Anderson Owns 2-Up Lead Over Kim At Midway Point Of U.S. Girls' Junior Final

Bedminster, N.J. – Amy Anderson, 17, of Oxbow, N.D., owns a 2-up lead over 17-year-old Kimberly Kim of Hilo, Hawaii, following Saturday’s morning round of the scheduled 36-hole at the 61st U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship being conducted on the 6,289-yard, par-72 New Course at Trump National Golf Club.

Anderson, bidding to become the 14th stroke-play medalist to win the title and the first since Julieta Granada in 2004, has never trailed in the match. She twice built 3-up leads before three-putting the 18th hole from 50 feet to settle for the two-hole advantage going into the lunch break.

The second 18 is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. EDT on the New Course.

Neither player put on a putting exhibition. Anderson, who shot the equivalent of 3-over-par 75, with the usual match-play concessions, had 33 putts, including back-to-back three-putts on holes 17 and 18. She won the 17th hole with a bogey-5 when Kim missed a 4-foot bogey putt after finding a greenside bunker with her approach.

Kimberly Kim totaled 30 putts in the morning 18 of the scheduled 36-hole final at the 61st U.S. Girls' Junior. (John Mummert/USGA)

Kim, competing in her fourth USGA amateur final, shot a 77 with 30 putts. She had several golden chances to win holes, but her putter, which was sizzling in her 5-and-4 semifinal win over Doris Chen, 16, of Bradenton, Fla. on Friday afternoon, never heated up. She took three putts from the fringe at the first hole, missing a 6-foot par putt to win. At the fourth, she missed from 9 feet for birdie and she again failed to convert a 12-foot birdie attempt at the sixth.

Anderson’s first lead came when Kim failed to convert from 6 feet for par at the seventh. Anderson was conceded a 5-foot birdie putt at the par-3 10th hole for a 2-up lead. Anderson lipped out a 4-footer for birdie on No. 11 to win, and Kim returned the favor at No. 12 by missing a birdie from 8 feet.

Anderson upped her advantage to 3 up by stuffing her 9-iron tee shot to the par-3 14th green to 4 feet for a winning birdie.

Kim got a hole back at No. 16 when Anderson missed the green left with her hybrid approach and eventually made a 6 to Kim’s conceded 4. The two traded holes at 17 and 18.

Anderson hit 11 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens, while Kim found 9 of 14 fairways and 8 of 18 greens.

Should Anderson win, she would become the fourth player from North Dakota to claim a USGA title, following Beverly Hanson (1950 U.S. Women’s Amateur), Michael Podolak (1984 U.S. Mid-Amateur) and Shane McManemy (1996 U.S. Junior Amateur).

Kim, who at 14 became the youngest winner of the U.S. Women’s Amateur (2006), is looking to become the seventh player to claim both the U.S. Girls’ Junior and Women’s Amateur titles, but  the first to have done it by winning the Women’s Amateur first. She is one of a handful of players to have advanced to finals in three different USGA amateur championships, joining the likes of Hall-of-Famer Carol Semple Thompson, Philadelphia legend Jay Sigel, Vicki Goetze and Danny Green.

Last month, Kim lost to Jennifer Song in the 36-hole U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links final at Red Tail Golf Club in Devens, Mass. She also lost to Tiffany Joh in the 2006 WAPL final.

Story written by USGA Digital Media staff writer David Shefter. E-mail him with questions or comments at dshefter@usga.org.