LOCAL NOTES : Booth Loses to 14-Year-Old in Western Golf Assn. Junior Final

Grace Park, a 14-year-old from Phoenix, defeated Kellee Booth of Coto de Caza, 2 and 1, to win the 67th Women’s Western Golf Assn. Junior Girls’ championship Friday at Knollwood Country Club in Granger, Ind.

Park is the youngest to win the event since LPGA player, Lori Garbacz, won at age 14 in the early 1970s. LPGA Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez won her first of three consecutive Western Juniors at age 15.

Booth, 17, the top-ranked junior girls’ golfer in the United States, had won six of seven previous tournaments this year.

She had a 2-up lead after making nine pars on the front nine of the par-72, 5,898-yard West Course. Park birdied No. 3 but had double bogeys at Nos. 4 and 5 and three-putted No. 9 for bogey.

Park took control on the back nine with birdies on Nos. 11 and 16, while Booth had four bogeys, three of them because of three-putt greens.

The match ended on No. 17, where Park made a downhill, eight-foot putt for par.

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Tiger Woods of Cypress shot three-over 75 at Torrey Pines South to finish in fourth place, eight shots out of the lead, in the boys’ 15-17 division of the Optimist Junior World golf championship.

Patrick Perez of Cardiff shot 69 to finish at 10-under 278 for 54-holes, the second best score in tournament history. Second-place finishers Gilberto Morales of Venezuela and Chad Wright of Ventura finished three strokes behind.

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Linda Brenneman of Mission Viejo won a cycling gold medal in the 33-mile team time trials at the U.S. Olympic Festival in San Antonio.

Brenneman teamed with Carol Ann Bostick of Corrales, N.M., Dede Demet of Milwaukee and Sally Zack of Boulder, Colo., to finish in 1 hour 17 minutes 3.03 seconds and win the first gold medal of the festival.

Janie Eickhoff of Los Alamitos earned a bronze medal, teaming with Susan George of Schnecksville, Pa., Jessica Grieco of Emerson, N.J., and Pam Schuster of Northridge to finish in 1:22:12.72.

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Tyce Routson and Jeff Nichols, both of the Mission Viejo Nadadores, finished first and second in the three-meter event of the boys’ 16-18 division of the U.S. Diving Junior Olympic Zone D championships in Mission Viejo.

Both qualified for the Junior Olympic National Championships in Pasadena, Aug. 4-8.

Sandy Zubrin and Summer Brown, both of the Nadadores, finished first and second in the girls’ 16-18 one-meter competition, and their teammates, Amy Sloan and Arika Earley, also qualified for the Junior Olympic nationals.

Erica Sorgi of the Nadadores won the girls’ 13-and-under platform event, qualifying for the Junior Olympic nationals with teammates Kristen Marquis and Genevieve Elefante.

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Miles Simon of Mater Dei had 21 points and five rebounds to lead Southcoast to a 71-57 victory over Phoenix BCI to reach the quarterfinals of the Nike National Prep Basketball tournament in Las Vegas. Clay McKnight, also of Mater Dei, added 15 points for Southcoast.

Tony Gonzalez had 25 points and seven rebounds for Orange County in a 79-77 overtime loss to Nebraska.

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Gavin Beschen of San Clemente was among the surfers who advanced to the main event Round 2 of the $23,600 pro tour event at Surfrider Beach in Malibu.

Today’s field will include Richie Collins of Newport Beach, Mike Parsons and Dino Andino of San Clemente and current tour points leader Rob Machado.

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David Schultz of Golden West signed a letter of intent to play baseball at San Jose State, the school announced.

Schultz, an outfielder from Marina High who hit .324 last season for the Rustlers, earned first-team All-Orange Empire Conference honors. Schultz also set Golden West single-game records with three home runs and eight runs batted in against Harbor City last season.

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Bill Fallon said he has been hired as the women’s volleyball coach at Eureka (Ill.) College. Fallon was the coach at Mater Dei from 1986-91 and at Villa Park in 1992. He graduated from Mater Dei in 1979.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.