Lee wins AJGA tournament at Dalhousie

Alison Lee stood aside the 18th green at Dalhousie Golf Club on Friday afternoon answering questions about her one-stroke conquest of the 72-player field at the AJGA Rolex Girls Junior Championship.

The manner in which she clutched the silver plate in her arms against her upper body signified the importance of her third AJGA Invitational title and her first in the Rolex.

"It feels awesome. It does mean a lot because it's one of my last junior events," Lee said, pausing to gather herself. "This tournament means a lot."

The plate also had the appearance of a shield, which the battle-tested 18-year-old junior golfer could have used over the four rounds.

Lee entered the tournament ranked No. 1 in the Polo golf standings and fended her turf from atop the leaderboard throughout. She shared the lead after each of the first three rounds with three different players, took a golf ball off the arm from of one of those challengers in the third round, withstood a tournament-low, out-of-the-blue 7-under-par 65 by 15-year-old Abbey Carlson in the final round, and a last-gasp 10-foot birdie attempt by third-round co-leader Karen Chung on the 72nd hole.

She shot a final round 70 -- her fourth round at par or below -- to finish at 281, one shot ahead of Carlson and Chung, who had her third round of 71 and was under par in all four rounds.

It was the second time Chung finished second in a Rolex event at Dalhousie. She was runner-up to Victoria Tanco at the 2009 Rolex Tournament of Champions.

"Karen, she is one of my really good friends," Lee said. "It was a battle out there. We were going back and forth."

Lee and Chung entered the final round tied at 5-under-par, two shots clear of 15-year-old Hawaiian Allisen Corpuz and dressed for occasion, looking like two rivals headed into the ring.

Chung, the No. 3 ranked player in the Polo standings and headed for USC this school year to play golf, arrived to the practice range in her future school colors, wearing a red Polo top and yellow skirt. A boxing glove cover head on her driver completed her ensemble.

"We completely did not have this planned out," Chung said. "Then we saw each other on the driving range this morning. ... It just made it more interesting."

Lee wore the colors of UCLA, a light-blue skirt and blue and white top.

"I didn't really think about it, but I was saving this for the last day," Lee said. "And it was so cute how she was dressed for USC, too. It made it really cool today for her to dress like that."

Cute?

Ding. Ding.

Chung, also an 18-year-old in search of her first Rolex title, moved into the lead with a birdie on the par-4 4th hole and held it through No. 6. Lee leap-frogged into the lead and never trailed again with a two-stroke swing on No. 7, a hole in which Corpuz accidentally hit her with a shot a day earlier.

Lee sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the hole, while Chung failed to make up-and-down and bogeyed.

Chung answered with about an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-3 8th to pull even at 5-under for the tournament. Corpuz remained two shots behind, putting the trio in the same position as at the start of the day.

Lee took a one-shot lead into the back nine by sinking a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 9, and it was toe-to-toe from there.

The threesome carded only one bogey over the final nine holes, and that belonged to Lee when she failed to make up-and-down from a sand bunker on the par-4 12th. The bogey again gave Chung a share of the lead at 5-under.

The threesome went from tournament to exhibition play on the next hole, the par-3, 145-yard No. 13. All three made birdie, with Lee having to sink the longest of the three putts -- a 6-footer -- to move to 1-under for the day and 6-under for the tournament.

"That was the peak of the whole thing," Chung said, the first of the three to hit. "We all just stuck it, so that was a great hole for all three of us."

"[Chung] stuck it, so I knew for sure she was going to make birdie, so I had to do something," Lee said. "There were a lot of holes like that. I knew I had to do something."

Lee continued the sizzling iron play on the next hole, the par-4 14th, placing her approach from 86 yards inside of 2 feet to move to 7-under, a shot ahead of Chung and three ahead of Corpuz.

"When I stuck it and got the birdie, that just brought all confidence into me," said Lee, who said she was between clubs and opted for a 58-degree wedge due to her adrenaline.

Lee's unblinking style did not surprise Chung.

"That was expected," Chung said. "We've been playing together for a while, now. She was playing really well today."

Drama accompanied adrenaline over the final three holes, which were parred by all three players.

Lee left the door open on the par-4 17th -- the most difficult hole in Friday's round with a 4.429 stroke average -- when her approach landed on the front edge of the green about 25 yards short of the pin. Chung followed and pulled her approach, hitting the slope just left of the green and nearly going into the deep grass of the nearby hazard.

"That was definitely a chance given to me, but I took it the wrong way," Chung said. "It went way left and missed the green completely."

Lee was the first to play and rolled a wedge shot up the tiered green to within a foot of the hole.

"It was uphill and broke right to left, and I hit a 50-degree [wedge] and rolled it right there," Lee said. "It turned out a lot better than I thought. Hole No. 14 and that chip, I think those were the highlights."

Chung answered with a soft pitch from the deep rough to the slick surface above her, leaving a 3-foot putt for par.

"The chip shot ... that was probably the best chip shot I hit all week," Chung said.

Both players reached the par-5 18th green in three shots, but not before noticing the nearby electronic leaderboard.

It flashed the news of a newcomer, showing Carlson at 6-under -- tied with Chung and a shot behind Lee.

"We were talking about Abby when we saw she shot 7-under," Lee said. "We were like, 'Wow, oh my gosh.' And Karen was like freaking out because [Abby] was tied with her. She was like, 'I have to make birdie.' And I was like, 'You go girl, you make birdie.' And she told me, too, 'Alison, you make birdie, too.'

"We're really good friends. She supports me and I support her."

Lee had a 12-foot birdie putt to win outright, but missed to leave Chung with a chance to tie.

Chung's birdie attempt from 10 feet slid just past the right edge of the cup.

"It was heartbreaking, I thought that went in," Chung said. "Most of the way I thought it was good until it slid off to the right right at the end. That hurt."

Victory belonged to Lee, who tapped in her short putt.

"It was a battle out there from beginning to end," Lee said. "Karen just missed the hole by a hair on the last hole. I was so nervous, I didn't want to look at the putt. I had to turn around and look away. When I saw her miss it, it kind of broke my heart, too. I really wanted her to make it."

Chung finished tied with Carlson, who started the day in sixth place, six shots off the lead.

Carlson had set a goal of 66 despite never having shot better than 68 in a tournament.

"I don't think it's quite hit me yet that I just shot a 65, but it felt amazing, the whole round," Carlson said.

Corpuz, who shot 71, finished fourth at 284. She opened her round with two birdies and was tied with Lee after six holes -- one shot behind Chung at the time. She missed two 5-foot birdie putts on the back nine.

"They were both solid putts, I guess I just misread them," Corpuz said.

Her solid driving and crisp iron play had Lee's attention.

"It made me a little nervous in the middle of the round because she was playing really well," Lee said.

Corpuz finished second in her first AJGA tournament of the year last week in Arizona.

She's also turning into one of the hot future recruits. She was well on the radar screen of college coaches in attendance.

"If she wasn't, she is now," said one major college coach watching Friday's round.

Corpuz, on a two-month trip to the mainland with her father, Marcos, gained some valuable experience at Dalhousie playing with Lee and Chung in the final round.

"They just always look so calm," Corpuz. "Like when they make a mistake, they recover. Like 17, they both made amazing up and downs. I was really impressed by that."