Jasmine Koo uses stellar second round to take solo lead at Therese Hession Regional

February 3, 2025 | by Justin Golba of AmateurGolf.com

Jasmine Koo (USC Athletics Photo)

Koo shot a second round 6-under 65 to propel up the leaderboard and help the Trojans take the lead in the team competition

Jasmine Koo shot a second-round 6-under 65 to propel up the leaderboard and help the USC Trojans take the lead in the 2025 Therese Hession Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. USC leads the team competition by five shots at 9-under with rounds of 282-277.

Koo heads into the final round 7-under with rounds of 70-65 to take the lead in the individual competition by one shot over Kary Hollenbaugh of Ohio State. Hollenbaugh is currently 6-under with rounds of 68-68. She won the 2025 SALLY in January.

Koo is currently ranked No. 24 in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com Women's Rankings. Her second round was bogey-free, and she added six birdies to her total. She birdied three of the final four holes and tied her best round of the season from the Stanford Intercollegiate.

Xin Kou of USC and Siuue Wu of Florida are T3 at 4-under, and Tong An of Oregon and Kiara Romero of Oregon are T5 at 3-under to round out the top five.

Florida is in solo second place at 4-under, five shots back of the Trojans heading into the final round. Texas is in solo third place at 3-over, and South Carolina is in solo fourth place at 4-over.

Oregon, California, and Arizona State are T5 at 8-over.

This unique collegiate tournament was founded by Cathy (Hanlon) Marino, a member of the PVGC Hall of Fame, Therese Hession, Ohio State University Women's Golf Coach, and Sid Croft, a longtime PVGC member.

Marino and Hession were both former members of the Southern Methodist women's golf team and competitors on the LPGA Tour. In 1995, while Marino was the head coach at SMU and Hession was in her third year at Ohio State, they developed the idea of having a ladies collegiate event in Southern California early in the year to kick off the Spring season.

Marino had been a high school star at Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes Estates, and she approached her good friend, Sid Croft, PVGC Board Counsel, about the possibility. Croft took the idea to the PVGC Board of Directors, which unanimously approved the idea, and the first tournament was held in February 1996.

Results: Northrop Grumman Challenge

Place	Player	Location	Pts	Scores
1	Kary Hollenbaugh	New Albany, OH	800	68-68-67=203
2	Kiara Romero	San Jose, CA	500	70-69-68=207
3	Xin (Cindy) Kou	Windermere, FL	400	68-70-70=208
4	Jasmine Koo	Cerritos, CA	400	70-65-76=211
4	Farah O'Keefe	Austin, TX	400	73-68-70=211

View full results for Northrop Grumman Challenge

About the Northrop Grumman Challenge

Jasmine Koo uses stellar second round to take solo lead at Therese Hession Regional

Women's college tournament started in 1996 as a way to kick off the Spring season. Team (best four scores out of five players) and individual competitions.