Oh opts for pros

Adam Candee

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 | 9:29 a.m.

Sunny Oh would love to play another year of college golf at UNLV.

Except for one thing: She turned pro on Monday, a decision not entirely her own but one she is learning to accept.

"I was wanting to stay in school more, but to be honest with you, my parents wanted me to turn pro," Oh said.

While Oh said the choice to go pro "wasn't 100 percent" made by her parents, UNLV coach Missy Ringler feels that her 21-year-old star felt pushed to leave school.

"That was definitely, I believe, 100 percent the case from the get-go," Ringler said. "If it was completely Sunny's decision, I think she would have stayed in school -- if not for two years, at least for one."

Rumors swirled around the team that Oh would leave after her successful freshman year, but she and Ringler agreed that Oh would play one more season with the understanding that pro golf awaited after it. Oh is believed to be the first female college golfer in the country to leave school early for the pro ranks this year.

"I knew all year it was coming," Ringler said. "It was something we discussed at the beginning of the fall."

By way of her ranking in Golfweek's collegiate top 20, Oh earned an exemption to play the remainder of the 2004 Futures Tour. It is the farm league for the big show, with the top five money winners earning an LPGA card for the next year and the next 10 players automatically advancing to the final stage of Q-school.

Oh, who shot a 75 in U.S. Women's Open qualifying Monday in Phoenix to advance to the next stage, begins play June 4 on the Futures Tour in Ann Arbor, Mich. Oh missed the first six of the tour's 18 events while finishing her college season, and she now joins 16 other players on the Futures Tour who list Korea as their home.

Oh led the Rebels to their first NCAA championship appearance this season and leaves UNLV after her sophomore season as the most accomplished player in the three-year history of the program. She won the West Regional and finished in the top 15 at nationals as a freshman, beginning the pressure from her parents to join the legion of young Korean golfers playing professionally.

She did little to alleviate that pressure by qualifying for April's LPGA Takefuji Classic at Las Vegas Country Club and subsequently making the cut, but pocketing no money while playing as an amateur.