Golf / Maryann Hudson : Sinn Gives It One Last College Try

The last time Pearl Sinn shot in the 100s for 18 holes, she was 11. It was her first tournament, and she scored 101.

Sinn, now 21, is considered the top woman amateur golfer in the United States. She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur and the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links tournaments last summer, becoming the first golfer to win them in the same year.

Sinn also played on the 1988 U.S. Curtis Cup team--comparable to the Davis Cup team in men’s tennis--which lost to Great Britain at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England. In September, she traveled to Stockholm to help the three-member U.S. team win the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship.

When Sinn is not playing in tournaments or attending classes at Arizona State, where she is a senior, she works on her game at the course where she prepared for that first tournament--the Bellflower Golf Club and Tennis Center, a 9-hole, par-3 municipal course where she learned to play.

“When I was 11, I found a friend to play golf with, and, along with two older people, we would play on weekends from 9 in the morning until the sun went down,” Sinn said from Tempe, Ariz.

“Golf never was a struggle, but I learned gradually. I was the only girl who played at the course, besides my sister. And I was the only girl who hung around the golf course, period.”

Sinn’s parents, Jay and Sue Sinn, also spent a lot of time at the Bellflower course because they operated the club restaurant. It wasn’t quite the business the Sinns planned to work in when they moved to Bellflower from Seoul 12 years ago.

Jay Sinn, who worked in real estate and land development in Seoul, also owned a business in Southern California, and he decided to move his family because he thought life here would afford better opportunities. But shortly after the move, he lost the business. So the Sinns began working in the restaurant business--and Pearl says golf was a natural accompaniment.

“My dad had been playing golf since I was really little, so I was always exposed to it,” she said. “In Seoul, Dad belonged to three or four country clubs.”

Her father is now her golf coach and also works in junior golf. Her mother works for the Bellflower School District, and her sister, Patti, 16, plays golf in the Los Angeles junior program. Patti was named to the America’s Cup team this year. Sue Sinn is even taking up golf, so they can make it a foursome.

Surprisingly, perhaps, Pearl Sinn has never won a college tournament, and, although she offers no excuses, she does point to several factors.

Sinn, heavily recruited by colleges while she was at Bellflower High School, said she narrowed her choices to UCLA and Arizona State, then chose Arizona State to gain the experience of living away from home. She wasn’t equipped, however, to break away from her family.

“My parents are supportive, and they take care of a lot of little things for me--like even eating,” Sinn said. “Things are easier at home, but I can’t blame that.

“I just don’t think I put as much importance on college golf as I have on summer golf. In the summer, you have six tournaments to play in, and you want to play as hard as you can to make a name for yourself and to make it to the (international) teams.

“But in college golf, you play in 13 tournaments a year, with 4 years to play, and the only thing you are working at is to make the All-American team. And you don’t even have to win a tournament to make it.

Sinn promised, however, that this year will be different. “I know I have 10 tournaments to play in, and I am going to give this my all,” she said.

Sinn plans to graduate in May with a degree in business administration and to turn professional in 1990, after the Curtis Cup tournament, which she hopes to play in one last time.

“When I turn pro, I am never going to look back,” she said. “I think it’s so glamorous out there--well, I think it’s what you make it. And I think it will be really great--playing golf and making money!”

Sinn said that she’s not sure whether she will stay in the Phoenix area or move back to Bellflower after graduation, but that whenever she’s in Southern California, she can usually be found at the Bellflower golf course.

“It has a driving range, two large putting greens, an area where I can chip, and I’m comfortable there,” she said. “What more can you want unless you are going out to play 18 holes?”

The U.S. portion of the LPGA money season ended at the San Jose tournament last weekend, but there still are close races for money leader and player of the year. Both will come down to the $450,000 tournament at Tokyo, Nov. 4-6. Only the top 45 money winners qualify for that tournament.

First prize in the tournament is $67,500, and there are six golfers in the money race--Sherri Turner at $347,255, Nancy Lopez at $322,145, Rosie Jones at $318,973, Colleen Walker at $311,784, Amy Alcott at $291,722 and Ayako Okamoto, last year’s money winner, at $284,156.

The player of the year is determined by a point system--9 for a tournament victory, 4 for second place, and so on down the line. Four golfers are in the running: Lopez with 49 points; Okamoto, last year’s winner, with 42, and Turner and Jones, who are tied at 41.

Golf Notes

If it’s the off-season for baseball teams, it’s the on-season for baseball golf tournaments. Most are benefits, some are open to the public to play, and others are just available to watch. One of the biggest is Don Drysdale’s Hall of Fame tournament, Jan. 4-7 at three desert clubs--Morningside at Rancho Mirage, Ironwood at Palm Desert and Desert Horizons at Indian Wells. The tournament teams 30 former superstars of various sports with 90 amateurs. For information, call Frank Ellerbroek at (619) 324-6199.

Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser is chairman of the Martin Luther Hospital Celebrity Invitational Golf and Tennis tournament, to benefit the hospital’s cardiac care and open-heart surgery programs, Nov. 7 at Industry Hills. Former Dodger and Angel pitcher Don Sutton is scheduled to play, and the public is invited to participate. For information, call (714) 491-5961. . . . Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia is the host of the Casa Colina Hospital tournament, for the benefit of the hospital’s wheelchair sports program, Dec. 5 at Industry Hills. The public is invited to participate. For information, call (714) 596-7733. . . . Dodger catcher Rick Dempsey is the honorary chairman for the March of Dimes tournament, Nov. 14 at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana. Proceeds will benefit the March of Dimes birth defects foundation. For information, call (818) 956-8565.

The 12th Arnold Palmer Golf Clinic and Exhibition Match, to benefit the Methodist Hospital in Arcadia and the California Medical Center in Los Angeles, will be held Oct. 25 at the Annandale Golf Club in Pasadena. Scheduled to join Palmer at the event are pros Jan Stephenson and Peter Jacobsen. . . . The Boxing Against Alcohol and Drugs organization, founded by former world lightweight champion Mando Ramos to encourage physical fitness as an alternative to chemicals, will hold a tournament Oct. 22 at Heartwell Golf Course in Long Beach. For information, call (213) 421-8855. . . . The Clippers Charity golf tournament, to benefit the Queen of the Valley Hospital, will be held today at Industry Hills. For information, call (213) 748-8000.