Yermish makes her debut on a national stage in U.S. Girls' Junior at Poppy Hills

   I did a post on a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour stop at Wildwood Golf & Country Club last summer that was dated July 12.

   I mentioned it again when I did one of several Junior Tour posts Sunday, this one on the stop at The Shore Club, the new name for Wildwood Golf & Country Club. The winner at Wildwood a year ago in the coed 12-and-under division playing nine holes was Sydney Yermish. I mentioned she had been knocking on the door, but her 43 that day gave her her first Junior Tour victory.

   Monday, just a little over a year later, the 12-year-old from Rolling Green Golf Club and Wynnewood, teed it up in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, Calif.

   That Yermish shot an 86 and is tied for 146^th after the first round of qualifying for match play isn't really the point. The fact that she was there playing the same golf course on which Lucy Li, the 15-year-old phenom from Redwood Shores, Calif., was making birdie on half the holes for a typically ridiculous 9-under 62, is what really matters.

   So how do you go from playing with the nine-holers on the Junior Tour to the marquee tournament for junior golfers on the planet in a year?

   I had recognized Sydney’s last name from the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rolling Green. Her mother Dana was the general co-chairman along with Matt Dupre of the team that did such a tremendous job bringing the USGA back to the William Flynn gem in Springfield, right in the heart of Delaware County, for the first time since the 1976 U.S. Women’s Open.

   I still had an e-mail address for Dana Yermish from the Women’s Am and reached out to her after scrolling through the U.S. Girls’ Junior starting times and having Sydney Yermish’s name jump out at me. So how did this happen?

   Well, Dana Yermish’s little 10-year-old was there two summers ago helping out her mom during the U.S. Women’s Amateur and was inspired by watching players, some not all that much older than she was, attacking the difficult Rolling Green layout.

   Remember, Lucy Li was all of 13 when she fired rounds of 67 and 68 to finish second in qualifying at 7-under 135.

   Sydney Yermish came out of that week determined to become a player. With some help from the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour and Mark Sheftic, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club, that’s exactly what happened.

   I often brag about the quality of play of so many of the players in the Philadelphia Section – and Sheftic is one of them – but it is also a Section that can boast of so many quality teachers – and Sheftic is definitely one of them.

   Sydney Yermish showed up for a U.S. Girls’ Junior qualifier June 21 at the Old York Country Club at Chesterfield in Chesterfield, N.J., fired a 74 and earned herself a place in the brightest spotlight in junior  golf. Maybe it was a little ahead of schedule, but golf has a way of happening the way it wants to.

   There was a birdie in there, at the second, for Yermish in Monday’s opening round of qualifying. There were back-to-back triple bogeys and a bunch of bogeys. And there is another starting time Tuesday in a USGA Championship, hopefully the first of many USGA championships for her.

   Nothing’s quite like being out there in the arena. If Yermish sneaks a peek at some of the televised coverage of match play later this week, she’ll know how the holes play because she was there, too.

   Archmere Academy junior Phoebe Brinker topped the local contingent at Poppy Hills, carding a 2-over 73 that has her in the group tied for 27^th and in good shape to be among the 64 players who will qualify for match play, which gets under way Wednesday.

   Brinker of Wilmington, Del. teamed with fellow First Staters Jennifer Cleary and Esther Park to help Delaware finish second in the final edition of the USGA Women’s State Team Championship last fall at The Club at Las Campanas’ Sunrise Course in Santa Fe, N.M. with Brinker the runnerup in the individual scoring.

   The medalist at the U.S. Girls’ Junior qualifier administered by the Golf Association of Philadelphia at the Steel Club in Hellertown is decidedly not local, but Colombia’s Valery Plata carded a solid 1-under 70 and is in the group tied for 10^th.

   I doubt if many high schools have two players competing in the U.S. Girls Junior, but The Pingry School of Basking Ridge, N.J. does.

   Ami Gianchandani, a recent graduate at Pingry, is in with a shot at making match play after carding a 4-over 75 that has her in the group tied for 51^st. The Yale-bound Gianchandani earned a return trip to the U.S. Girls’ Junior with a spectacular run to the quarterfinals last summer at Boone Valley Golf Club in Augusta, Mo. that included a stunning victory over Patty Tavatanakit, who has risen all the way to No. 6 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) after a borderline spectacular freshman season at UCLA.

