After disappointing DQ at high school state, Kent golf star wins WJGA crown<\/b><\/p>\n
There were no scorecard glitches this time.<\/p>\n
Just another solid overall performance on the golf course from Kentwood junior-to-be Rui Li.<\/p>\n
Li, a sweet-swinging 16-year-old, put the finishing touches on the girls 16-17 age division last Friday in the Washington Junior Golf Association state championship at Spokane Country Club.<\/p>\n
The Kentwood star carded a final-round 78 on the par-73 course to fend off Rachel Choi of Mukilteo and Simone Strauss of Kirkland.<\/p>\n
The win, however, wasn\u2019t about redemption for Li, who would have taken second during May\u2019s Class 4A state tournament, but turned in an incorrect scorecard and thus was disqualified.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t feel I had to redeem myself after high school state,\u201d Li said. \u201cIt was more of a, \u2018Don\u2019t do that again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Li didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
And, as expected, she came away with the title, carding a three-day total of 226, three strokes ahead of Choi and six ahead of Strauss.<\/p>\n
After the opening round, which was played at Manito Country Club on Wednesday, Li was part of a three-way tie for first with Choi and Strauss.<\/p>\n
Li moved into the lead on Thursday, shooting 1-under par 73 at Spokane Country Club while Choi carded a 76 and Strauss an 80. Li collected five birdies on the second day to take command.<\/p>\n
Though she delivered a 78 on the final day, it was enough to stay ahead of Choi and Strauss.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo win this was one of my goals this year, so it was nice to achieve it,\u201d Li said. \u201cI\u2019ll take it and move on. I didn\u2019t play particularly well \u2026 I hit the ball really well. I just didn\u2019t hit a lot of putts.<\/p>\n
The hardware Li brought home, however, was particularly nice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really big trophy that comes with it, probably the biggest one I\u2019ve won so far,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since being disqualified from the state tournament, Li has done nothing but win during a tournament-filled summer. Matter of fact, she estimates she\u2019s won between 10 and 20 tournaments since school got out in June.<\/p>\n
During last week\u2019s tournament, she bagged eight total birdies and an eagle, which came during the first day on a par-5.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was really cool,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Next up for Li is the 53rd Annual Pacific Northwest Junior Girls\u2019 Amateur Championship, which began Tuesday and runs through Friday at Longview Country Club.<\/p>\n
Li won the title at Longview last year. But right now, even though she has won plenty this summer, it\u2019s not all about victories.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal has been for the past couple of months is to sharpen my game and shoot tournaments under par consistently,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
ALSO: Catherina Li, Rui\u2019s younger sister, placed third in the girls 12-13 age group. Playing at par-72 Wandermere Golf Course the first two days and at par-72 Spokane Country Club on final day, Li, age 12, shot 75-72-80 for a total of 227. She finished seven shots behind winner Chelsea Saelee of Seattle (79-71-70\u2014220) and Sierrz Bezdicek of Colbert (73-69-80\u2014222). Li was the District 6 champion and won all three of her sub-district tournaments. … Kentridge\u2019s Sean McMullen (age 16) tied for 14th in the boys 16-17 age group with a 75-73-78\u2014226. He was the only local player to make the cut in that age group. Missing the cut were Tahoma\u2019s CJ Munko (81-77\u2014158), Kent\u2019s Tyler Clavin (79-80\u2014159) and Covington\u2019s Riley Kuranishi (81-81\u2014162). … In age 14-15 boys, Kentwood\u2019s Tom Zavada missed the cut with an 87-80\u2014167. Zavada won the District 6 championship. … In 14-15 girls, Tahoma\u2019s Amanda Fairweather missed the cut at 97-87\u2014184.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There were no scorecard glitches this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-1922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1922"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}