ASSOCIATED PRESS Stephanie Kono, a 15-year-old from Hawaii, leads by a stroke entering today's final round of the Westfield Junior PGA Championship.

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After Publinx loss,
Chun is moving on

Mari Chun's run to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship left her scrambling yesterday to make it to the next destination of her summer tour.

After losing her match to Jane Rah yesterday morning, Chun quickly packed up and left Kansas City, Mo., bound for Eagle, Idaho, site of next week's U.S. Girls Junior championship. She was hoping to make it in time to register and play a practice round today.

"I never expected to go this far, or we wouldn't have booked a flight for this afternoon," Chun said as she waited for a connecting flight in Denver yesterday.

"We were kind of hoping we would miss it and leave (this) afternoon. Unfortunately it didn't happen that way. I just feel I grew from this experience and I'll have many more years to play the Public Links. I'm pretty excited about the outcome."

Although she didn't make it to today's 36-hole final, Chun took with her valuable experience gained over a memorable week in Kansas City.

The 17-year-old from Pearl City earned co-medalist honors in stroke play and won three matches to reach the next-to-last day of competition. She is also exempt from qualifying for next year's WAPL by reaching the quarterfinals.

Chun nearly overcame a five-hole deficit on the back nine against Rah, a 14-year-old from Torrance, Calif., with four straight birdies. But a bogey on No. 18 gave Rah a 2-up victory and a spot in the semifinals.

"I played pretty poorly on the front," Chun said. "It was one of those days where you wonder where your game went. But I just stayed patient and eventually it came back and it showed when I got those four birdies in a row and made it to the 18th hole. At least I never gave up hope. It was nice to see myself be able to do it under pressure."

Rah then lost to Eun Jung Lee of South Korea 5 and 4 in the semifinals. Lee will play Tiffany Chudy, a sophomore at the University of Florida, in the final.

Chun will be joined by Amanda Wilson and Kimberly Kim of Hilo and Stephanie Kono of Honolulu at the U.S. Girls Junior. She has also qualified for the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship.

Kono holds one-stroke edge

Stephanie Kono carded a 2-over-par 73 yesterday and takes a one-stroke lead into the final round of the Westfield Junior PGA Championship in Westfield, Ohio.

Kono enters the final round at 4 under, while Candace Schepperle of Birmingham, Ala., is 3 under.

Kono entered the third round tied with Schepperle for the lead and birdied the first three holes yesterday. Schepperle finished at 3-over 74 to drop into second place.

"I started off real well, like the first round, by making birdie on the first three holes, but I bogeyed No. 4 because I missed a 2-foot putt. From then on, I was kind of struggling to make par," Kono said.

"On the back nine, my putter was just not working well for me," she added. "I have never been in this situation before in a national championship, so I'm just going to try to hit the greens and have a lot of putts for birdie tomorrow."

Kimberly Kim is tied for eighth place at 4 over in the national championship for golfers ages 17 and under.

Honolulu's Chan Kim is tied for sixth in the boys division after posting a 1-over 72 yesterday. He is six strokes behind leader Alex Volpenhein of Edgewood, Ky.