I was pitch dark this past Monday morning as I drove into the parking lot at 6:30 am at the Metropolitan Golf Course in Oakland, adjacent to the south end of the Oakland International Airport. I would be serving as a rules official for the North Coast Section's Girls Division II High School Golf Playoffs. Last Monday was stage one of four consecutive weeks with Division I, NorCal, and State titles on the line. I've had a 40-year history with the property, having first competed there when it was called the Lew Galbraith Golf Course. It served as the long-time host of the Oakland City Open, then a mini-tour event for pros and scratch amateurs.
Galbraith was closed for a number of years as the adjoining San Francisco Bay was dredged and the resulting sludge was piled atop the former golf course. Once that project was completed in the early 2000s, two-time major champion Johnny Miller was called in to redesign a brand new golf course. Miller and his design staff created a well done municipal links-style golf course with a driving range and a creative short game area that is extensively used by the Cal-Berkeley golf team. Within the last decade the likes of Max Homa and Collin Morikawa have used the range and walked the fairways of Metropolitan. My last great memory of Metropolitan was five years ago when Kelseyville High School senior Matt Wotherspoon shot a 4-under par 68 to finish tied for second in the NCS boys playoffs. Matt parlayed his high school golf successes into four years of college golf at Cypress College and then Cal State-San Bernardino.
As the teams were checking in and heading to the range I was asked that question that you sometimes get when you've been around high school golf on the state-wide level for 42 years. Question one was what I thought it would take as a score for the low 18 girls out of 114 to advance the following week to Tilden Park in Berkeley. I guessed 82. I was wrong. While an 82 was good enough for 16th place, the scores got all the way up to 88 for the 18th and final qualifier. Question two required no real guess on my part. I was asked who I thought would be the medalist that day and what I thought she would shoot. I immediately said it would be Alyssa Lim from James Logan High School in Union City and I said I thought she just might shoot an 8-under par score of 64. I was half right. Then again, her 66 was close enough for a guess.
I ran into 15-year-old Alyssa Lim one year ago when I was serving as the tournament director for the NCS at Rooster Run in Petaluma. I vividly recall watching Alyssa waiting for the 320-yard 12th hole at Rooster to clear, then hitting her tee shot some 290 yards in the air, having it roll out some 15 yards short of the green. She pitched her ball to two feet and tapped in for birdie. She would end up with the low score of the day, carding an even par 72 on a tough course.
You have a lot more freedom when you serve as a rules official and this time I cruised around Metropolitan, checking on the pace of play while watching a bevy of very talented girls play high quality golf. Yet I found myself gravitating to Alyssa's pairing some half-dozen times, trying to ascertain how her game had grown over the past 12 months. For instance, on the 18th hole, which happened to be her 13th of the day, she busted a drive up the middle some 295 yards. She had 45 yards remaining to a deep pin on the green's second tier. I watched her hit a flighted-down wedge shot. It landed on the front of the green and then took two big hops until it spun back slightly. For the uninitiated, this is high level stuff and takes a long time to develop. It isn't always a part of the game that a 16-year-old can rely upon. Yet Alyssa had that shot in her arsenal. She would continue to play smart golf on a course with many water hazards and trouble spots and was the medalist on Monday among the 114 girls. Her score was a 6-under par 66 with seven birdies and one bogey and she won by five shots. It was most impressive golf
I talked to Alyssa and her dad following the completion of the award ceremony and put on my golf journalist cap. I asked her to what did she attribute her fine round? She answered that she knew her short game would be important at Metropolitan and that she had spent the last three weeks practicing extensively on her wedge game from 30-60 yards in. When asked, Alyssa said she had been under the instructional umbrella of Jenny Park-Choi, an East Bay resident who was a rookie on the LPGA Tour way back in 2000. A former all-American at UCLA, Choi is now affiliated with the NorCal Golf Academy in Walnut Creek. Alyssa is in very good hands.
The nature of junior golf in the modern era means lots of travel for the cream of the crop. This summer Alyssa got to see the world and match her game with the top junior girls. For instance, between the Fourth of July and the start of school in mid-August, she played in six high level tournaments. From July 4 to 7, she competed in the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) tournament in Massachusetts. She shot 74-69-72 to finish tied for sixth at Chicopee Country Club. The following week found her at the AJGA hosted by D.A. Points at Pekin C.C in Illinois, coming in 10th place following rounds of 72-77-73. There was no rest for the weary as she was back in the Bay Area, coming in sixth place in the U.S. Women's Amateur Qualifier at LaRinconada C.C. She shot 71 and ended up as first alternate. Staying in California, Alyssa won the AJGA Tokay Junior at Woodbridge in Lodi in late July. Her scores of 72-71 got her a spot in the AJGA TOC later this year. In early August she shot 74-72 to finish tied for fourth at the prestigious Northern Junior at New Haven C.C. in Connecticut. The next week found her in Joplin, Missouri at the AJGA event at Twin Hills when she ended up in the top 10 with rounds of 75-76-77. This was not a first time fling in competitive golf as Alyssa, who plays out of the nine-hole Fremont Golf Club and carries a +3.3 handicap, has 45 wins to go with 142 top five finishes.
In case you might wonder how well rounded Alyssa might be, I can tell you that she was the best junior interview I've had since I spoke with current PGA Tour professional Matt Kuchar some 30 years ago. She is clever and articulate. She is highly intelligent based on her 4.2 grade point average and her reception of the Superintendent's Award last year. Her Dad is super-supportive and yet I don't see him as a "helicopter" parent. This is her quest, not someone else's. It's hard to assess what the future will hold for the once little girl who won the First Tee Tri-Pleasanton Junior more than five years ago. She's just 16 years old and should be enjoying every moment of high school life. Yet while I've seen a lot of talented kids over all these years including the likes of Ricky Barnes, James Hahn, Scott McCarron, the Sutherland brothers, Jamille Jose, and Lisa Copeland, something tells me that Alyssa Lim of Union City, California, just might be a name to keep in your memory banks. I do believe that she is the real deal.
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