Recent Conestoga graduate Samantha Yao has been one of the
best high school players in Pennsylvania for the last three years, twice
winning the District One Class AAA title and posting three top-five finishes in
the PIAA Class AAA Championship.
So it’s only fitting that Yao will cap her career as a
junior golfer by representing the Philadelphia area at the 44th
Girls Junior PGA Championship, which tees off July 9 at the Keney Park Golf
Course in Hartford, Conn.
Yao fired a 3-under-par 68 at Bellewood Country Club in
North Coventry Township to capture the title in the Philadelphia Girls Junior
PGA Championship Thursday and grab one of just two tickets available to one of
the biggest national events in junior golf.
Yao, who plays out of White Manor Country Club,
lost in a four-hole playoff to former Agnes Irwin standout Kaitlyn Lees for the
final ticket to last year’s Girls Junior PGA Championship, which was played at the
Kearney Hill Golf Links in Lexington, Ky. Last year’s Philadelphia Girls Junior
PGA Championship was a 36-hole test. Not sure if the event was shortened to one
round this year or if weather played a factor because there was certainly some
weather around.
Yao will join Lees, who had a solid freshman season, at
Dartmouth at the end of the summer, which will give the Big Green two of
Pennsylvania’s top junior players in the last five years.
Yao beat a field that was filled with talented junior
players in the Philadelphia region, some like Yao, nearing the end of their
junior eligibility, and a host of others.
Another veteran junior player, Esther Park of Wilmington,
Del., who has been one of the top high school players in the First State,
grabbed the other ticket to Keney Park as she matched par at Bellewood with a
71 to earn runnerup honors, three shots behind Yao.
Park is a recent A.I. DuPont graduate who will join the
Georgetown program later this summer. She was part of a teen threesome of
standouts who joined forces to help the First State finish second in the
final edition of the USGA Women’s State Team Championship at The Club at Las
Campanas’ Sunrise Course in Santa Fe, N.M. in the fall of 2017.
The first alternate was Park’s Delaware high school rival,
Rylie Heflin, who finished a shot behind Park with a 1-over 72. Heflin, an
Avondale resident, capped her sophomore season at Tower Hill by finishing
second in the DIAA Tournament, Delaware’s state championship, at Cripple Creek
Country Club last month.
The second alternate was Elizabeth Beek of Blue Bell, who
carded a 2-over 73. Not sure where Beek will play high school golf, but she
just completed eighth grade and has been a solid performer in the Philadelphia
Section PGA Junior Tour events for the last few summers.
Pennsbury junior Jade Gu, the Class AAA East Regional
champion who finished seventh in the PIAA Championship last fall, shared fifth
place with George School junior Natasha Kiel, a New Hope resident, as each
carded a 3-over 74.
Emmaus junior Michelle Cox, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier last
fall, placed seventh with a 4-over 75. Jona Angela Magcalayo, a Philippines
invader who is spending a second straight spring playing junior golf in our
region, was a shot behind Cox in eighth place with a 5-over 76. Central Bucks East
senior Sarah Scarpill, a Class AAA East Regional qualifier last fall, was alone
in ninth place with a 6-over 77.
Sydney Yermish, who earned a ticket to last summer’s U.S.
Girls’ Junior Championship at Poppy Hills Golf Course on northern California’s
Monterey Peninsula as a 12-year-old, shared 10th place with Kiera
Bartholomew of Westampton, N.J. as each carded a 7-over 78.
Like Beek, Yermish, who plays out of Rolling Green Golf
Club, just completed eighth grade. Not sure where Yermish will play high school
golf, but it would be the start of an interesting rivalry if Beek and Yermish
both show up at the District One Championship in the fall.
Yermish kicked off her spring by finishing fifth in the
Girls 12-13 division in the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta
National Golf Club the Sunday of Masters week.
Episcopal Academy junior Lauren Jones, who led the
Churchwomen to their second straight Inter-Ac League championship this spring,
headed a group of three players tied for 12th at 79. Jones, who
plays out of Merion Golf Club, was the runnerup in the Inter-Ac League Championship
last month at French Creek Golf Club.
Joining Jones at 8-over were Strath Haven sophomore Grace
Smith and another Delaware standout, Padua Academy senior Haley Quickel.
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