Defending Champion Park and Wuesthoff Meet in Girls’ Junior Final

 

Fairfield, Conn. – Defending champion In- Bee Park, 15, of Eustis, Fla., will meet Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff, 16, of Toms River, N.J., in the final of the 2003 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship. Park beat Paula Creamer, 16, of Pleasanton, Calif., 3 and 2, in her quest to become only the third player in history to repeat as Girls’ Junior champion. Wuesthoff ended the hopes of 13-year-old Mina Harigae of Monterey, Calif., when she sunk a 6-foot par-saving putt on the 18th hole to win 2 up at the 6,303-yard, par-71 Brooklawn Country Club.

 

Only two players in the history of the U.S. Girls' Junior Championship have defended their title. In-Bee Park could be the third if she beats fellow Korean Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff in the final on Saturday. (Steve Gibbons/USGA)

Park, the two-time medalist, once gain displayed the consistency and form that made her the second youngest champion in Girls’ Junior history last year at Echo Lake Country Club in Westfield, N.J. She amassed five birdies and two bogeys to Creamer’s two birdies and three bogeys and held as much as a 4-up lead over Creamer, who competed in the 2003 U.S. Women’s Open.

 

Park and Creamer traded blows early with five birdies coming in the first seven holes, but the decisive moment of the match came on the 12th green when Creamer incurred a penalty stroke for causing her ball to move after addressing it. Her putt for par suddenly became bogey and Park took a 2-up lead with six holes to play. A quick birdie three for Park at the 353-yard 13 th and a missed par-putt by Creamer from six feet on 14 gave Park a 4-up advantage with four to play. Park lost the 128-yard 15 th after hitting her tee shot into a greenside bunker, and made bogey to Creamer’s par.

 

The match ended on the 320-yard 16th. Both players hit their drives into the fairway, with Creamer knocking a wedge to 20 feet. Park missed her approach from inside 100 yards long and right, stopping it just on the fringe at the back of the green, and when Creamer failed to convert her birdie putt, Park had two putts to hole a diabolical 12-foot downhill for the win. After she mis-hit her first putt, leaving it on top of a shelf only about a foot away, Park had the remaining distance to eliminate the number four seed in the championship. She holed it decisively.

 

“I am very competitive; I love to win,” said the Korean-born Park, through her coach Charlie Yoo. “Tiger Woods plays to win and I have the same kind of attitude. Every time I go out to play I want to win.”

 

Yoo said Park is an accomplished pianist in addition to being a top golfer and believes the experience helps her with her game.

“She played piano at the competition level and she had to perform for a lot of people; I think that kind of helped her taking pressure,” said Yoo. “When she was seven or eight she had to play for a lot of people and it’s good that she did that when she was young. It exposed her to a lot of people, which she is going to have to do here. That kind of helps.”

 

Wuesthoff, who was also born in Korea and has been legally adopted by her aunt and uncle, who live in the United States, is playing in her fifth Girls’ Junior. Making the final marks the furthest she has ever advanced in the championship.

 

Her match with Harigae, the reigning two-time California State Women’s Amateur champion, was more of a war of attrition than the birdie-fest between Park and Creamer. Wuesthoff made six bogeys and a lone birdie at the 161-yard fifth to Harigae’s six bogeys and one double bogey on the day. After bogeys at the first and third, Wuesthoff found herself down two holes very early in the match.

 

“I was frustrated being down two,” said Wuesthoff. “My putting wasn’t working at first, but I had confidence in my iron shots.”

 

Wuesthoff hung steady throughout the rest of the match, taking advantage of Harigae’s miscues, and relying heavily on the local knowledge provided by her caddie, Gregor Steger, a 29-year veteran of Brooklawn’s caddie ranks.

 

Steger said of Wuesthoff and her play, “At first I was just her caddie, but after this, now we’re family.”

 

Wuesthoff ended Harigae’s championship hopes by making a scrambling par on the last hole, in a fashion typical of her play on the day. She hit her tee shot on the 395-yard 18th into the trees left of the fairway. After punching a shot low, under the limbs, to the front of the green, Wuesthoff chipped to within six feet and drained the slippery downhill putt to shut the door on the match. Afterwards, Wuesthoff could barely contain her excitement about playing in the final of the Girls’ Junior and facing Park.

 

“I played with In-Bee before. She’s a great player,” said Wuesthoff. “She hits the ball straight every time and she has a great short game. Tomorrow I’m just going to play my game, not her.”

 

By reaching the final of the U.S. Girls’ Junior, both Park and Wuesthoff earned exemptions into the U.S. Women’s Amateur, being held August 4-10 at Philadelphia Country Club in Gladwyne, Pa.

 

The U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship is one of 13 championships conducted annually by the United States Golf Association, 10 of which are strictly for amateurs. The U.S. Girls’ Junior is open to female amateur golfers who have not reached their 18 th birthday prior to the end of the championship and have a USGA Handicap Index of 18.4 or better.

 

 

Fairfield, Conn. – Results of today’s semifinal round of match play from the 2003 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the 6,303-yard, par-71 Brooklawn Country Club:

  

In-Bee Park, Eustis, Fla. (140) def. Paula Creamer, Pleasanton, Calif. (142), 3 and 2

Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff, Toms River, N.J. (141) def. Mina Harigae, Monterey, Calif. (148), 2 up

 

 

Fairfield, Conn. – Pairings for Saturday’s 18-hole final at the 2003 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, played at the 6,303-yard, par-71 Brooklawn Country Club (all times are Eastern):

 

9:00 am In-Bee Park, Eustis, Fla. (140) vs. Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff, Toms River, N.J. (141)