Koo comes through, wins Women's Western Am

Writing from Naperville, Illinois

Saturday, July 22, 2023

At Wednesday’s dinner honoring the 32 match-play qualifiers for the 123rd Women’s Western Amateur, each competitor received a few tokens of the accomplishment, including a bracelet with the phrase, “Make History,” on it.

Most of the players put the bracelet on immediately.

Jasmine Koo not only did that, but took it to heart.

The 17-year-old from Cerritos, Calif., had already qualified third, with a total of 7-under-par 137, an impressive pace at White Eagle Golf Club.

Then she put her foot down. Three days and five matches later, Koo was also wearing the gold medal symbolic of the oldest continuously-played championship in American women’s golf, her 4 and 2 victory over Sadie Englemann of Austin, Tex., the capper on a spectacular week of precision play.

Koo missed only one green and made six birdies in those 16 holes, running her total to 34 for the week across seven rounds and 116 holes. She had only seven bogeys in that span, and none in her final two matches. The total of 27-under for the week might be a Women’s Western Amateur record.

“It’s a lot of pressure,” Koo said of the grind. “Match play got me to thinking, hit the best shot possible.”

She hit shot after shot, and made putt after putt.

“I always putt better on pure greens,” Kool said, complementing superintendent Jim Canning’s staff. “I just really felt comfortable on these greens.”

Englemann, entering her senior year at Stanford with U.S. Women’s Open and Augusta National Women’s Amateur appearances and an NCAA team title to her credit, did nothing wrong in Saturday morning’s final, except she only made two birdies in a match where only birdies won holes and bogeys were nowhere to be seen. With Koo making birdies the way McDonalds makes burgers, two was not enough.

“I played to the best of my ability and she just had a better day than me,” Englemann said. “I’m pretty proud of how I played. Getting to the final is an achievement for me, because I’ve struggled in match play in the past. I’ve worked pretty hard on getting the strategy down. This shows me I can play it.”

Koo, the youngest winner since Chakansim “Fai” Khamborn triumphed as a 15-year-old in 2015, was all square with Englemann through six holes, Koo making a birdie on the par-5 second and Englemann answering with a birdie 3 on the next hole. Then Koo, miffed at a missed birdie putt on the incorrigible sixth green, went 3-3-3-3 on the seventh through 10th holes, with hole-winning birdies on Nos. 7, 9 and 10, to take a 3-up lead.

“I got kind of angry with myself that I missed that,” Koo said of the putt on the sixth.

Englemann birdied the 12th hole, but that was it. Koo closed with birdies on the 15th and 16th holes from five and 15 feet, respectively, to take the title.

“On 16, I hit a 3-hybrid,” Koo recalled of the 161-yard tee shot. “That was just a really good shot to top everything off to finish the match. I was like, ‘I want to win in style.’

“Walking down 16, I was (thinking), I didn’t win yet, I didn’t win yet. Then it dropped, and ‘Oh, I won!’ ”

(Later on Saturday, Koo's older brother Joshua scored a 1-up victory over Ben Bordiga of Shoreline, Wash., in the championship match of the Pacific Northwest Amateur at Chambers Bay near Seattle.)

Engelmann entered the week 68th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Koo 178th, her three junior wins over the last year earning fewer points than Englemann’s achievements. By winning the Women’s Western Am, Koo will move up in the rankings.

The poise she displayed will stand her well, including this fall, when she’ll play her senior season for the Dons of Cerritos High in the 605 League, and ideally, all the way to the state finals at Poppy Hills. Then it will be off to Southern California in the fall of 2024, when the Trojans and UCLA join the Big Ten.

“This prepares me,” Koo said. “I can win events in college. I wasn’t really the favorite coming in. Just being able to play my game and enjoy the course, that helped me play better.”

Koo will surely be back next year to defend her crown, and Englemann said she may return as well. Players often turn professional after their senior-year NCAA appearance, but getting so close and not getting to pose with the trophy might just stick in her craw. But Koo already knows the last back-to-back winner was Meredith Duncan, in 2000 and 2001, and the look in her eye indicated she wants to join the list.

Around White Eagle

The Women’s Western Amateur will be part of the Ladies Elite Amateur series, which commences in 2024, an official confirmed. The men’s version, which began last year, climaxes with the Western Amateur. … Next year’s Women’s Western Amateur will be played at the Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest.

– Tim Cronin