Palisades' Anna Song dominates to repeat as City Section girls' golf champion
Once she started her round all was well for Anna Song. Getting there on time was the problem.
When she and her Palisades teammates arrived at Balboa Golf Course an hour before Thursday morning’s City Section Championships they discovered that the driving range did not open until 9 a.m. — the time she was scheduled to tee off in the first group. Coach Dave Suarez decided to take his team around the corner to Woodley Lakes Golf Course to warm up but that plan almost backfired.
“It should’ve taken five minutes to get there but traffic was bad and it took forever,” Song said. “I ended up hitting about 15 balls before I had to leave. I got back here [to Balboa] at 8:56 so I just barely made it.”
Any pressure she felt the rest of the day did not come from one of her competitors, rather herself.
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Determined to beat the finals scoring mark she set last fall, the talented junior played every shot with surgical precision on her way to carding a bogey-free five-under-par 68 to repeat as individual champion.
Blocking out distractions for 18 holes, Song recorded birdies on the two, four, five, 12 and 13 holes to go along with 13 pars. She had a chance to equal her record of six-under at last year’s final, but her seven-foot birdie putt on the 18th green rolled dead inches right of the cup and she tapped in. She finished at 64 on the same course during league finals two weeks ago and was at 10-under through 12 holes in a practice round before having to leave early to study for two AP tests.
“I was hoping to do as good as at league, but they rolled these greens this morning so it was a bit trickier,” said Song, an early Stanford commit who will not turn 17 until April. “My putter was cold today, unlike the weather, but my shorter irons gave me a few more opportunities. I like the layout.”
Song joined Jee Hee Hwang of Birmingham, Paula Kerdpinyo of Marshall, Monica Petchakan of North Hollywood, Tiffany Yau of Van Nuys and Carol Cheng of Granada Hills as the only players to capture back-to-back titles in the 23-year history of the tournament. Angelina Kim of Fairfax (2017 and 2019) also won twice but not consecutively.
Next year, Song will try to become the second three-time winner — a feat accomplished only by Yau from 2011-13. Yau won her first title by 11 strokes — still the widest margin of victory — but that mark also is in jeopardy given Song’s dominance. She won by eight strokes last year and by seven strokes Thursday, the only player under par.
Momoka Takahashi of Cleveland was second in the 32-player field at two-over par while Mackenzie Park of Marshall was third at three over.
Palisades not only had the best player, but it also had the best team for the third consecutive year. The Dolphins took first with a cumulative total of 49 over par. Granada Hills was second at +137 and Cleveland third at +167.
All six Palisades players placed among the top 15. Katie Kim and Maya Otero tied for fourth at +11, Dylan Nuss was sixth at +12, Skyler Monahan tied for 12th at +20 and Chloe Suh was 15th, though her +23 did not count toward the team score.
“I’m very proud of this team,” Suarez said. “The girls have grown together and are now reaping the benefits of their hard work throughout the season. For there to be an 88-stroke difference between us and the next closest team is a testament to our depth.”
Southern Section individual tournament
While Song was cruising to an easy victory at Balboa, another Cardinal commit was busy winning the CIF Southern Section Individual Championship at Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon.
Santa Margarita senior Leigh Chien shot a five-under-par 67 to beat Cerritos senior and USC commit Jasmine Koo by two shots. Chien, Koo and Song were teammates at the Junior Solheim Cup in Spain, where the U.S. lost to Europe 15-9 in September. All three girls are ranked in the top 20 by the American Junior Golf Assn.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
