Junior golfer Megan Kim advances to state CIF Individual regionals

By Ian Rapoport
Staff Writer

After a successful season and a Bay League title, the Mira Costa girls golf team was eliminated in the first round of CIF. Only one member of the girls golf team remains to compete for a CIF championship. Junior Megan Kim represented Costa Golf in the playoffs.

Kim competed in a CIF individual match at the River Ridge Golf Course.

“Megan has consistency and plays a solid game,” coach Tim Kelley said. “Even her bad days are amazing compared to other players her age. When she plays at her A-game, she does wonders.”

Kim completed the course with 80 shots, placing her amongst the top 28 players to advance on to the CIF tournament.

“I have been working extremely hard, both physically and mentally, in order to improve my game,” Kim said.

Originally, Kim was not the only Mustang expected to play at River Ridge. Freshman Andrea Lee was set to compete alongside Kim but was unable to play due to a shoulder injury.

“Andrea has been working hard with the team, and sometimes that results in an injury,” Kelley said. “The important thing is that Andrea, as a freshman, is not getting hurt in the long haul. We don’t want to cause her too much strain.”

River Ridge has a lot of slopes and hills.Most of the courses Kim has faced this year, though, have mainly been flat.

“The course is difficult to play on,” Kim said. “I just tried to stay positive and kept focusing on my performance.”

Kim competed yesterday at the Women’s Southern California Golf Association Southern Regionals in Murritea, but due to the time of publication, the results of the tournament were unavailable. This match was the final match before Kim competes in the state CIF championship.

“Only nine players go on afterward, so it is going to be tough,” Kelley said before the match. “Megan has to play well. She has the potential to be really successful in CIF this year. Luckily, she has a week for some fine tuning.”

Being in this position is not a new scenario for Kim. She competed at the state level last year as a sophomore and hopes to play at that level again this year.

“I’m just focusing on taking it one round at a time,” Kim said. “I’m trying to stay relaxed and positive.”