LOCALS REPRESENT COUNTRY ON GOLF COURSE: WALKER CUP HAS LOCAL FLAVOR KIM, PUTNAM SELECTED TO REPRESENT U.S. TEAM.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

Former Campbell Hall High of Studio City standout Anthony Kim and recent Pepperdine University graduate Michael Putnam were selected to represent the U.S. team in the 40th U.S. Walker Cup Match, scheduled for Aug. 13-14 at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Ill.

The U.S. will play a team comprised of golfers from Great Britain and Ireland in the two-day, biannual competition.

The event consists of 16 singles matches and eight foursome (alternate shot) matches between the two 10-man national teams.

The Great Britain/Ireland team has won the event three straight times - 1999, 2001 and 2003. The U.S., which leads the series 31-7-1, last won in 1997, when former Hart High and Pepperdine golfer Jason Gore of Valencia was on the U.S. team.

Kim, 20, who reached match play in the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship after his freshman season at Campbell Hall, completed his prep career at La Quinta High, earning a golf scholarship from Oklahoma.

The Golf Coaches Association of America Freshman of the Year in 2004, Kim repeated as All-American this year after winning the Big 12 Conference individual championship by six strokes as a sophomore. He had a 65 in earning medalist honors at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, where he reached the semifinals before losing in 20 holes.

Putnam, the 2004 Pacific Coast Amateur champion from Tacoma, Wash., earned this year's Byron Nelson Award as the nation's top collegiate golfer, and was NCAA runner-up while qualifying for his first U.S. Open.

--Hogarth returns: Amateur veteran Tim Hogarth of Northridge is one of three area golfers to qualify for the U.S. Amateur Championship, along with Keith Kinsel of Glendale and Roy Moon of North Hills.

This year's U.S. Amateur is Aug. 22-28 at Merion Country Club in Ardmore, Pa.

Hogarth, who won the U.S. Amateur Public Links in 1996, won the State Amateur in 1999, the Southern California Golf Association in 2004 and is a four-time Los Angeles City champion, earned a second consecutive trip to the U.S. Amateur with a 74-68-142 effort in a qualifier at South Hills Country Club in West Covina.

He tied for second at South Hills behind Kinsel, a multiple winner of the Oakmont Country Club championship and the Pasadena Amateur as well as a participant in the 2002 U.S. Amateur. Kinsel shot 71-68-139 to finish medalist at 5-under-par at South Hills.

Moon, a graduate of Royal High of Simi Valley, won the 2003 SCGA Amateur title after helping UCLA finish third in the 2003 NCAA finals. He earned his first U.S. Amateur bid with a 73-67-140 to take the last of three berths in a qualifier at SCGA Golf Club in Murrieta.

--Geyer, Edick close: Recent Viewpoint High of Calabasas graduate Nick Geyer of Agoura Hills and Brian Edick of Valencia were first alternates in U.S. Amateur qualifiers.

Geyer shot 72-70-140 at Crystalaire Country Club in Llano, where College of the Canyons sophomore Matt Ryan (73-70-143) was second alternate and recent Granada Hills High graduate Andrew Ok (73-70-143) tied for fourth. Edick, a UC Irvine starter who was the 2001 Daily News boys' Golfer of the Year as a junior at Hart of Newhall, shot 72-75-147 at Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta.

Four other area golfers had strong qualifying bids behind Kinsel and Hogarth at South Hills.

James Dalthorp III, senior-to-be at Oaks Christian High of Westlake Village, tied for sixth at 143 at South Hills after coming within a stroke of a playoff for the final U.S. Amateur berths with a 75-68 effort.

Former Oakmont junior champion Brett Kanda, the 2005 Daily News boys' Golfer of the Year as a senior at Flintridge Prep of La Canada Flintridge, shot 73-71-144 at South Hills to tie for eighth.

--Hot rounds: Mat Shin, who tied for second place in this year's City Section boys golf championship as a junior at Kennedy High of Granada Hills, posted the area's lowest junior round of the year Thursday, shooting 9-under-par 62 to tie the course record at Arcadia's par-71 Santa Anita Golf Course. The round came during his victory in a Southern California PGA junior tour event.

The previous 2005 area best was 63, shot in June by Valencia's Louis Amira - who also finished 9-under-par with that career-best round, playing on a par-72 course in an American Junior Golf Association tournament in New Mexico. He won that 54-hole event by eight strokes.

Dave Shelburne, [phone]

dave.shelburne(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 4 boxes

Photo:

(1) Former Campbell Hall High golfer Anthony Kim was selected to play for the U.S. in the Walker Cup on Aug. 13-14.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer

(2) no caption (book: ``Golf Digest Perfect Your Swing'')

Box:

(1) HOLE OF THE WEEK

(2) BOOK REVIEW

(3) TRACKING LOCAL PROS

(4) CALENDAR