Booth to Attend Arizona State; Allison Headed for Duke

Kellee Booth and Alicia Allison, Orange County’s best female high school golfers, have decided where they will go to school next year.

Booth, of Santa Margarita, said Monday she will attend Arizona State, the defending NCAA champion. She signed a letter of intent Wednesday but waited to announce her decision until the college received the letter. Allison, of Foothill High, picked Duke.

Booth, who won her second consecutive CIF-Southern California Golf Assn. girls’ title in June and helped Santa Margarita to the CIF-SCGA team championship, picked Arizona State--her mother’s alma mater--over Duke after also considering Wake Forest, Florida and Georgia. Jane Bastanchury Booth won the 1969 NCAA title for the Sun Devils.

Booth said the fact that her mother attended ASU didn’t figure in her decision. She said she felt at home there, liked the practice facility and that she could be a business major. Her grade-point average at Santa Margarita is 4.17.

“I felt that ASU was the better place for me to advance in golf, to become a better player, and become a better person through the school,” said Booth, who won nine of the 12 junior tournaments she entered during the last year, including the USGA Girls’ Junior.

Allison was hoping Booth would be her teammate. They are good friends and share the same teaching professional, Tom Sargent, of Yorba Linda Country Club.

“It would have been nice. Especially because Arizona State doesn’t need another top golfer--they seem to get them all,” Allison said, laughing.

Allison had a disappointing summer of junior golf. She finished in the top five of several tournaments but did not win.

Allison said she made her decision--she also considered Furman, Wake Forest and UCLA--mainly because of academics. She has a 4.35 grade-point average.

“I’m not totally certain if golf is going to be a part of my future,” she said, “and Duke seemed like it would be a good academic challenge, and I kind of wanted that.”