Hard Work Pays Dividends For Wuesthoff

Hours On Range – Even In Winter – Key To Girls’ Junior Title

 

By David Shefter, USGA

Fairfield, Conn. – Whether it’s sizzling hot or frigid, Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff can usually be found at the practice range at Woodlake Country Club in Lakewood, N.J. Living in the northeastern part of the country means that her actual golf season might only last six months, while juniors in warmer climates have the luxury of playing and practicing throughout the year.

 

Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff follows her tee shot during the championship match. (Steve Gibbons/USGA)

Korean-born In-Bee Park lives in Eustis, Fla., near Orlando . Semifinalists Paula Creamer and Mina Harigae are both from northern California . And the four other quarterfinalists were from Chinese Taipei (Hsiao-Ching Lu), Paraguay by way of the Bradenton (Fla.) Academy (Julieta Granada), Boca Raton, Fla. (Morgan Pressel) and La Quinta, Calif. (Esther Choe). And seven of the eight third-round victims also are from warm-weather locales, with the other from Kentucky (Whitney Wade) where the winters are generally not as harsh.

 

“You’ll see her out there well into the fall and on some nice days in the winter,” said Rick Wortman, Wuesthoff’s coach at Toms River (N.J.) North High School. “She’ll be putting, she’ll be working on her short game. She is just relentless. It’s something every junior golfer should emulate.”

 

It’s one reason why Wuesthoff emigrated to the U.S. four years ago. Because the game is so expensive in Korea, Wuesthoff decided that the best way to improve her skills as a golfer would be to live permanently in America. Her aunt, Sukhee Wuesthoff, married a U.S. serviceman and moved from Korea to Toms River. So in order to make things legal for the U.S. government, Sukhee adopted Sukjin-Lee and is now her legal guardian.

 

Sukjin-Lee’s father was in attendance at the U.S. Girls’ Junior this week at Brooklawn Country Club, but her mother followed the action via the Internet in Korea.

 

“I just can’t believe that she did it,” said Sukhee Wuesthoff after Sukjin-Lee’s dramatic comeback from a 5-hole deficit to beat defending champion and stroke-play medalist In-Bee Park in the championship match, 1 up. “I know we will be calling (her mom).”

 

It is Sukhee Wuesthoff who follows Sukjin-Lee on the summer junior circuit. Before school begins, Wuesthoff still has to play the Betsy Rawls McDonald ’s invitational next week in Wilmington, Del., the Canon Cup and the Big I tournament at Old York Country Club in New Jersey. Earlier this summer, she Monday qualified for the LPGA Tour’s Shoprite Classic in Atlantic City, N.J., but did not make the 36-hole cut.

 

The shy 16-year-old said that the experience at the Shoprite taught her to be patient and how to bounce back from adversity. Nowhere was that demonstrated than the final against Park, as Wuesthoff shook off early jitters to pull off the greatest comeback in Girls’ Junior championship-match history.

 

“We finally got in a groove on the 10th or 11th hole,” said Gregor Steger, Wuesthoff’s caddie who has “looped” at Brooklawn C.C. for 29 years. “She wasn’t expecting to go this far and I knew it from the beginning. Every day her father just kept pushing me along.”

 

Added Wortman, who has seen Wuesthoff capture the New Jersey High School Girls’ Championship in each of her first two seasons at Toms River North: “I’ll tell you what kind of perfectionist she is. She’ll shoot 35 or 36 in practice rounds for nine holes and say she played bad. And most of the kids on my team would give anything for a score like that … She was ready to pounce when she saw that In-Bee had faltered. And that’s a good match-play player who can do that. She hung in there. She did a great job of taking advantage of the mistakes that In-Bee made.” 

 

Caddie’s Day

 

Veteran Brooklawn caddie Gregor Steger (above) and Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff made a great team, especially on the greens where Steger's 29-year experience at the club helped tremendously. (Steve Gibbons/USGA)

The player assignments for the local caddies who signed up to work the championship were done randomly by a draw. It just so happened that Steger, who works in an industrial supply house in nearby Bridgeport during the week, and Jim O’Brien, a member’s son who has caddied at the club for six years, wound up with the two finalists.

 

O’Brien did have previous experience working the pro-am events at the Big Apple JAL LPGA tournament in New Rochelle, N.Y., and the Senior Tour’s NFL Cadillac Classic in New Jersey . But this was the first time he ever had caddied in a national championship.

 

“It had a different feel,” said O’Brien, who was Park’s caddie. “It was a little bit more (intense).”

 

O’Brien almost did not sign up to work. His family was headed for a vacation up in Martha ’s Vinyard in Massachusetts, so he had a choice of relaxing for a week or lugging a bag. Jack Page, the caddie chairman, convinced O’Brien to stay home and work.

 

Not only did he wind up with the defending champion, but In-Bee Park also advanced to the championship match again before dropping a 1-up decision to Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff.

 

“We had a pretty good week,” said O’Brien. “She’s a great player. She kind of struggled a bit today. I think this might have been the only round she was over par the entire (championship).”

 

O’Brien used his knowledge to give Park advice on yardages and

Jim O'Brien (left), a son of a Brooklawn member who has caddied at the club for six years, offers some advice to In-Bee Park in the championship match. (Steve Gibbons/USGA)

the greens. He also said players who used local caddies had a distinct advantage on this A.W. Tillinghast layout over those who brought their own or used a sibling. Parents are prohibited, by a special condition for the championship, to caddied.

 

“(Outside) caddies who come here don’t know certain spots to hit it and the way certain putts break,” said O’Brien, “so I think it’s definitely an advantage.”

 

Gregor Steger, who landed Wuesthoff, missed out on the opportunity to work the last time the USGA came to Brooklawn (1987 Senior Open). He had injured his knee in a skiing accident so the surgery sidelined him from that championship. In 1979 for the Women’s Open, the caddie master at the time thought he was too young (15). Ditto for the 1974 Junior Amateur that was held at the club.

 

“There’s many secrets to this golf course and the local caddies know them,” Steger said.

 

Wuesthoff said she was happy to get an “older” caddie and not one of the many juniors who worked this week. “I didn’t want a good-looking boy who might distract me,” she said with a laugh.

 

Steger did his best to keep Wuesthoff loose, especially in the early part of the final where early jitters led to three bogeys in the first four holes. “I told her (on the practice range) that it’s not a matter if you are better than her or equal to her,” Steger said. “You’ve just got to play your game. She’s one of the best putters I’ve seen. She has a good head on her shoulders.”

 

And by the match’s conclusion, she also had something else to carry – the championship trophy.

 

David Shefter is a USGA staff writer. He can be reached at dshefter@usga.org .

 

 

 

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