Archmere Academy senior Phoebe Brinker earned a berth in
match play in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship for the second straight
summer as she carded a 4-over-par 76 in the second round of qualifying Tuesday
at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis.
Brinker had opened with a 2-under 70 in Monday’s opening
round and struggled a little by comparison Tuesday, but her 4-over 146 total
left her among the group tied for 27th.
There is going to be a bulky 13-for-2 playoff for the final
two spots in match play, a group that includes Caroline Wrigley, who captured
the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at North Allegheny last fall.
Wrigley, who claimed the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’
Championship last month at Hershey Country Club’s East Course, rallied for a
1-under 71 after opening with a 79 Monday to join the 15-player logjam tied for
63rd at 6-over 150.
Pretty sure that playoff will go the first thing Wednesday
morning followed by the opening round of match play.
Brinker, who won her third DIAA championship at Cripple
Creek Country Club in May, made a bogey at the fifth hole, a double bogey at
the eighth and bogeys at the 13th and 14th holes before
picking up her lone birdie of the day at the 17th hole to give her
some breathing room.
Brinker was coming off a solid showing in the Girls Junior
PGA Championship at the Keney Park Golf Course in Windsor, Conn., where she
finished in a tie for 13th place. The Girls Junior PGA Championship
is staged by the PGA of America and Brinker got to perform in the last couple
of rounds in front of her aunt, Suzy Whaley, the first woman elected as
president of the PGA of America.
Brinker earned a spot in match play in the U.S. Girls’
Junior a year ago at the Poppy Hills Golf Course on northern California’s
Monterey Peninsula. She fell in the opening round to Valery Plata of Colombia.
Plata, coming off a solid freshman season at Michigan State, joined Brinker in
the group at 146 as she backed off from an opening-round 69 with a 5-over 77
Tuesday.
Wrigley, who will join the Furman program later this summer,
gave herself a shot in the playoff as she made three birdies on the front nine
at SentryWorld, her final nine, to get it to 6-over.
Recent Conestoga High graduate Samantha Yao, who plays out
of White Manor Country Club, missed out on being part of the playoff by a shot.
Yao, who had opened with a 1-over 73 Monday, struggled to a 6-over 78 for a
7-over 151 total.
Yao, who made the cut and played four rounds in the Junior
Girls PGA Championship at Keney Park, really battled Tuesday.
A double bogey at the sixth hole and bogeys at the eighth
and ninth holes got Yao to 5-over, but she made a birdie at the 12th
hole that her inside the match-play cut line at 4-over. But she made double
bogeys at the 13th and 15th holes that sent her to
8-over. A birdie at the 17th hole was too little, too late.
Three-time Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ champion and Agnes
Irwin product Kaitlyn Lees is getting a nice addition to her Dartmouth lineup
when Yao heads for Hanover, N.H. to join the program in a few weeks.
Yao was the medalist in a Golf Association of
Philadelphia-administered qualifier at the Steel Club.
Tower Hill junior and Avondale resident Rylie Heflin, who
also came out of the Steel Club qualifier, added a 4-over 76 to her
opening-round 78 and came up short of a match-play berth with a 154 total.
Episcopal Academy junior and Merion Golf Club representative
Lauren Jones, who also qualified for SentryWorld at the Steel Club, struggled
to an 85 Tuesday after opening with a 79 for a 164 total.
Jones led the Churchwomen to a second straight undefeated
run through the Inter-Ac League this spring and was the runnerup in the
Inter-Ac Championship at French Creek Golf Club in May. She will be an even
better player after a few days rubbing shoulders with some of the best junior
players in the world at SentryWorld.
Yuka Saso of the Philippines is the very best junior player
on the planet right how. The 18-year-old, coming off a two-shot victory in the
Girls Junior PGA Championship at Keney Park, claimed medalist honors by five
shots at SentryWorld as she added a 5-under 67 to her opening-round 65 for a
12-under 132 total.
Saso, No. 24 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking
(WAGR), has yet to make a bogey at SentryWorld. Her round Tuesday was ruthlessly
efficient as she made birdies at the third, fifth and 17th holes and
an eagle at the 14th hole. You think that will be tough to have to
look at in match play?
Saso, who has never gotten out of the second round in the
U.S. Girls’ Junior, will be tough to beat as she tries to duplicate the feat of
Californian Yealimi Noh from a year ago when Noh swept the Girls Junior PGA
Championship at the Kearney Hill Golf Links in Lexington, Ky. and the U.S.
Girls’ Junior at Poppy Hills.
Maddison Hinson-Tolchard of Australia matched Saso’s
scintillating opening round with a no-bogey, 7-under 65 of her own Tuesday to
finish alone in second place at 7-under 137. Hinson-Tolchard had opened with an
even-par 72 Monday.
Sophia Bae, a 15-year-old from Norwood, N.J., added a solid
1-under 71 to her opening-round 68 to finish third in qualifying at 5-under
139. Bae plans to join the powerhouse Duke program in the summer of 2021.
Jillian Bourdage of Tamarac, Fla. and YoonMin Han of South
Korea shared fourth place at 3-under 141. Bourdage, who will join the Ohio
State program in the summer of 2020, added an even-par 72 to her opening-round
69 while Han, who had opened with an even-par 72, fired a 3-under 69 Tuesday.
Bourdage and her pal, Casey Weidenfeld, reached the final of
the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Timuquana Country Club in
Jacksonville, Fla. this spring before falling to Erica Shepherd and Megan
Furtney, a couple of Duke’s prized recruits.
Shepherd of Greenwood, Ind. won the 2017 U.S. Girls’ Junior
at the Boone Valley Golf Club in Augusta, Mo. She fired a 3-under 69 Tuesday to
join the group tied for eighth in qualifying at 1-under 143.
Furtney of St. Charles, Ill. added a 74 to her opening-round
77 to miss cutoff for match play at 7-over 151.
One of the players who emerged from the qualifier at the
Steel Club, Virginie Ding of Hong Kong, earned a spot in the match-play
bracket. Ding had opened with a sparkling 3-under 69, but fell back with a
6-over 78 Tuesday to finish among the group tied for 25th at 3-over
147.
The last qualifier from the Steel Club, Jana Ni of China,
added an 81 to her opening-round 75 and failed to reach match play with a 156
total.
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