Idaho senior golfer Leilanie Kim ignored the pressure that came when she entered the third and final round of the NCAA South Bend Regional, last Saturday in South Bend, Indiana. She entered the final round knowing she probably needed to shoot her best score of the regional.
“I talked to her afterward and she never felt pressure,” Idaho coach Lisa Johnson said of Kim.
Kim tied for the lowest third round score by shooting a 2-under-par 70 and jumped up the leaderboard to tie for eighth place with Purdue’s August Kim – no relation. Idaho’s Kim shot a 2-over-par 218 during the three-day regional to advance to the NCAA Championships May 22-27 in Bradenton, Florida. The NCAA Medal Championship is the 22-25 and the NCAA Match Championship is the 26-27.
Kim shot a 3-over-par 75 the first round and a 1-over-par 73 the second round — so Kim, along with head coach Lisa Johnson and assistant coach Mike Roters, knew she needed her best score in the third round.
At dinner the night before the third round, Johnson said she told Kim that she needed to shoot a 69 or 70 in order to go to nationals. She said that Kim played well the first two rounds and the golf course set up for her well, but the first and second round scores didn’t reflect the solid play.
“It was very realistic for her to put herself in a position to qualify for nationals by shooting 69 or 70,” Johnson said. “Going into the final round, her whole goal was to just have fun, stay relaxed. She did an excellent job of that.”
The top six teams from each of the four regionals advanced to nationals. At the South Bend Regional, currently ranked No. 5 Duke won the regional, No. 12 Wake Forest took second, No. 20 UC Davis took third, No. 6 Arizona took fourth and No. 30 Tulane and No. 39 Purdue tied for fifth. So, each player who is a part of one of those six teams advanced no matter how that player finished individually.
Kim was one of the three individual national qualifiers from the South Bend Regional.
Each of the four regions sends three individuals to nationals. At each regional, the top three finishers out of all the players — which includes players who competed as part of a team and players who competed as individuals — who didn’t advance with their team, advanced to nationals.
In all, there will be 24 teams and 12 individuals at nationals.
Kim will play her final collegiate competition when she heads down to Florida next week for nationals and Johnson said the goals for Kim are just the same as they were at regionals — have fun and enjoy her last collegiate golf competition.
Johnson said Kim will have to adjust to the Bermuda greens in Florida because they are a lot different than the greens she is used to playing on the Palouse.
Johnson said it will be tough to win at nationals because Kim will be playing against the top golfers in the country, but Johnson believes she can win if she plays her best golf.
“She’s hitting the ball better than I’ve ever seen her hit it,” Johnson said. “She hits it far.”
Garrett Cabeza can be reached at [email protected]