Yermish finishes strong to claim two-shot victory in PKBGT Tournament of Champions

    Lower Merion sophomore Sydney Yermish bided her time and put together a patient 1-under-par 71 Sunday at Forest Creek Golf Club in Pinehurst, N.C. that gave her a two-shot victory in the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Golf Tour (PKBGT) Tournament of Champions.

   Yermish’s steady final round, combined with her opening round of 2-over 74 Saturday over the 6,000-yard, par-72 Forest Creek layout, gave her a 1-over 145 total. The win vaulted her to the top of the PKBGT National Division Order of Merit with 266.5 points. Yermish entered the Tournament of Champions in sixth place in the Order of Merit standings.

   Yermish had captured the District One Class AAA title and lost in a playoff in the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a freshman a year ago. She didn’t get a chance to defend her district crown when the Central League, with the coronavirus pandemic creating some of its typical 2020 mayhem, was unable to put together a District One qualifier in time for its players to be able to participate in the scholastic postseason.

   This victory in the PKBGT Tournament of Champions near her family’s home away from home in Pinehurst should ease some of the frustration Yermish had to feel about a scholastic season that never really got off the ground.

   Yermish made pars on 10 of the first 11 holes around a bogey at the sixth hole. She finally made a birdie at the 12^th hole before quickly giving that stroke back with a bogey at 13. Then with the tournament title up for grabs, Yermish pounced with birdies at the 14^th and 16^th holes getting her into red figures for the round and enabling her to pull away for the victory. Yermish’s 71, matched by five other players, was  the low round of the day.

   Yermish got hooked on the game while helping her mother Dana with mom’s duties as one of the co-chairs of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur at their home course, the William Flynn gem at Rolling Green Golf Club.

   But Yermish has become very comfortable in the Pinehurst area. She was the runnerup in last summer’s Junior Girls’ North & South Championship at the Pinehurst Resort, the opening round of which was played on the iconic No. 2 Course, a Donald Ross classic. Yermish finished fifth in the PKBGT Invitational, another of the circuit’s big National Division events last month at Bermuda Run Country Club.

   Katie Scheck, a Greensboro, Ga. resident who will join Denise St. Pierre’s Penn State program next summer, had a share of the opening-round lead after carding a 1-over 73. Scheck added a 2-over 74 in Sunday’s second round and finished in a tie for second place with Abby Franks of Roebuck, S.C. and Maria Atwood of Holly Springs, N.C. at 3-over 147.

   Franks and Atwood, a James Madison recruit, both matched Yermish’s 1-under 71 to each get a piece of runnerup honors. They had been in a tie for fourth place after each posted a 4-over 76 in Saturday’s opening round.

   There was a little tournament inside the tournament and Sarah Lydic, the younger of the Lydic sisters from Ocean View, Del., finished three shots ahead of big sister Hannah Lydic in the battle for low Lydic while ending up in fifth and sixth places, respectively.

   Hannah Lydic is a junior at Sussex Academy, so I’m guessing Sarah Lydic is a freshman there. Regardless, both played really well Sunday. Sarah Lydic, who had opened with a 77, also matched the low round of the day with a 1-under 71, and finished a shot behind the trio tied for second place at 4-over 148.

   Hannah Lydic, who had opened with a 79, matched par with a 72 in Sunday’s final round to finish alone in sixth place at 7-over 151.

   Another teen phenom from Delaware, eighth-grader Sawyer Brockstedt of Rehoboth Beach, sneaked into the top 10 as she registered a 76 to join four other players tied for 10^th place at 153. Brockstedt had opened with a 77.

   Also in that group at 153 was Kiera Bartholomew of Winston-Salem, N.C. Pretty sure that is the same Kiera Bartholomew who was one of the rising stars in the Philadelphia area when she was playing out of Indian Valley Country Club. Bartholomew improved three shots from her opening-round 78 with a 3-over 75 in Sunday’s second round.

   Somehow I managed to miss Unionville senior Charlotte Scully in my post on the opening round of the PKBGT Tournament of Champions, but Scully improved by five shots from Saturday’s 80 with a 3-over 75 that left her tied with three other players for 16^th place with a 155 total.

   Scully finished her scholastic career with a flourish this fall. She had been a PIAA Class AAA Championship qualifier as a sophomore, but failed to make it back to states as a junior. But Scully took home a PIAA medal as a senior, finishing in a tie for fifth place at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County.

   Scully came back the following week and helped Unionville capture the PIAA Class AAA team crown, a first for a program that has produced a couple of individual champions in 1993 girls winner Laura Hammond and 2004 boys winner Kyle Davis as well as a boys team champion in 2018. Two weeks earlier, Unionville had ended Mount St. Joseph’s seven-year reign as the District One Class AAA champion.

   Haverford High senior Riley Quartermain, a product of Llanerch Country Club’s junior program, was one of six players who finished in a tie for 20^th place at 156. Quartermain shaved six shots off her opening-round 81 with a 3-over 75 in Sunday’s final round.

   Emmaus senior Michelle Cox, who lost in a playoff to West Chester East’s Victoria Kim for the PIAA Class AAA title at Heritage Hills this fall, finished alone in 31^st place at Forest Creek as she added an 80 to her opening-round 81 for a 161 total.

   Rounding out a strong local contingent at Forest Creek was Scully’s Unionville teammate, Mary Grace Dunigan, a sophomore. Dunigan, the daughter of Golf Digest Top 50 instructor John Dunigan, added an 84 to her opening-round 82 for a 166 total that left her in a tie for 34^th place.

   Dunigan finished fifth in the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a freshman in 2019, but didn’t advance out of the District One Championship this fall. Dunigan, however, led the way when Unionville captured the state team crown at Heritage Hills.