Peter Kim set scoring records at the 61st Metropolitan Golf Association’s Ike Championships, but it wasn’t enough to captured the championship for the ex-Metuchen High School great.
Kim started the Ike Championships, held at the Essex Country Club in West Orange, with a course and championship record 8-under-par 63 in the opening round played June 27.
The ex-Bulldog, now a senior at the United States Military Academy, followed his record-setting round with back-to-back 70s June 28 to bring his 54-hole score to 10-under 203, tying the championship record. However, defending Ike champion Cameron Young of Sleepy Hollow matched that score, setting up a dramatic sudden-death playoff.
Kim needed a birdie on the 18th hole to tie Young and force the playoffs.
The playoff started out with a three-hole aggregate score playoff holes 10-12. After three holes, Young and Kim were still tied, as each went 1-under-par during that stretch.
Next up was sudden death and it started on the 18th hole, where a par by Young won when Kim couldn’t get up and down from a greenside bunker.
With the win, Young became the 10th person to successfully defend the Ike title — the last being Cameron Wilson in 2012-13.
The 21-year-old Kim was last year’s Met Amateur champion.