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Course Record 65 Lifts Ghim into First Place in State Junior Amateur Golf Tournament

Buffalo Grove 15-year-old wowed Barrington tournament officials with great round.

Doug Ghim won’t even graduate from high school for another three years, but the Buffalo Grove teenager already has an impressive list of golfing achievements.

Ghim, 15, was the 2009 Illinois Junior Golf Association Player of the Year. Last fall, he finished third in the Illinois High School Association Class 3A State Tournament, just one stroke behind Thomas O’Bryan of Waubonsie Valley.

Wednesday, Ghim added another milestone, shooting a 65 in the second round of the Illinois Junior Amateur Championship at Makray Memorial Golf Club in Barrington, equaling the course record. It was also the best 18-hole score recorded by a golfer since the tournament moved to Makray in 2007.

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“I just came out confident, for some reason,” said Ghim, who attends . “The wind wasn’t up at all on the first nine and I hit a couple good shots to start with, so I felt like it was possible.”

Tournament Director Jordan Abdel-Haq said it was an “incredible” round.

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“There have been a few surprises this week but we have clearly seen Illinois’ best make it through [to the final round],” Abdel-Haq said. “With Ian Mankoff’s consistency thus far and Doug Ghim’s incredible second round, it’s going to be fun to see how this championship concludes.”

Mankoff, of Lake Forest, and Ghim are both one-over-par for the tournament after Mankoff shot a 72 Wednesday. Brian Bullington of Frankfort, who fired an impressive second-round 69, is one stroke back, along with Gabe Aprati of New Lenox.

Ghim birdied two of the first three holes he played and finished with four birdies and a score of 32 on the opening nine. He birdied two of the final four holes he played, including the last one, to put his name in the record book.

“That doesn’t mean as much as the trophy would,” he said. “I still have to buckle down and get down to business tomorrow.”

The tournament champion is awarded the Slovitt Cup, given in memory of Bruce Slovitt, a former member of the Illinois Junior Golf Association’s governing board, who died in 2006.

Ghim said he was a bit fatigued during Tuesday’s first round, when he carded a 78. He qualified for the Illinois Open Monday and finished 11th in last week’s three-day Western Junior Championship at Beverly Country Club in Chicago.

The Western Junior Championship attracts some of the top teen golfers in the nation. Ghim was the highest finishing Illinois golfer.

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