Yeong Lee captures girls state championship with 5-over 77

VASSALBORO – Yeong Lee, a 17-year-old exchange student, wowed golf aficionados, fans and competitors alike after she brought her card up to the officials’ clubhouse and saw her score posted on the leader board at the State Individual Schoolgirl-Schoolboy Golf Championships.

The Seoul, South Korea, native turned in a 5-over-par 77 – a comfortable four strokes better than the girls’ runnerup – on Natanis Golf Course’s soggy Arrowhead 18-hole course Saturday.

And if the gallery wasn’t already amazed, they were after they found out it was only the sixth round of golf the diminutive Lee Academy junior had played all year.

“I have only been here since September first,” Lee said with a slight chuckle.

That’s quite a few for Lee, given her tendency not to hit the links a lot.

“I’ve been playing three years. It is more of a hobby for me,” Lee explained. “I’m kind of lazy, so I don’t really like to play a lot.”

It didn’t show in her play on a balmy October Saturday as she was 2-over-par on the front nine despite two bogeys and a double bogey and she overcame four bogeys with a birdie and four pars to finish 3 over on the back nine.

Lee was the lone Eastern Maine golfer among Saturday’s champions, but the 2004 schoolgirl champ wasn’t the only one to elicit admiration from onlookers. Defending Class B champ Will Robinson of Greely in Cumberland Center won his second straight title with an eye-popping 3-under-par 69, Brunswick’s Jordan Kelly won his first A championship with a 73, and Brady Chapman from Telstar of Bethel won C with a 72.

The rain-soaked greens and playable-but-somewhat boggy fairways from Friday’s hard rains made the going a little slower than usual, but the golfers adjusted and most shot well on a day that turned sunny at times.

“I was bad on the greens with three three-putts, but it was good,” said Lee, who shot an 86 here last week in a practice round. “I was hitting my putts too light on the wet greens. Putting is my worst thing.”

Lee, who wants to major in business administration at the University of Pennsylvania, plans to return to Lee for her senior year as well. And although she may not increase her frequency of play, Lee’s only varsity golfer does plan to return to defend her title.

Robinson wasn’t sure how realistic his goal of defending his 2003 title was after a sub-par round in the team championships the previous weekend.

“I played pretty awful last week,” he said. “My game wasn’t where I wanted.”

A 77 may not be “awful” for most folks, but it made Robinson more focused last week during his practice rounds. He also played smartly on Saturday, mindful of the conditions.

“I knew the greens would be sticking. The balls spun a lot more than they would have normally, so you could fly the ball a lot farther and even past the pins,” the senior explained. “I wasn’t necessarily clubbing up, but I was swinging a lot harder and putting more spin on the ball.”

Robinson, who followed up a 36 on the front with a scalding 33 on the back, also decided to leave certain clubs in his bag.

“I didn’t hit my driver once,” he said. “I was hitting 3-wood all day because I have a lot more control with that. I was in the middle of most fairways and probably missed maybe two all day.”

His scores proved that. Robinson had two birdies and just two bogeys on the front nine and had three birdies and no bogeys on the back, which club pro Dick Browne says many consider to be the tougher nine.

Robinson easily outdistanced runnerup Jeff Goggin from Maranacook of Readfield (75) and third-place finisher Ronald Kelton of Cape Elizabeth (76).

Mount Desert Island’s Marcus Maffucci carded a 79, was in a five-way tie for seventh, and wound up ninth after the tiebreakers to represent Eastern Maine.

In Class C, Southern/Western Maine golfers swept the top four places with Bangor Christian’s Nick Pelletier finishing fifth, five strokes back with a 77.

Things went pretty much the same in Class A as Will Underkuffler from Mt. Blue of Farmington was third at 76 as the only non-Southern Maine golfer in the top nine. Ian Lee from Hampden Academy won a five-way tiebreaker at 80 to finish 10th overall.