Lower Merion sophomore Sydney Yermish, the District One
Class AAA champion last fall, closed with a solid 71 at the Pinehurst Resort
& Country Club’s No. 6 Course in Pinehurst Village, N.C. Wednesday to earn
a runnerup finish in the 42nd Junior Girls’ North & South Championship.
Yermish plays out of Rolling Green Golf Club, but her family
has a second home at the Pinehurst Resort and she was able to prepare for the
Junior Girls’ North & South at Pinehurst.
She opened with a 2-over-par 74 on the historic No. 2
Course, a Donald Ross masterpiece, before adding a 2-under 70 at the No. 6
Course that put her very much in contention for the title, just a shot behind
the three co-leaders, in the 54-hole, stroke-play event.
Yermish’s final-round 71 at No. 6 left her with a 1-under
215 total, four shots behind Amanda Sambach of Davidson, N.C. and No. 28 in the
Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).
The 17-year-old Sambach, a Virginia recruit, got a share of
the 36-hole lead with her 3-under 69 on the No. 6 Course and then pulled away
from the field with a sparkling 4-under 68 in the final round, again at No. 6,
for a 5-under 211 total.
Sambach made birdies at the 14th, 15th
and 17th holes in Wednesday’s final round to seal the victory.
Yermish matched Sambach’s birdies at the 14th and
15th holes to get it to 2-under for the tournament before closing
with a bogey at the 18th. Yermish, who lost in a playoff in her bid
for the PIAA Class AAA Championship last fall, was the only other player
besides Sambach to finish under par for the tournament.
Yermish wasn’t able to get much going in her opening round until
she made an eagle at the par-5 16th hole at the No. 2 Course that
got her to 2-over. She gave a shot back with a bogey at the 17th
hole before closing with a birdie for a solid 2-over 74.
Bailey Davis of White Plains, Md. had a share of the 36-hole
lead with Sambach after opening with a 73 at No. 2 and adding a 70 at No. 6. A
closing 73 at No. 6 left Davis in a three-way tie for third place at even-par
216.
Nicole Adam, a Pinehurst home girl, fired a final-round 72
to finish at even-par and get a share of third place. Adam had plenty of local
support when she made it into the match-play bracket in the Women’s North &
South Amateur Championship a year ago before falling in the first round to
Southern California senior Gabriela Ruffels, the eventual champion from
Australia.
Rounding out the trio tied for third place at 216 was Julia
Misemer of Overland Park, Kan. as she closed with a 1-under 71 at No. 6.
Pennsbury senior Jade Gu, the runnerup to Yermish at the
district tournament last fall, also had a strong showing in the Junior Girls’
North & South as she closed with a 2-under 70 at No. 6 to finish among the
group tied for 17th place at 9-over 225.
Gu, the Class AAA East Region champion as a sophomore in
2018, opened with a solid 1-over 73 at No. 2, but struggled in Tuesday’s second
round with an 82 in her first crack at the No. 6 layout.
Episcopal Academy senior Lauren Jones, who lost her junior
season this spring to the coronavirus pandemic, also played well at Pinehurst,
finishing among the group tied for 27th place at 229.
Jones, who plays out of Merion Golf Club, opened with an 80
at No. 2 and added a 2-over 74 at No. 6 before closing with a 3-over 75 in the
final round, again over the No. 6 Course.
Haverford High senior Riley Quartermain, who finished fifth
in the District One Class AAA Championship last fall, finished in a tie for 65th
place at 240. Quatermain, a product of the Llanerch Country Club junior
program, struggled in the opening round with an 85 at the No. 2 Course before
settling down with respective rounds of 77 and 78 Tuesday and Wednesday at No.
6.
On the boys side, Jonathan Griz of Hilton Head Island, S.C.
added the distinctive Putter Boy that goes to North & South winners to his
trophy case with a 7-under 207 total.
I’ve seen conflicting reports on which courses the guys
played, but everybody seems to be in agreement that they played the iconic No.
2 Course in Tuesday’s second round and that’s probably where Griz won the
tournament with a sizzling 4-under 66 as the boys played No. 2 to a par of 70.
The Pinehurst website indicated that the guys played the No.
8 Course in Monday’s opening round and Wednesday’s final round. Griz, an
Alabama recruit, opened with a 2-under 70 and closed with a 1-under 71 to
finish four shots clear of the field.
Clayson Good of Durham, N.C. also played well at No. 2 with
a sparkling 3-under 67 that got him within two shots of the pace set by Griz
through 36 holes. A final-round 73 for Good, a Queens University recruit, left
him in second place, four shots behind Griz at 3-under 211.
Nick Mathews, a North Carolina State recruit from Mebane,
N.C. finished a shot behind Good in third place at 2-under 212. Mathews opened
with a 3-under 69 and matched par at No. 2 with a 70 before closing with a
1-over 73.
Nicholas Gross, an incoming freshman at Downingtown West,
finished in a tie for 51st place at 227.
Gross feels right at home at Pinehurst, having won the Boys
12 division in the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship last summer and the Donald
Ross Junior in December, both on the No. 8 Course. Looks like he might have
tuned up for the Junior Boys’ North & South with another Pinehurst victory
in the U.S. Kids Golf Red, White & Blue event over the Fourth of July
weekend.
Gross opened with a 2-over 74 and added a 6-over 76 in
Tuesday’s second round at No. 2 before finishing up with a 77.
Fox Chapel Golf Club’s Adam Lauer, who finished in a tie for
fifth place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a junior at Shady Side
Academy last fall, ended up in a tie for 57th place at 229. Lauer
played well in the first and final rounds with respective totals of 74 and 73,
but struggled over the tough No. 2 layout with an 83.
Gross finished in a tie for fifth place and Lauer was alone
in eighth in last week’s Pennsylvania Junior Boys’ Championship held at Hershey
Country Club’s East Course.
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