Gu puts herself in position to make match play in U.S. Girls' Junior with 73 at Columbia

    It’s been a pretty good summer for recent Pennsbury graduate Jade Gu.

   Last month she earned her first ticket to the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship when she shared medalist honors in a Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered local qualifier at the Steel Club, but still had to survive a 4-for-2 playoff to grab one of the two berths available.

   Gu came back the following week to come up just short in the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship at Lebanon Country Club, falling to recent Emmaus graduate Michelle Cox in a playoff after both had landed on even-par 144.

   Monday, at what I’m fairly certain was a steamy Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Md., Gu put herself in solid position to earn a berth in the match-play bracket as she carded a 3-over-par 73 in her debut in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship.

   That left Gu, who plays out of Yardley Country Club, in the group tied for 26^th place after the opening round of qualifying for match play. The top 64 finishers after the second round of qualifying Tuesday will advance to match play, which gets under way Wednesday.

   Starting off the 10^th tee, Gu struggled on the incoming nine at Columbia as she made bogeys at the 10^th, 14^th, 15^th and 18^th holes and headed to the first tee at 4-over. But Gu went 1-under on the outgoing nine at Columbia with birdies at the second and seventh holes around a bogey at six.

   The other survivor of that 4-for-2 playoff at the Steel Club was recent Tower Hill graduate Rylie Heflin, a Kennett Square resident who plays out of Hartefeld National Golf Club. Heflin, who will join the powerful Duke program later this summer, has some work to do to make the match-play bracket as her 7-over 77 left her in the group tied for 83^rd place.

   Heflin was 1-over when she endured a four-hole stretch during which she went 6-over in four holes, making a double bogey at the ninth hole, a bogey at 10, another double bogey at 11 and a bogey at 12.

   Heflin righted the ship down the stretch. She made a bogey at the 15^th hole, but closed with a birdie at the last to get it in at 7-over. It was her first birdie of the day, a good way to end an otherwise disappointing day.

   Incoming Southern California freshman Cindy Kou, a native of China playing out of Valencia, Calif., fired a sizzling 4-under 66 to take a three-shot lead over the talented field in the battle for medalist honors.

   Kou, whose resume includes 11 American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) wins, opened her round with back-to-back birdies at the first and second hole and another birdie at 10 before the only blemish on her card, a bogey at 13. But Kou bounced right back with birdies at the 16^th and 18^th holes to get it to 4-under.

   Looming in the group tied for second place at 1-under 69 is Rose Zhang of Irvine, Calif. and the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). Zhang was returning to the state of Maryland, where she won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship in a terrific match with Australian Gabriela Ruffels that took 38 holes to decide last summer at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md.

   Zhang, who will be a Pac-12 rival of Kou’s when she joins the powerful Stanford program later this summer, had a typically solid Rose Zhang round, offsetting two bogeys with three birdies.

   Also in the group at 1-under was Kiera Bartholomew, a Wake Forest, N.C. resident whose junior career was launched out of Indian Valley Country Club in Telford.

   Coming off a tie for fourth in last week’s Junior North & South Amateur at the Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst Village, N.C., Bartholomew made bogeys at the third and fourth holes and then went 3-under the rest of the way. Playing in the group with Kou, Bartholomew made birdies at the fifth, eighth and 16^th holes to get it to 1-under.

   Rounding out the trio at 1-under was Savannah Barber of Fort Worth, Texas, who teamed with her Crown Golf Academy roommate Alexa Saldana to capture the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship in April at the Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas.

   Heading a group of five players who matched par with 70s and are tied for fifth place was Alexa Pano, the kid from Lake Worth, Fla. who was the runnerup to Yealimi Noh, an LPGA Tour player these days, in the 2018 U.S. Girls’ Junior at the Poppy Hills Golf Course on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula.

   Pano, No. 87 in the Women’s WAGR, played 51 holes that day, beating Lucy Li, who is playing on the Symetra Tour these days, 1-up, before falling, 4 and 3, to Noh in the scheduled 36-hole final that went 33 holes. Pano was 13 then and still is just 16, going on 17. She teed it up as an 11-year-old in the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur in our backyard in the Philadelphia area at Rolling Green Golf Club, the William Flynn gem in Springfield, Delaware County.

   Rounding out the quintet at even-par were Karen Tsuru of Carlsbad, Calif., Chloe Lam of Fountain Valley, Calif., Yana Wilson of Henderson, Nev. and Yoko Tai, a senior at Windermere Prep in Windermere, Fla. by way of Singapore. Tsuru is a Class of 2023 performer while Lam and Wilson are Class of ’24 competitors having completed their freshman seasons at Edison High and Coronado High, respectively.