Wednesday, June 16, 2004 | 9:21 a.m.
Adam Candee covers golf for the Sun. Reach him at (702) 259-4085 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Sunny Oh's summer work paid her $69 for her first three days of work. Jobs like that usually come with a nametag, a paper hat and a case of rampant acne.
For Oh, a former UNLV women's golf standout, it is life as a 21-year-old rookie on the Futures Tour, the LPGA's mini-tour feeder circuit. We'll guess that first pocket cash from the Bank of Ann Arbor Futures Golf Classic in Michigan did not come in one of those Happy Gilmore-looking oversized checks.
Oh missed the cut in the next Futures event in Ohio at the Lima Memorial Hospital Futures Classic, dropping her to 173rd -- tied for dead last at $69 -- on the money list after her first two professional events.
She joined the circuit just before midseason, so there is not much time left to move up the list with 10 tournaments left. The top five earners on the Futures Tour receive one-year LPGA cards and the next 10 players on the money list advance to the final stage of qualifying school.
Sure, it's only two tournaments and Oh certainly hitched her golf bag to an LPGA-bound star at UNLV. A win could easily vault her into the top 20 on the money list, but that is easier said than done against a consistently strong field of hungry young pros from around the world.
Oh turned pro after the NCAA championships this year, at the behest of her parents and against much urging from just about everyone else. Once a touted prospect at UNLV -- she won the NCAA West Regional as a freshman and led the Rebels to nationals as a sophomore -- Oh did something very few female college golfers do by turning pro early.
Unlike in men's golf, the financial incentive just is not there unless a woman is a sure shot for the LPGA. Those $9,100 winner's checks -- and $69 motel-and-gas handouts for 77th place -- on the Futures Tour won't cut it for long. Oh's next chance at pro cash begins Friday at the Michelob Ultra Futures Charity Golf Classic in Forsyth, Ill.
Some of the finest junior golfers in the country, including a handful of locals, will take to Angel Park's Mountain Course next week in the Las Vegas Founders Junior Golf Championship.
The tournament, which once attracted Tiger Woods and boasts Chris Riley and Cristie Kerr as former champions, begins Tuesday morning and continues through Thursday. It is an American Junior Golf Association event, kicking off with a Sunday qualifying tournament and a Monday junior-am fundraiser.
Admittedly, many of the names on the entry list -- comprised of 84 players, ages 12 to 18 -- are not recognizable to even the serious golf fan. (If they are familiar, we can only hope you are a golf parent or otherwise assume you to be a person with an inordinate amount of free time.) No locals finished in the top five of the boys' or the girls' field last year.
But it could be fun to keep tabs on locals such as Palo Verde graduate Katy Barrett and Cimarron-Memorial stud Mackenzie Mack. Barrett finished in a tie for eighth at last year's event at Boulder Creek Golf Course, one of two top-10 AJGA showings for the daughter of former big-league baseball player Marty Barrett.
Other local entries are Michael Wynn and Kyle Ewing on the boys' side and Chloe Nelson on the girls' side. It has not been too long since a valley player won the event, as Christine Fernandez claimed the girls' division title in 2002.
You never know when the next Woods -- or closer to home, Stephanie Louden -- might do something special on the way to stardom.
Raise your hand -- slowly and after a brisk warm-up, of course -- if you knew that more than 100,000 golfers suffered injuries related to the sport in 2002. That figure comes from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, via the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, which is launching a public service campaign aimed at avoiding such injuries. (Doesn't sound too good for business, though.)
Overuse syndromes, tendonitis, bursitis, strains and sprains are all common to golf. Not surprisingly, most injuries occur in the stress points of the elbow, knee, hip, wrist and spine.
To avoid such problems, the AAOS recommends some good sense ideas like stretching before you play, picking the right golf shoes and easing back into consistent golfing after the clubs gathered cobwebs over the winter.
For the fourth time in five years, Laurie Johnson claimed the Women's Southern Nevada Golf Association Amateur Championship.
Johnson fired an 80 and a 79 for a two-round total of 15-over 159 at TPC at the Canyons. Brenda Knott finished two strokes back at 17-over to place second and Sherry Jackson earned third place at 20-over.
The net title went to Donna Chartrau at 1-over with rounds of 72 and 73. D'Anne Daniels and Sakae Nafie tied for second at 4-over.
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