year-old who will play next year at UCLA, in her first-round match.

Not a bad list of accomplishments for anyone. Then consider the fact she's a braces-wearing 14-year-old who will begin her sophomore year at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, Calif., in the fall.

However, the highest-ranked player for her age in the Polo rankings would like to add a first to her growing resume this week at the AJGA Rolex Girls Junior Championship at Dalhousie Golf Club.

"To win this tournament would be amazing," said Lee, one of 72 invited players to the four-day tournament and one who has yet to win an AJGA event of any kind.

Despite that hole in the resume, the native Californian of South Korean ancestry has found success after trading in figure skates for golf clubs early on.

"My dad just wanted me to try something new," said Lee, recalling her switch in sports at age 5. "He got me into golf and I went to the range with him. I quit skating and I just wanted to do golf from then."

As far as her skating ability, Lee addresses it with a laugh.

"I was OK," she said. "I wanted to be like Michelle Kwan, but I thought golf was better for me."

Bob Neff helps search for a lost ball during the AJGA pro-am round Monday, June 10, 2013 at Dalhousie Golf Club. (Fred Lynch)

She took golf lessons from the start, and began playing competitively at age 8.

She's since turned into one of the top players for her age around the world and is pursuing a dream that drives her every day. She's the top-ranked 14-year-old in the AJGA Polo standings, ranking 14th among players in the organization that is made up of youths age 12 to 18.

"I wanted to be a professional since I started," Lee said. "I just wanted to golf the rest of my life because it's something I really enjoyed."

She's not done much to make people around her think she made a bad decision giving up skating.

Lee is currently in the mix for a spot on the U.S. Ping Junior Solheim Cup team, a 12-member squad that will play against a European squad in Colorado later this year. Tournaments like this week's event help determine the rankings that will decide team members.

Kelli Holloway, who is with the AJGA's player servicing department and a co-captain for the U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team, helped coach the East squad in last year's Wyndham Cup, which annually pits 20 of the nation's top youth players from the East against the West in match play.

Lee impressed Holloway during that competition.

"She's just kind of a clutch player," Holloway said. "She can make putts. It seems like when we were out there playing, East against West, she really made the putts and made the shots she had to when it mattered. That speaks well. Not everybody has that characteristic that they can close. It really seems like she has those skills.

Harry Rediger watches his drive from the 16th tee box during the AJGA pro-am round Monday, June 10, 2013 at Dalhousie Golf Club. (Fred Lynch)

"And as young as she is, she only has the potential to get better."

Her parents, Sunny and James, were the first to witness the competitiveness in their daughter, and they didn't have to wait long.

John Abercrombie hits out of the bunker to the ninth green during the AJGA pro-am round Monday, June 10, 2013 at Dalhousie Golf Club. (Fred Lynch)

"We just realized what a competitor she is, and we saw that in her when she was 5, when she first started golfing," said Sunny, who usually accompanies her daughter as she plays around the country and was watching her during Monday's practice round. "We were in the desert in Palm Springs. It was about 110, 115 degrees out there and she didn't want to come in. She wanted to finish all 18 holes."

There also was eye-hand coordination to go with that spirit.

Lee began competing at age 8 in the Southern California Junior Golf Association, which led to her winning the San Diego Junior Tournament at age 10 against older competition and earning a spot in Sports Illustrated.

"That was very neat," Sunny said. "I like wanted to buy all the magazines and save them and give them out to all our relatives and friends. Stuff like that, that makes them become more motivated."

She's continued to excel despite an obvious distraction.

She trains about 20 hours a week during the school year and largely tunes out the Pacific Ocean, about a 10-minute walk from her house in Hermona Beach, Calif., which is about 30 miles south of Los Angeles.

"I hardly ever go to the beach," Lee said. "I go maybe two, three times a year. I have to keep practicing. I feel like if I go to the beach, I'm being like ... lazy."

AJGA junior golfer Karen Chung hits a fairway shot to the 16th green during the AJGA pro-am round Monday, June 10, 2013 at Dalhousie Golf Club. (Fred Lynch)

Lee apparently is a golfer to the core, making the beach sound more like a sand bunker that merely gets in the way.

"Other parts of Southern California have a lot of golf courses, but where I live is right next to the beach so there are not a lot of golf courses," said Lee, who must drive over an hour to a "good facility."

"I love where I live," she said. "It's hard, but that's OK."

TOP: Harriette Myers hits a fairway shot to the 15th green as Barbara Vincent, left, and Alice Temm watch during the AJGA pro-am round Monday at Dalhousie Golf Club. ABOVE LEFT: AJGA junior golfer Lakareber Abe watches her approach to the third green. ABOVE RIGHT: Harry Rediger views his drive from the 16th tee box. (Fred Lynch)

Despite her Asian heritage -- her parents moved to the United States from South Korea when they were youngsters -- she does not wish to become the next Se Ri Pak, Grace Park or Inbee Park, some of the South Koreans who have taken the LPGA Tour by storm over the past 15 years. The nation has produced eight LPGA Tour rookies of the year since 1998.

She wouldn't mind rubbing shoulders with that group at work one day, but her golf model is on the men's side, somewhat a by-product from many hours spent watching golf with her father.

"It's always been Tiger Woods," Lee said. "I love LPGA, too, but I think men's golf is more competitive and they have to play a lot better. ... Tiger Woods has always been my inspiration."

And like most of the players in this week's field, she is willing to travel the country this summer to pursue a dream of one day playing professionally.

She plans to play in the Tournament of Champions in Lancaster, Pa., in two weeks, and will double up by playing in a U.S. Women's Amateur qualifier that week. The Canadian Women's Amateur in Quebec is also on the docket, among others, and she also hopes to qualify for the Junior Solheim Cup.

"At school people don't really know she's a golfer," Sunny said. "They don't know where she is. They know she's a golfer, maybe plays on her high school team, but they have no idea where she is, and she doesn't really talk about it. As a proud mom sometimes I'll kind of talk about it and she gets kind of embarrassed."

Well, this week Andrea Lee can tell her California classmates she was at Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau.

Chances are, they still probably won't have any idea where she was.