Duke's Kim gets back in the groove with victory in Harder Hall Invitational

    It seems like a long time ago when Duke freshman Gina Kim was helping the Blue Devils capture the NCAA Championship at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. and followed that up with a spectacular opening-round 66 on her way to earning low-amateur honors in the U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston less than a month later.

   It wasn’t really all that long ago. It was the spring of 2019, but the coronavirus pandemic that began in the spring of 2020 has altered time in so many ways.

   Denied a chance to help Duke defend that title last spring and to compete for the Blue Devils this past fall by the ongoing pandemic, Kim, a junior now, didn’t play a whole lot of competitive golf in 2020.

   Last week, however, Kim closed out the lost year of 2020 by proving that she hasn’t forgotten how to play. The Orange Blossom Tour, the unofficial series of amateur events for women in Florida each winter, continued with the 66^th Harder Hall Women’s Invitational at the Harder Hall Golf Club in Sebring, Fla.

   I’m relatively new to the Orange Blossom Tour, but I was a little surprised to see the Harder Hall played in the final week of December. I thought it usually came in the first week of the New Year. Regardless, though, Kim grinded out a solid 1-over-par 73 on New Year’s Eve that gave her a 1-under 287 total and a one-shot victory over Boca Raton, Fla. phenom Chloe Kovelesky.

   Kim, a Chapel Hill, N.C. native, told Golfweek’s Julie Williams that once she realized Duke wouldn’t be playing in the fall, she took on a little bigger course load while she continued to practice.

   Kim had earned spots in the match-play bracket at both the North & South Women’s Amateur at Pinehurst, N.C. and the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md. last summer, but didn’t make a deep run in either event.

   Kim, however, arrived in Sebring ready to go. She roared out of the gate, making seven birdies and an eagle against four bogeys in an opening-round 67. She added an efficient three-birdie, no-bogey 69 in the second round to take a commanding eight-shot lead at the halfway point of the 72-hole event.

   But Florida’s tricky winter winds and the Harder Hall layout caught up to Kim in the third round as she stumbled to a 6-over 78 that left her with a 2-under 214 total heading into the final round. Kim still held a two-stroke lead over Sophia Bae, a Norwood, N.J. teen who will follow Kim to Duke at the end of this summer.

   Kim, No. 40 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), made bogeys at the fifth, eighth and 10^th holes in the final round and actually fell back to 1-over for the tournament. But she righted the ship with birdies at the 11^th and 16^th holes to finish at 1-under.

   Kim finished 2019 as one of a dozen players invited to audition for the 2020 U.S. Curtis Cup team at Loblolly Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla. That Curtis Cup, scheduled to be played in June at the Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales, was postponed until August of this year.

   Kim has once again been invited to a practice session for the rescheduled Curtis Cup, which U.S. captain Sarah Ingram will convene later this month at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Fla. So, it appears Kim plans to remain an amateur long enough to take a shot at representing her country in the Curtis Cup Match against Great Britain & Ireland. I'll have more on the dozen players invited to the practice session at Lake Nona in my next post.

   The 13-year-old Kovelesky made a remarkable recovery from an opening-round 80 to claim runnerup honors. She put together back-to-back 2-under 70s in the second and third rounds and closed with a 4-under 68, the only sub-70 round of the day, but it wasn’t quite enough to catch Kim as Kovelesky finished a shot behind the winner at even-par 288.

   Minji Kang of Duluth, Ga. via South Korea, finished two shots behind Kovelesky in third place with a 2-over 290 total., Kang was steady throughout, adding back-to-back even-par 72s to her opening-round 73 before closing with another 1-over 73 in the final round.

   Annabell Fuller, a sophomore at Florida from England and No. 52 in the Women’s WAGR, and Natasha A. Oon, a junior at San Jose State, finished in a tie for fourth place at 5-over 293.

   Fuller, who will likely be a member of the Great Britain & Ireland team in this summer’s Curtis Cup Match, closed with a 1-over 73. Oon carded her third straight 75 after opening with a 70.

   Yale junior Ami Gianchandani, a product of The Pingry School, finished alone in 13^th place as she closed with a 1-over 73 for a 297 total.

   Izzy M. Pellot, a high school junior from Altamonte Springs, Fla., and Nina Lang, a freshman at Baylor from Germany, shared the top spot in Flight 1, each closing with a 1-over 73 to land at 299.

   Kiera Bartholomew, a Winston-Salem N.C. resident who is a product of the junior program at Indian Valley Country Club, finished among the group tied for eighth place in Flight 1 with a 309 total. After opening with a 79, Bartholomew, who, I’m pretty sure is a Class of 2023 competitor, carded a pair of 76s in the second and third rounds before closing with a 78.

   Among the players tied for 12^th place in Flight 1 at 310 were Elizabeth Beek, who captured the 2019 PIAA Class AAA Championship as a freshman at Wissahickon, and Tower Hill product Jennifer Cleary, a freshman at Virginia.

   Beek, who has moved on to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., closed with her best round of the week, a 2-over 74. Cleary carded a 4-over 76 in the first and third rounds around an 81 in the second round before closing with a 77.

   Delia Gibbs, a freshman at Belmont from Lexington, Ky., finished atop the Flight 2 leaderboard by six shots with a 303 total. Gibbs closed with a 78, but fired a spectacular 6-under 66 in the third round.

   Sussex Academy junior Hannah Lydic of Ocean View, Del. was the runnerup in Flight 2 with a 309 total. Lydic finished up with a 77 after posting her best round of the week, a 2-over 74, in the third round.

   Madyson Gold, a freshman at North Carolina-Asheville from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., captured top honors in Flight 3 with a 319 total. Gold struggled in the first two rounds with an opening-round 80 followed by an 85, but she finished strong with a 76 in the third round and a final-round 78.

   The runnerup in Flight 3 was Ashley Yen, a high school junior from Houston who was the winner of the 2020 USGA-AJGA Presidents’ Leadership Award. Yen, like Gold, struggled in the first two rounds with an opening-round 80 followed by an 88 before settling down with a 77 in the third round and a solid 3-over 75 in the final round.

   A major part of Yen’s resume that earned her the USGA-AJGA Presidents’ Leadership Award is the non-profit she established, Kits 2 Kids, which distributes STEM education kits to youngsters in underserved communities in the Houston area. That’s a really impressive undertaking for a high school kid.

   Kim Keyser-Scott was the winner of the Harder Hall’s Forever 49 Division, cruising to a six-shot victory with her 307 total. Keyser-Scott sandwiched a 77 in the second round with a pair of 78s before finishing up with a 2-over 74.

   Beatriz Arenas, a native of Guatemala and the winner of the 2018 Irish Senior Amateur Open, was the runnerup with a 313 total. Arenas, whose base of operation in South Florida is Wellington, Fla., got it going in the third round with a 2-under 70 before closing with an 83.

   The ageless Liz Haines, a Merion Golf Club member, finished alone in ninth place in the Forever 49 field with a 347 total. The 70-something Haines opened with an 84 before struggling to a 91 in the second round. She then finished up with a pair of 86s.

   The Orange Blossom Tour continues with the 92^nd South Atlantic Amateur Championship, better known as The SALLY, which tees off Wednesday at Oceanside Country Club in Ormond Beach, Fla.

   That’s followed by the Ione D. Jones/Doherty Championship, a match-play event that tees off Jan. 13 at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

   The Orange Blossom Tour concludes with the 73^rd Women’s International Four-Ball Championship, a team event that tees off Feb. 12 at The Wanderers Club in Wellington, Fla.