San Mateo County golfers looking to make mark on junior circuit

And San Mateo County is represented in both. Rising Hillsdale senior Ashlyn Johnson is competing for the state championship on her home course. On the boys’ side, Crystal’s Edan Cui and Nueva School’s James Lee, also rising seniors, are taking on the best junior amateurs the world has to offer.

Both tournaments are a bit different than the way most golf tournaments are played. Instead of four rounds of 18 holes, the amateur champs will have played seven rounds over the course of six days. The first two days of each tournament, Monday and Tuesday, are stroke play. The top 32 women and top 64 men then advance to potentially five rounds of match play in four days, with the championship matches scheduled for Saturday.

Johnson found herself playing catchup almost from the jump and rallied at the turn. But she wobbled home with a 5-over 77 to finish in a tie for 82nd. After a par on the first hole, she carded a double-bogey 6 on 358-yard, par-4 second. That was followed by a bogey on the par-5, 455-yard No. 4 hole.

She seemed to correct herself with pars on four and five, but dropped two more strokes with bogeys at Nos. 6 and 7 and ended up making the turn at 5-over.

Then Johnson caught fire as she ripped off four straight birdies to get back to 1-over. She birdied the par-5s 10th and 11th holes, picked up her third in a row with a 2 on the par-3, 145-yard 12th. She followed that with a birdie 3 on the par-4, 410-yard 13th.

Double-bogeys on both the 138-yard, par-3 15th and par-4 16th took some wind out of her sails, however. She added a bogey on the 17th to drop five shots in three holes before capping her round with an encouraging birdie on 18.

With 36 players at even or better, including 24 with rounds under par, Johnson will need to get back to at least even to have a shot at making the top-32 cut.

Palo Alto’s Bridget O’Keefe found herself in the lead after a blistering 8-under 64. San Jose’s Natalie Vo was two shots back with a 6-under 66; defending state champ Kate Villegas is two shots back in a tie for third with a 4-under 68. Asterisk Talley, a 15-year-old from Chowchilla who advanced to the final of the USGA Junior Girls’ Amateur just this past Saturday at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, also sits at 4-under.

San Mateo’s Kayla Corcoran found herself in a tie for 95th after a 6-over 78. Corcoran had birdies on Nos. 5, 11 and 17. But those were offset by a trio of bogeys and three more double-bogeys.

Belmont’s Camilla Yen was in a tie for 112th after a round of 8-over 80.

Cui in position to make cut; Lee has work to do

Meanwhile in Michigan, Cui is poised to advance to match play, while Lee has a lot of ground to make up. Cui finds himself in a tie for seventh place following a round of 2-under 68. Lee is much further back in the pack, in a tie for 126th following a 5-over 75 in the field of 264.

Cui got off to a roller-coaster start, going bogey-birdie-bogey to open his round, but he quickly steadied himself and reeled off three birdies in a row, carding 3s on a trio of par 4s. A bogey-par finish at Nos. 8 and 9 left Cui at 1-under at the turn.

He got back to 2-under with a birdie on the 570-yard, par-5 12th, but he gave it right back with a bogey on the par-3 13th. He then finished off his round with a birdie at 16 and added four other pars to post the 2-under.

Lee started off well enough, but his round came unraveled on the front 9, his second nine of the day. Beginning on the 10th hole, Lee parred the first seven holes and eight of the first nine — with his only blemish a bogey on the 465-yard, par-4 eighth.

He made par at No. 1 to stay at 1-over before he wobbled home, going bogey, double-bogey on holes 2 and 3. He got one stroke back with a clutch birdie on the par-3, 187-yard fourth hole, followed by a par at No 5.

But two more bogeys in a three-hole stretch left him needing to go low Tuesday if he is to crack the top-64. The projected cut is 5-over.

Tyler Watts from Huntsville, Alabama, led the way Monday, earning low-round honors with a 5-under 65, carding six birdies against just one bogey.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to show the top 32 women and top 64 boys advance to match play.