Duluth’s Sara Im lists her favorite movie as “Wonder Woman” and her golfing role model as the LPGA’s Lydia Ko. Sunday, the seventh grader at Suwanee’s Riverwatch Middle School reflected a little of both, winning the Girls 12-13 division of the Drive, Chip & Putt National Championship at Augusta National Sunday.
Among the 10 finalists in her group, Im parlayed winning the putting competition - a two-putt aggregate of 2-feet 3-inches - into the overall championship. She finished second in driving (a best of 233.6 yards) in her age group and fourth in chipping (an 11-feet 10-inches aggregate of two attempts).
Having attempted to qualify a number of times in the past, this was Im’s first trip to Augusta National and the national finals. “I knew that I had to get better to try to win,” she wrote in a questionnaire prior to the finals.
Other local finishers Sunday were Canton’s Thaxton Cheyne (seventh place, boys 7-9), Alpharetta’s Patmon Malcom (fourth, boys 10-11), Atlanta’s Sahish Reddy (T-eighth, boys 10-11) and Winston’s Loralie Cowart (ninth, girls 14-15).
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