Isztwan, Lees compete with the best at AJGA's Rolex Tournament of Champions

   The Inter-Ac League’s top two senior players, Penn Charter’s Brian Isztwan and Agnes Irwin’s Kaitlyn Lees, spent Thanksgiving week playing in the American Junior Golf Association’s biggest event, the Rolex Tournament of Champions at the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

   Neither played their best golf, but they were there among the very best junior golfers in the country in what the AJGA bills “The Greatest Week in Junior Golf.” Perhaps a little hyperbole there, but you get the point, this is a big deal.

   Isztwan, who topped the regular-season individual standings in the Inter-Ac this fall, finished up Thanksgiving Day with a 79 on the 7,167-yard, par-71 Champion Course to end up tied for 65^th at 312. Isztwan, who plays out of Huntingdon Valley Country Club, opened with a 79 on the Champion Course Monday, had a 4-over 76 over the 6,995-yard, par-72 Fazio Course in Tuesday’s second round and a 78 in Wednesday’s third round, again at the Fazio Course.

   Lees, twice the winner of the Inter-Ac individual title, finished tied for 66^th among the girls. After opening with a solid 4-over 76 at the Fazio Course, which measured 6,315 yards for the girls, Lees struggled in the second round with a 90 at the Champion Course, which measured 6,399 yards for the girls.

   Lees, who plays out of Philadelphia Country Club, bounced back with an 81 at the Champion Course before finishing up with a 78 Thanksgiving Day at the Fazio Course for a 325 total.

   Isztwan was one of the top junior players in the Philadelphia area last summer. He was the runnerup to Temple freshman Dawson Anders in the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior Boys’ Championship and finished tied for fifth in the Christman Cup.

   Probably his finest moment of the summer came on his home course at Huntingdon Valley when he fired a brilliant 4-under 66 in the second round of the AJGA Philadelphia Junior on his way to a runnerup finish.

   Isztwan earned his invitation to the Rolex Tournament of Champions by being named to the prestigious Transamerica Scholastic Junior All-America Team.

   Lees, who will continue her golf and academic careers at Dartmouth, finished tied for fifth place in defense of the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship she had won the previous two summers. She was the first alternate in qualifying for both the U.S. Junior Girls’ and U.S. Women’s Amateur last summer, but got the call from the USGA in neither. 

   Lees did earn a trip to the Girls Junior PGA Championship at The Country Club of St. Albans in St. Albans, Mo. and finished tied for 49^th.

   And Lees’ scholastic career isn’t quite over yet. The Inter-Ac girls play in the spring and she has one more season left. The Agnes Irwin program is on the rise and a lot of the Owls’ improvement can be attributed to Lees, their best player and the face of the program the last five years.

   Garrett Barber, an LSU recruit, captured the boys title at PGA National. He struggled to a final round of 4-over 75 over the Champion Course, but that was good enough to give him an 8-under 278 total and a one-shot victory over Canon Claycomb of Bowling Green, Ky.

   Barber had opened with a sparkling 5-under 66 on the Champion Course and added rounds of 2-under 70 and 5-under 67 on the par-72 Fazio Course Tuesday and Wednesday.

   Claycomb surged into contention with a brilliant 8-under 64 on the Fazio Course in the third round. He matched par in the final round with a 71 at the Champion Course for a 7-under 279 total.

   Ricky Castillo of Yorba Linda, Calif. was another shot back in third place at 6-under 280. Castillo torched the Fazio Course in the middle two rounds with a 65 and a 66 to share the lead with Barber heading into the final round at 12-under 203, but struggled in the final round with a 6-over 77 at the Champion Course.

   Isztwan wasn’t the only GAP entry in the field as Doug Ergood of Mount Laurel, N.J. finished 49^th with a 302 total. The highlight of the week for Ergood, who earned a trip to the U.S. Junior Amateur at Flint Hills National Golf Club in Andover, Kan. last summer, was a 4-under 68 in Wednesday’s third round at the Fazio Course.

   The girls winner was the amazing Lucy Li of Redwood Shores, Calif. Li was just 13 when she fired rounds of 67 and 68 to nearly win the qualifying medal in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rolling Green Golf Club. I’ve been a fan ever since.

   It just seems like she does stuff like that all the time. Take Round 2 Tuesday at the Rolex. Playing on the Champion course, Li ripped off 10 birdies in a 10-under 62. She rattled off five straight birdies on the back nine at 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 and then made birdies on 17 and 18 to finish off a back-nine 29. She’s 15.

   Li finished off the tournament with a 3-under 69 Thanksgiving Day on the Fazio Course for a 13-under 275 total. Aneka Seumanutafa of Emmitsburg, Md., was the runnerup, five shots behind Li at 8-under 280. Seumanutafa is an Ohio State recruit.

   Michaela Morard of Huntsville, Ala. finished with a flourish, a 7-under 65 Thanksgiving Day, to take third at 5-under 283. Brianna Navarrosa of San Diego was fourth at even-par 288 and Rachel Heck of Memphis, Tenn. was fifth at 1-over 289.

   Heck, who played the weekend after making the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. last summer, picked up her AJGA Player of the Year Award at Sunday night’s pre-tournament banquet. The 15-year-old has given a verbal commitment to join the powerhouse Stanford program.

   Finishing tied for 10^th place was Alexa Pano, a 13-year-old from Lake Worth, Fla. I’ve been following Pano since she showed up for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rolling Green as an 11-year-old and followed that up with her first AJGA victory – she had turned 12 in the interim – at the since renamed PDQ / Philadelphia Runner Junior a few weeks later at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Weyhill Course. Pano’s final round of 1-over 73 Thanksgiving Day gave her a 4-over 292 total.

   Another rising star from our area, Phoebe Brinker, a 15-year-old Archmere Academy sophomore from Wilmington, Del., finished 61^st at 314.

   Brinker and a couple of other Wilmington teens, Tower Hill sophomore Jennifer Cleary and Charter of Wilmington junior Esther Park, joined forces to finish second by a shot to Tennessee in the USGA Women’s State Team Championship at The Club at Las Campanas in Santa Fe, N.M. in September. They were the youngest team in the field.

   Brinker finished second in the individual standings behind two-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Julia Potter. At PGA National, Brinker had steady rounds of 78, 78, 79 and 79.

   Like Lees, Brinker was also in the field for the Girls Junior PGA Championship at St. Albans last summer and headed the local contingent as she finished tied  for 21^st.