Agnes Irwin's Lees finishes strong in AJGA Girls Junior at Disney

   Inter-Ac League girls golf is one of the few scholastic leagues that still plays in the spring, but the season has been slow to get started due to the typically spotty weather around these parts this time of the year.

   Agnes Irwin junior Kaitlyn Lees, who has been one of the best players in the league since winning the individual title as a seventh-grader, escaped to Florida to tee it up in the American Junior Golf Association Girls Junior at Disney for the Easter weekend.

   Lees, the reigning two-time Pennsylvania Junior Girls champion who plays out of Philadelphia Country Club, finished with a flourish Sunday, carding a 1-over 73 over Disney’s Palm Course, a 6,250-yard, par-72 layout in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

   Combined with her earlier rounds of 78 and 77, Sunday’s solid windup allowed Lees to finish tied for 21^st at 228.

   The title went to Emilia Migliaccio,  a Wake Forest recruit from Cary, N.C. who added a 1-under 71 in Sunday’s final round to a pair  of 72s to finish at 1-under 215.

   She finished a shot in front of Alexa Pano, the 12-year-old phenom from Lake Worth, Fla. who opened with a 3-under 69 before falling back with a 76 in the second round. Pano finished up with a 1-under 71 to end up at even-par 216.

   I did a post on Pano after she won the D. Jones/Doherty Championship in January at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. She was still only 11 when she earned a spot in the field for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rolling Green Golf Club last summer.

   Later last summer she claimed her first AJGA win in the PDQ/Philadelphia Runner Junior at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Weyhill Course.

   A little closer to home, the International Junior Golf Tour had a stop at the Jersey Shore this weekend, the Jersey Tee Off Classic, and Episcopal Academy junior Jon Nolan Perry, who helped the Churchmen capture the Inter-Ac title last fall, finished tied for 12^th in the 15-to-19 division. Perry finished second in the Inter-Ac’s individual rankings last fall based on points compiled during the six regular-season mini-tournaments.

   Perry had rounds of 84 and 81 over the 6,320-yard, par-70 Greate Bay Country Club layout for a 165 total. The title went to Lou Baker of Timonium, Md. who had rounds of 73 and 72 for a 5-over 145 total.

   Ryan D’Ariano of West Chester claimed top honors in the 14-and-under division with solid rounds of 79 and 77 for a 156 total.

   In scanning the AJGA site for results from some of the early tournaments, I also found a couple of local guys who traveled to Florida’s West Coast for last weekend’s AJGA Preview at Innisbrook. The field was limited to players ages 12 to 15.

   Perry’s Episcopal teammate, freshman Case Hummer, finished tied for 15^th with rounds of 78 and 81 over the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club’s 6,003-yard, par-70 North Course for a 157 total.

   Blake Stephano, a sophomore on Radnor’s Central League championship team, bounced back from an opening-round 92 with a 79 to finish tied for 47^th at 171.

   Kelvin Si of China and Noah Kumar of Sarasota, Fla. shared the title at 5-over 145. Si had rounds of 75 and 70 while Kumar carded rounds of 72 and 73.