Port Washington's Shon showing the boys how it's done

Consider it the castle of the princess of boys golf.

For Kelly Shon, there will be no need to fight over the remote control, share a bathroom or worry about a roommate's sleeping habits. When you are the only girl from Nassau County to qualify for the boys golf state tournament at Cornell, you are awarded the luxury of having a hotel room all to yourself.

After coming in second place with a two-day score of 149 at the Nassau County boys individual tournament Tuesday at Bethpage Red, the best finish for a girl in a boys Nassau tournament, Shon will be separated from her male teammates, who will be forced to bunk up with a roommate.

It's unusual in a sense that Shon is accustomed to being separated from the girls. The trip to Cornell beginning June 5 will mark the culmination of a five-year journey in which she was the only girl on the Port Washington boys golf team. Without a girls team, Shon saw teaming up with the boys as a way to develop her game.

"I think it was just that I wanted to play every day," Shon said from Scottsdale, Ariz., where she was competing in the Thunderbird International Junior Invitational at Grayhawk Golf Club. She is the No. 12 junior female golfer in the nation, according to the latest American Junior Golf Association rankings. "Before I became so serious about golf, that was probably the only way I was going to play every day."

Shon moved to Port Washington from South Korea when she was 8 and was introduced to golf by her mother four years later. She made the Port Washington team as an eighth-grader and went 5-0 in the seventh position, although only the top six positions count toward the team's score. Shon was moved up to play out of the Nos. 1 and 2 spots as a freshman and remained on top, leading her male teammates throughout high school.

"I wouldn't say it was awkward," Shon said of being the only girl. "A little intimidating maybe. I've grown used to it."

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Shon says she was treated just like one of the boys by her teammates but was spared some of the boys-being-boys banter that goes on between male adolescents.

"They probably didn't make as many rude remarks toward me as they did with each other," she said with a laugh. "That's just their wonderful manners to the ladies."

Port Washington golf coach Kathy Doughty recognized a sister-and-brother relationship between Shon and her teammates.

"They have such a great rapport and respect her as a player," Doughty said. "They tease her a little because they know how good she is, but in a good way. It's like she is their younger sister and they would never let anything happen to her. Even when we played other schools, a coach would say to me, 'My kid is really excited about playing against Kelly.' "

Excitement surely gave way to astonishment as they often got defeated by . . . well, a girl . . . albeit a nationally ranked one.

"To be honest, I think I had more fun on the boys team than I would have ever had playing on the girls team," Shon said. "Just because of the better competition and playing from longer yardage made it more challenging."

Shon says she isn't as long off the tee as the boys but makes up for it with her accuracy. She will look to defy gender one last time in her second trip to the state tournament - she tied for 63rd as a sophomore - before heading to Princeton, where she will compete on the women's golf team.

"I'm going to miss the whole package," Shon said. "I'll miss the coach, the team, and the excitement of being the only girl."

And being the only golfer with her own hotel room.