By Pete Borello
Local Golf Roundup
Another Jr. juggernaut
Tyler Ichikawa of Los Altos captured the boys 12-and-under division at the Junior Sectional, posting a score of 32 at Ridgemark. The second-best score was a 37.
Sollers swing into sunshine state
Mountain View resident Esther Choe, a division winner at last week’s PGA Junior Sectional Championship Qualifier, estimates she’s won more than 20 golf tournaments in her career.
Not bad for an 11 year old who said she became interested in the game “by accident” just two and a half years ago.
“My brother started first,” Choe said, referring to her older brother Ben, now the top player on the Mountain View High golf team. “My dad would take him to the golf course and I would come along because he was baby-sitting me. I wanted to hit the ball, but my dad wouldn’t let me. One time I did get to hit it, and the golf pro saw me and said I had a good swing and that I should play. So I started hitting balls.”
She hasn’t stopped since.
“I practice every day,” said Choe, who hones her skills at either Castlewood Country Club in Pleasanton or the Santa Clara Golf and Country Club. “I love to play.”
And what’s her favorite aspect of the game?
“Putting,” said the incoming seventh-grader at Blach Junior High. “I’m really good at it.”
Choe proved that at the June 18 Junior Sectional, winning the girls 12-and-under division by nine strokes. Choe posted a 40 over nine holes at Ridgemark Golf & Country Club in Hollister.
Like most golfers, however, Choe had a few holes she would have liked back.
“I didn’t play all that well,” she said. “I had a triple bogey on one hole and a 3-putt on another one. But the other holes I did well.”
Choe hopes for another strong performance today when she opens play in the United States Junior Girls Qualifier at the Claremont Country Club in Oakland.
Twins Adam and Brett Sollers of Los Altos Hills traveled to Miami, Fla., earlier this month to compete in the 90-player Future Collegians World Tour National Championship.
Adam placed 12th with a three-day score of 223 and Brett finished 35th with a 233.
Adam was one shot back of the lead after two rounds, then struggled the final day, June 16.
“I had a bad last round,” he said. “I couldn’t get anything going.”
Brett had a similar problem near the end of the first day.
“I finished poorly,” he said. “I got a 9 on the second-to-last hole and that messed up my round.”
But Brett bounced back the next day with a 73 and was 2-under-par after 13 holes.
Two days after the FCWT, Brett took part in the California Golf Association State Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach Golf Links
Brett was eliminated from the tournament after two rounds, his score of 164 not good enough to make the final 32.
The Sollers, 2001 graduates of St. Francis High, will play in an Amateur Junior Golf Association event in Lompoc next week.
