I’ll get back to the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour schedule in a day or two, but had to go back and wrap up last week’s the Boys Junior PGA and the Girls Junior PGA championships at Hot Springs Country Club in Hot Springs, Ark. …
Downingtown West senior Nick Gross, the reigning District One Class AAA champion, bounced back from a disappointing week in last month’s U.S. Junior Amateur Championship at the Daniel Island Club in Charleston, S.C. by finishing in a tie for eighth place in the Boys Junior PGA Championship with a 7-under-par 277 total at Hot Springs Country Club in Hot Springs, Ark.
Gross got off to a little bit of a slow start by matching par in the opening round with a 71 at Hot Springs Country Club’s Arlington Course Aug. 1st.
But Gross, who went 5-over for two rounds of qualifying at the Daniel Island Club to miss the match-play bracket in the U.S. Junior Amateur by three shots, rattled off three straight rounds in the 60s to finish out his week in Hot Springs beginning with a 2-under-par 69 in the second round at the Park Course.
Starting off the 11th tee, Gross made birdies at the 17th and 18th holes to get it to 2-under for the round. After a bogey at the second hole, Gross made birdies at three and five to get it to 3-under before a bogey at seven left him at 2-under.
Gross played aggressively in the third round back at the Arlington Course, making six birdies against four bogeys in a 2-under 69 that left him at 4-under going into last Friday’s final round.
In his final round last Friday at the Arlington Course, Gross made a birdie at the fifth hole, but gave that shot back with a bogey at seven. He then got it to 2-under with an eagle at the par-5 ninth hole. Gross gave a shot back with a bogey at the 10th hole, but finished strong with birdies at 15 and 18 as he had his best round of the week, a 3-under 68 that left him at 7-under for the championship.
It was a nice confidence boost for Gross as he makes final preparations for the U.S. Amateur, which tees off Monday at Cherry Hills Country Club, a William Flynn design in Cherry Hills Village, Colo.
It was at last year’s U.S. Amateur at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J. where Gross made a spectacular run to the quarterfinals a week before his 16th birthday. Making the quarterfinals at Ridgewood earned Gross an exemption from qualifying for this year’s U.S. Amateur.
Gross, who will join the program at Southeastern Conference power Alabama next summer, has played a ton of golf at the highest levels of the amateur scene this summer. He probably hasn’t been playing as well as he would like, but, still not 17, Gross will be completely in his element next week at Cherry Hills.
Nobody in Hot Springs was going to catch Miles Russell, a phenom from Jacksonville Beach, Fla. who put together a remarkable 18-under 266 tour de force to run away with a seven-shot victory in the Boys Junior PGA Championship, a major national junior event conducted by the PGA of America. The kid is a Class of 2027 competitor, the equivalent of a high school freshman.
After opening with a 4-under 67 at the Arlington Course, Russell matched it with a 4-under 67 at the Park Course.
Russell then put together a six-birdie, no-bogey 6-under 65 masterpiece in the third round back at the Arlington Course before putting an exclamation point on his week with an eagle at the par-5 finishing hole at the Arlington Course for a closing 4-under 67.
Jackson Byrd, a Class of 2025 entry from Saint Simons Island, Ga., and Billy Davis, the twin brother of 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion Anna Davis out of Spring Valley, Calif., were Russell’s closest pursuers, finishing in a tie for second place at 11-under 273.
Byrd surged into contention with a sparkling 5-under 66 in the second round at the Park Course and closed with a solid 4-under 67 at the Arlington Course. Davis, coming off a run to the quarterfinals in the U.S. Junior Amateur at the Daniel Island Club, had three rounds of 3-under 68 at the Arlington Course around a 2-under 69 in the second round at the Park Course.
Episcopal Academy senior Hunter Stetson, who’s been playing terrific golf this summer, came up just short of surviving the 36-hole cut as he added a 2-over 73 in the second round at the Park Course after opening with a 2-over 73 at the Arlington Course for a 4-over 146 total.
Stetson, the winner of the Bert Linton Inter-Ac League individual championship at Bluestone Country Club as a sophomore in the fall of 2021, made a strong run to the round of 16 in the U.S. Junior Amateur at the Daniel Island Club.
Stetson punched his ticket to Hot Springs with a runnerup finish in the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship at the Toftrees Resort outside of State College.
