Accompanied by her two best club friends — a straight driver and precision putter — Ciera Min continued her stretch of dominance, despite a long break from golf.
On Tuesday, the Gonzaga senior-to-be tore up the OGA Golf Course in Woodburn, Ore., with a 5-under-par 67 to win medalist honors at the U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifier.
Min, a 2013 Waiakea graduate, fired seven birdies, including four on the front nine, to outpace the 58-player field by three shots and was one of five qualifiers.
“It’s very special for me to have won because it was a USGA tournament that I hadn’t been to yet,” she said. “It was especially notable because I got to see my family a few days before the qualifier.
“I was hitting my driver really solid and straight which helped to put my ball into play and position, but the part of my game that was working was my putting. Honestly, I can genuinely say that I was just getting really lucky with some long birdie putts.”
The U.S. Amateur is the highest step on the ladder for amateur golf. Once upon a time, Tiger Woods captured three titles from 1994 to ’96.
Min pocketed the West Coast Conference championship, her first collegiate victory, on April 20 with a Bulldog record 6-under 66 at Blackhawk Country Club in Danville, Calif.
The U.S. Women’s Amateur will be held Aug. 1-7 at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Pa. The tournament’s 156-player field will be trimmed to 64 after two rounds of stroke play, and match play will whittle those 64 down to a champion.
It will be Min’s first appearance at the prestigious competition, but she has played in two U.S. Amateur Public Links championships (discontinued after 2014) and one U.S. Junior Amateur championship.
Min, a psychology major has been studying for her Graduate Record Examinations, a test for graduate school.
Min has also been applying to social psychology doctoral programs and thinking about marriage and family therapy masters programs as well.
“This summer has been quite busy for, so honestly, I hadn’t been getting out to the course much at all,” Min said. “Because of that, I went into the qualifier with a pretty laid-back mentality, but I was definitely a bit concerned since the last event I had played in was two months prior at the conference championship.”
But Min is seasoned enough to have a fortified mindset. Forget that golfadvisor.com reviews describe OGA’s degree of difficulty as moderate, which can sometimes lure golfers into gambling on perceived easy holes.
“I just kept telling myself to play it one shot at a time. Sometimes I think that some of my friends may feel that my mentality for golf is too casual,” Min said. “Aside from the golf, I’m very excited to be able to go to Pennsylvania. I’m currently working on prospective graduate school programs, and this event gives me the opportunity to visit some schools on the East Coast.
“It’s really nice to have golf and academic experiences integrate together because both are really important factors in my life right now.”
Min is part of the most prominent streak in BIIF golf history. A Waiakea golfer has won the last 13 BIIF individual titles.
Here’s the Warrior list of BIIF champions: Amanda Wilson, 2004; Christine Kim, ’05; Nicole Aoki, ’06; Britney Yada, 2007-09; Nani Yanagi, ’10; Shaina Mizusawa, ’11; Min, 2012-13; Andi Igawa, ’14; and Kaley Saludares, 2015-16.
Kim’s younger sister Kimberly Kim, also a Waiakea golfer, isn’t part of that storied BIIF champions list. But Kimberly Kim is on another prestigious list.
In 2006, Kim Kim, at 14, became the youngest player to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur. She turned pro in 2010.
“That was a thought that crossed my mind shortly after knowing that I qualified,” Min said. “Winning a USGA event is huge in itself, and Kim being the youngest winner in the history of the event is seriously a historic moment that I wholeheartedly respect and look up to.
“I actually went to this tournament on my own, and I didn’t know many people since it was in Oregon. In fact, I was probably one of the few, if not only girl without a caddy, pushing my own bag, but the OGA staff, the girls that I played with, and their caddies were genuinely kind and supportive, and having that Aloha spirit in a place that was elsewhere than my home was a pretty special moment.”
