Riding the momentum of an opening-round 66, Ashley Kim successfully completed a wire-to-wire victory to win the 2022 SoCal Girls Junior Amateur Championship at Morongo GC on Sunday.
“I tried my best this weekend and it worked well,” Kim said.
Her first round featured just one bogey, five birdies and an eagle on No. 11. Though Alice Zhao’s opening-round 67 (where she shot 32 on the back-nine) didn’t give Kim much breathing room headed into Sunday’s final round.
Kim stayed consistent with pars for most of her second-round front-nine, allowing her to retain a slim lead over Zhao. The flat stick came in handy on No. 9, as Kim delivered a massive eagle putt that put her three strokes ahead as she made the turn.
“Both days I got an eagle on the par-5 so I think that was my gamechanger,” Kim said. “I was trying to focus on the putting. It was a lot of three footers and four footers. It worked good.”
The La Mirada native knocked in five more pars, followed by a pair of championship sealing birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 to cruise to a three-stroke victory. She finished at eight-under 136, which included just three bogeys.
Kim was one of only two players in the field to post both rounds under par. She also tied Yurang Li for the championship low round (66).
Zhao earned a T2 finished at five-under 139, sharing runner-up honors with Eliana Saga. Li finished fourth at four-under, authoring an impressive bounce back round on Sunday (66) after shooting 74 in the first round.