Yealimi Noh of Concord has dropped out of high school and is expected to turn pro sometime in the next year, but she seems to be ready right now.
The 16-year-old Noh continued her torrid summer by defeating Alex Pano of Lake Worth, Fla., N.C., 4 and 3, in the scheduled 36-hole final of the fog-plagued 70th U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach.
“I mean, it really hasn’t sunk in yet,” Noh said after claiming her first United States Golf Association title. “It’s been such a long day, too. I just haven’t gotten to chance to fully realize what this all means, but it really means a lot to me.
“To be able to win it right after Junior PGA Championship, which is a really big accomplishment of mine. I knew I could do it, but I was a little unsure because I haven’t always had the best results in match play.”
Noh is being home-schooled after leaving Corondelet High in Concord and has turned down a scholarship to UCLA.
Pano, 13, held a 2-up lead after winning the seventh hole with a birdie, but Noh took the next three holes with birdies to grab the lead for good and built a 4-up margin after the morning round.
Noh pushed her lead to 6-up with birdies on the 22nd and 23rd, losing only one hole from No. 8 through No. 23. Pano won the 30th and 32nd with pars to cut her deficit to 4 down, but Noh wrapped up the title with a par to halve the 33rd hole.
A week earlier, Noh captured the 43rd Girls’ Junior PGA Championship in Lexington, Ky., also won the 2018 California Junior Girls’ State Championship for the second time in four years and was Northern California medalist in U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship qualifying at Sequoyah Country Club in Oakland.
Noh reached the final with a 3-and-2 victory over Gina Kim of Chapel Hill, N.C., who will be a freshman at Duke in the fall, in the morning semifinals, while Pano, 13, upset stroke-play medalist Lucy Li of Redwood Shores, 1 up.
Pano sank an eight-foot birdie putt on the last hole and Li barely missed a seven-footer that would have forced extra holes.
There were nearly 16 hours of fog delays during the week, including 30 minutes before Saturday morning’s semifinal matches.
For complete results, visit http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/championships/2018/u-s–girls–junior.html#!scoring.
