Wong tops at U. S. collegiate tourney
She didn’t finish as well as she started, but Richmond’s Christine Wong hung on in tough conditions Tuesday to win the Bruin Wave Invitational collegiate golf tourney in Tarzana, Calif.
The San Diego State junior opened the 54- hole event on Monday with the tournament’s low round, a 4- under 68, and then followed that up with a 1- over 73 later that day in the second round.
On Tuesday, playing in cool and windy conditions, Wong closed with a 6- over 78. But her three- round score of 3- over 219 was still good for a four- shot victory over Alina Ching of Pepperdine.
“It was a lot colder today and the wind was blowing pretty good,” Wong said. “It was a lot tougher, but it still played the same for everyone.”
Wong’s first round included a personal best seven birdies, for which she credited a hot putter.
“My putter was on fire,” she said. “Any putt I looked at just went in. It didn’t matter if it was for birdie, par, bogey or double. It just went in. I made a few bombs from like 40 feet so that helped a lot. It was one of those days.”
The win is Wong’s fourth at San Diego State and her second this season. She also won twice in her freshman year. It was following her freshman year that Wong qualified for the 2010 U. S. Women’s Open, where she made the cut at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania.
Tuesday’s win came over a field that included three of the top- 10 collegiate players in the U. S.
Coquitlam’s Anica Yoo, who plays for Oregon State, finished tied for 17th at 16- over par. Pepperdine edged co- host UCLA for the team title. Wong’s San Diego State team finished fifth.
Coquitlam’s Soobin Kim, a freshman at the University of Washington, finished tied for sixth place Tuesday at the Juli Inkster Spartan Invite in San Jose.
Kim’s score of 6- over 222 was eight shots behind winner Joanne Lee of California.
Jennifer Yang of Coquitlam, another Washington freshman, tied for 17th at 13- over.
DOWN SOUTH: Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin hopes to rebound from a rocky start to his Nationwide Tour season this week in Santiago, Chile.
Hadwin missed the cut in the Nationwide Tour’s first two stops of the year in Colombia and Panama.
The Nationwide Tour completes its three- tournament swing of Central and South America with the $ 600,000 Chile Classic. The tournament is being played at Prince of Wales Country Club, which has drawn comparisons to Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club.
That may be a good sign for Hadwin, who tied for fourth at last summer’s RBC Canadian Open at Shaughnessy.
Vernon native Chris Baryla and Sooke resident Stuart Anderson are also in the field.
BENT IS BEST: If you were at the Vancouver Golf Show this past weekend, you probably already know that Whistler Golf Club is replacing all of its putting surfaces.
Director of golf Alan Kristmanson had a sample of the 007 Bent grass that will be installed this spring at the Arnold Palmer- designed course on display at the golf show. That Bent grass will replace surfaces that had been taken over by poa annua grass.
Weather permitting, the new sod of Bent grass will be installed in early April and Whistler Golf club hopes to open for the May long weekend.