Since Jasmine Koo first stepped on campus at USC, her Trojan coaches have been stressing attention to detail.
“My assistant, Beth [Wu], is always saying it, ‘Attention to detail! Attention to detail! Attention to detail!” Koo said.
The ultra-talented yet ultra-aggressive Koo, a freshman from Cerritos, California, didn’t put much thought into such meticulousness as a junior golfer – dissecting hole locations before competitive rounds, playing to the fat side of greens, not backhanding short putts. She didn’t need to, at least in becoming one of the nation’s top high-schoolers. Her supreme skill led her to a fourth-place finish at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur this year, followed by low-amateur honors at the Chevron Championship, followed by a semifinals appearance at the U.S. Girls’ Junior, followed by a 2-1-1 showing at the Curtis Cup, followed by a No. 2 standing in the world amateur rankings.
Now four starts into her college career, Koo has already matured her game greatly, adding smart golf to stellar golf – and she’s been downright unbeatable as a result.
Since her T-15 finish in her USC debut, Koo has won three straight individual titles, including Monday at the East Lake Cup, where Koo rattled off nine birdies on a PGA Tour layout and shot 7-under 65 to win the 18-hole, stroke-play portion by three shots over her teammate Catherine Park, who also finished runner-up to Koo last week at the Stanford Intercollegiate.
“Small targets and small mistakes,” Koo said afterward, “that was the mindset I went with today, and it really worked.”
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Koo’s run of three straight wins, which also included her first college title at the Windy City Collegiate, puts Koo in an elite group at USC. She joins Annie Park as the only Trojans to ever win three consecutive tournaments; Park also accomplished the feat as a freshman, though her wins came at the Pac-12 Championship, NCAA West Regional and NCAA Championship in 2013.
USC dominated Monday’s shootout at East Lake, finishing six shots ahead of LSU and 15 shots better than UCLA, which will face its Los Angeles rival in Tuesday’s semifinals. Koo will face Bruins senior Caroline Canales in the second match out while Park gets fellow first-team All-American Zoe Campos, who is playing her final college event before turning pro to play LPGA final qualifying. Canales also is weighing a similar decision.
The Tigers will play Oregon in the other women’s semifinal.
Georgia Tech earned the top seed on the men’s side and will face Ohio State on Tuesday. Auburn and Florida State will square off in a rematch of last spring’s NCAA men’s final.