   Pingry School junior Christine Shao, the runnerup to Plata in the qualifier at the Steel Club, struggled a little Monday, posting an 80 that left her tied for 118^th.

   And then there was Lucy Li doing Lucy Li things. She is No. 9 in the Women’s WAGR. She went 3-0 last month to help the United States dismantle a decent Great Britain & Ireland team, 17-3, in the Curtis Cup Match at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y.

   Li tied the U.S. Girls’ Junior record for a single round in qualifying and shattered the women’s competitive course record by four shots with her 62 Monday. I have ceased being surprised by her.

   Yealimi Noh of Concord, Calif., coming off a stunning 21-under-par effort in winning the Girls Junior PGA Championship last week at the Kearney Hill Golf Links in Lexington, Ky., fired a 66 and trails Li by four shots. Li went 12-under at Kearney Hill, but was nine shots behind Noh in a tie for fourth.

   A third Cali girl, Brooke Seay of San Diego, is in third place after a 67. Seay played the weekend after making the cut in last summer’s U.S. Women’s Open at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.

   Meanwhile on the East Coast, not all that far from The Pingry School, play began in the U.S. Junior Amateur Monday at a classic American venue, the Upper and Lower courses at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.

   Brian Isztwan, the best player in the Inter-Ac League his last two seasons at Penn Charter, struggled to a 6-over 76 on the par-70 Lower Course, which played a little tougher than the par-71 Upper Course. I watched Jack Nicklaus win the 1980 U.S. Open on the Lower Course as a cub reporter for The Mercury in Pottstown.

   The Harvard-bound Isztwan, who plays out of Huntingdon Valley Country Club, was one of three co-medalists in a GAP-administered qualifier at the Union League National Golf Club in Swainton, N.J.

   He is in the group tied for 101^st and has his work cut out for him if  he wants to be one of the top 64 players who qualify for match play when he tees off at the Upper Course Tuesday. But if one of the final chapters of Isztwan’s junior career is written at the U.S. Junior Amateur, that’s not a bad thing at all.

   Izstwan’s fellow co-medalists at Union League National, Central Bucks West senior Luca Jezzeny and Tyler Gerbavsits, a St. John’s recruit from Huntingdon, N.Y., also struggled in their opening round. Jezzeny, who plays out of The Bucks Club and Doylestown Country Club, carded a 5-over 76 at the Upper Course and is tied for 83^rd and Gerbavsits posted an 82 at the Upper Course.

   Palmer Jackson, a Franklin Regional senior who was the medalist in a GAP-administered qualifier at Carlisle Country Club, is in good position to make match play as he carded a 2-over 73 on the Upper Course and is tied for 43^rd.

   Jackson won the Pennsylvania Junior Boys’ crown last summer and finished tied for second in the PIAA Class AAA Championship last fall at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort.

   Another player who earned his ticket to Baltusrol at the Carlisle qualifier, Jolo Timothy Magcalyo, fired a solid 1-under 69 at the Lower Course and is tied for 12^th.

   Magcalyo is from the Philippines and wanted to get some experience playing junior golf in the United States this summer. Several of his early tuneups for the summer came on the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour this spring. It was pretty obvious he was more than above average.

   Karl Vilips of Australia and Kelly Chinn, a 15-year-old from of Great Falls, Va., shared the lead after the opening round as he carded a 5-under 66 on the Upper Course.

   Three players are tied for third at 4-under, including the biggest name in junior golf these days, Akshay Bhatia, the 16-year-old from Wake Forest, N.C. whose 66 was the best round of the day on the Lower Course.

   Bhatia was the runaway winner of the Boys Junior PGA Championship last summer and has backed that up with recent wins in the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and the American Junior Golf Association’s Polo Golf Junior Classic.

   Also at 4-under, with 67s at the Upper Course, are Travis Vick of Hunter Creek Village, Texas and Ricky Castillo of Yorba Linda, Calif.

   Vick’s round was highlighted by the first double eagle in the history of the championship. The kid’s 3-iron shot from 250 yards away on the par-5 eighth hole found nothing but the bottom of the cup. How strong is that?