A South Surrey golfer is headed to the U.S. Women’s Open in L.A. next month.
Lauren Kim, 20, qualified for the iconic golf tournament at Rainier Golf & Country Club in Seattle last month, where she shot a six-under 70-68—138 to earn her spot in the biggest championship in professional women’s golf.
It will be the third time she has qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open, but Kim, who attends the University of Texas and plays for their women’s golf team as well, remains modest about qualifying.
“I had no idea where I was standing. I didn’t check the leaderboard between the 36 holes that we played … I told my caddy, ‘Hey, I’m so tempted to look at the leader board, but I know that it’s not going to help me,’ so she did such a good job helping me stay grounded,” Kim said Wednesday (May 6) from Texas.
She recalled a stretch of three or four holes where she was four under, after she holed her ball on the fourth hole.
“It was from 170 yards off my four hybrid, and it went straight into the hole. There was no pitch mark. It went right in, so that was fun. So I think for a stretch of three holes I was four under, because I (birdied holes) two and three, and then I holed out on four,” she said, also remembering a 27-foot putt for par on a different hole.
“It was 430 yards back pin into the wind, and I put myself in the rough in a really terrible position … but then I made that for par. So, that’s something that kept the momentum going. Everything just worked out that day and (I) had good bounces, and cuts went in.”
While she’s been enjoying her time in Texas, studying business management, her focus right now is one day at a time, and one golf game at a time.
“I just finished up my junior year. We’re still in season actually — we’re going to our regionals on Friday in Chapel Hill, North Carolina,” she said.
The NCAA regionals are set for May 11-13 and, if Kim and her Longhorns teammates make it to nationals, they’ll play in the NCAA national championship, which is scheduled for the end of May in Carlsbad, Calif.
Shortly after that, the 81st U.S. Women’s Open goes June 4-7 at The Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, Calif.
“What’s important for me right now is, literally, the next day. I think preparation is going to be key heading into this couple of weeks of golf,” said Kim. “Just getting prepared (and) making sure I’m well-rested is what I’m focusing on. And then just keeping keep doing what I’m doing … I don’t really need to make a lot of technical changes. I’ve just got to keep — like my teammate always says — chopping wood. That’s the plan.”
When the U.S. Women’s Open is finished, Kim hopes to come home to South Surrey for at least a couple of weeks, where she always makes a point of visiting local landmarks.
“Every time I come home, I always love to drive by Crescent Beach and White Rock Beach because I live so close to them,” she said, adding she’s looking forward to eating “some good home-cooked food by my mom and my dad.”
While she’s trying not to overthink too much about the upcoming U.S. Women’s Open, she hopes she’ll play well.
“It’s a big stage and it’s obviously a really big, major championship, but I don’t want to make it bigger than it is, and I just need to know that I belong out there, I belong on that stage and I’m just as good,” Kim said. “I’m going to really focus on shot by shot — everyone says that, but it I don’t think people realize how difficult it actually is (to focus) on the shot, and really zone in.”