Booth Brings No. 2 Sun Devils to Pac-10 Event

Two years ago Tiger Woods made a triumphant competitive return to Orange County, winning--by 14 strokes--the Pacific 10 Conference men’s golf championship at Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach.

Next week another county golf prodigy will get a chance for a competitive homecoming.

Kellee Booth, a senior at Arizona State, will be among the second-ranked Sun Devils in the Pac-10 women’s championship Monday through Wednesday at Tijeras Creek. Booth family lives in nearby Coto de Caza.

Booth, the 1993 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion, won two CIF-SCGA championships while at Santa Margarita High. She is ranked third in the nation in the latest MasterCard individual rankings and won her first collegiate tournament this month.

Thirty-two of the top 100 players nationally are from the Pac-10, including five of the top nine. Individual standouts include Grace Park, an Arizona State freshman who is top-ranked nationally and Arizona’s Marisa Baena, who won the NCAA title in 1996 and was runner-up last year.

Tee times start at 9 a.m. Monday and Tuesday and at 8 a.m. on Wednesday. Admission is free.