State golfer takes a liking to Dalhousie

The lone Missourian in the AJGA Rolex Girls Junior Championship is no stranger to Dalhousie Golf Club.

Amanda Kim had quite a bit of success at the course this past fall, winning the Missouri Class 2 individual state championship as a sophomore at Fort Zumwalt South High School.

That experience helped her gain an invitation from Dalhousie to join the 72-player field that features the top junior players from the United States and nine other countries, as well as Puerto Rico.

Kim had rounds of 73 and 80 last fall as her 153 total secured the state title by two strokes.

Kim, who lives in O'Fallon, Mo., and stays with her parents in an RV park about 20 minutes from the course, is just five strokes above that total after two rounds of the elite AJGA event, but she finds herself tied for 53rd.

She shot 76 on Wednesday, a six-shot improvement over Tuesday's first round.

"It was little more like I usually do," Kim said about her second round.

Kim was paired with Kana Nagai of Japan and Maria Fassi of Argentina in each of the first two rounds.

Kim, a native Missourian whose parents are from Korea, speaks Korean, and she just happens to speak a little Japanese and Spanish, too.

However, she said both Nagai and Fassi spoke English pretty well, so she passed for the most part on putting her Spanish and Japanese to the test.

"I was afraid I might say the wrong thing," Kim said.

As for the golf, it's been a learning experience for the Missouri state champion. She's played in AJGA in the past, but is playing in her first event reserved for the top-ranked players in the organization.

"It's a good experience for me, because I can see where I am against some of the best players and what I need to improve," Kim said.

Pulling an ace

Karen Chung had an ace on the 162-yard fifth hole on Wednesday. (Amanda Herrington ~ Special to the Missourian)

Dalhousie worked its way a little deeper into the heart of Karen Chung, who is playing her final year of junior golf before heading to USC in the fall.

Chung placed second at the Rolex Tournament of Champions at Dalhousie in 2009, and she was eager to return for this year's event.

The course did little to dampen Chung's affection, yielding her fourth career hole-in-one and her first in tournament play Wednesday.

"It's one of the courses I get really lucky on," Chung said. "I love this golf course. It's so nice to play."

Chung aced the 162-yard No. 5 hole with a 7-iron, but she didn't see it go in.

"I just hit it and it looked pretty good, and I was like, 'Oh, that should be on the green,' and then I heard people going crazy, so I was like, 'Did that go in?'"

Among the gallery that provided the feedback was Chung's mother, Ivy.

"My mom didn't even know that was mine. She thought it was another girl's," Chung said. "She was like, 'Good job, Bethany [Wu].' I was like, 'Thanks Mom.'"

Chung's junior golf career has taken her around the country, and she said certain courses stand out from the rest.

"This is definitely one of them," Chung said. "It's going to stick with me forever."

The bigger picture

Chung's hole-in-one was the lone eagle by the field through the first two days of competition.

The second round yielded 168 birdies, while 280 bogeys were encountered along with 70 dreaded "others."

The par-4 17th, the second-hardest hole according to the course handicaps, played the toughest with an average stroke total of 4.528. The 385-yard hole surrendered just five birdies, while causing 27 bogeys and eight "others." The hole was the second hardest in the first round. It's 4.500 average was surpassed only the par-5 seventh, which played at 5.514.

On the other end, No. 13, a 145-yard par-3, played the easiest at 2.944 in the second round. The field made 17 birdies at the hole, 11 bogeys and one "other." The par-4 No. 6 played the easiest in the first round at 3.917.

The field fared better overall in the second round, averaging 75.806 strokes per round despite just 10 players shooting at par or below. Seventeen players were at par or below in the first round despite a scoring average of 77.0 for the field.