A youngster from Pittsburgh, Michael Quallich, a Class of ’27 entry, survived the 36-hole cut by adding a 2-under 69 at the Park Course to his opening round of 2-over 73 at the Arlington Course, but struggled to an 83 in the third round at the Arlington Course and failed to survive the 54-hole cut.
Another Pittsburgh guy, North Allegheny sophomore Ravi Desai, was unable to survive the 36-hole cut as he added a 79 in the second round at the Park Course to his opening-round 77 at the Arlington Course for a 156 total.
On the girls side, recent Unionville graduate Mary Grace Dunigan got off to a fantastic start with a 3-under 68 at the Park Course, but was never able to solve the Arlington Course.
Dunigan, who will join the program at William & Mary later this month, carded a 6-over 77 in the second round at the Arlington Course and survived the 36-hole cut, but another 77 at the Arlington Course in the third round left her with a 222 total that was not good enough to earn her a tee time for the final round.
Dunigan, who led Unionville to the PIAA Class AAA crown as a sophomore in 2020, had punched her ticket to Hot Springs by winning the Philadelphia Girls Junior PGA Championship last month at Spring Ford Country Club.
Dunigan got off to a sizzling start in her opening round at the Park Course with birdies at the first second, fourth, sixth and seventh holes. She cooled off with bogeys at the ninth and 11th holes. After making a birdie at the 12th hole, Dunigan briefly stumbled with a double bogey at 15.
But a birdie at the 17th hole, her seventh of the round, left her at 3-under and among the leaders following the opening round.
The Girls Junior PGA Championship title went to Gianna Clemente, the 15-year-old phenom from Estero, Fla. who is No. 26 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). Clemente, a native of Warren, Ohio, surged to the title with a final round of 3-under 68 at the Arlington Course that gave her a 9-under 275 total.
Clemente opened her week at Hot Springs with a seven-birdie, no-bogey masterpiece of a 64 at the Park Course. She stalled a little in the middle two rounds at the Arlington Course with a 1-under 70 in the second round and a 2-over 73 in the third round that left her at 6-under going into the final round.
Clemente got off to a shaky start in the final round at the Arlington Course with a double bogey at the first hole, but was flawless after that, making birdies at the third, fourth, 12th, 16th and 17th holes to get it to 9-under and claim a three-shot victory.
Clemente was coming off a run to the semifinals in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the U.S. Air Force Academy Eisenhower Golf Club’s Blue Course in Colorado Springs, Colo.
A year earlier, Clemente fell in the final of the U.S. Girls’ Junior at The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky. to Yana Wilson of Henderson, Nev.
As I finish up the post, Clemente has just knocked off the only past champion in the field, 2021 winner Jensen Castle, a graduate student at Kentucky, 4 and 3, in the opening round of match play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles. That after finishing in third place in qualifying for match play with a 6-under 134 total.
It’s no secret that Clemente can play. But she is a good player playing really well at the moment.
Wilson headed a group of three players tied for second place at Hot Springs, three shots behind Clemente at 6-under. Wilson was right on Clemente’s heels with an opening round of 6-under 65 at the Park Course.
Wilson could only manage a pair of 1-over 72s in the middle two rounds at the Arlington Course before finishing strong with a 4-under 67 at the Arlington Course.
Kylie Chong of Torrance, Calif. closed with a sparkling 6-under 66 and Kinsley (Zixin) Ni of China finished up with a 1-under 70 at the Arlington Course to join Wilson in the tie for second place at 6-under.
It was a strong showing at Hot Springs by Megan Meng of Pennington, N.J., winner of the 2020 Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship at Lebanon Country Club.
Meng, a senior at Hopewell Valley High School who will join the program at Big Ten power Northwestern next summer, closed with a 2-under 69 at the Arlington Course to finish in the group tied for 17th place with a 4-over 288 total.
Aphrodite Deng of Short Hills, N.J., the 13-year-old phenom who romped to a 12-shot victory in the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia (WGAP) Junior Girls’ Championship last month at the Moorestown Field Club, failed to survive the 54-hole cut with a 223 total.
Deng, coming off a run to the second round of match play in last month’s U.S. Girls’ Junior at the U.S. Air Force Academy, opened with a solid 1-under 70 at the Park Course, but struggled a little at the Arlington Course, tallying a 6-over 77 in the second round and a 5-over 76 in the third round.
Brooke Oberparleiter, who spends her summers in Laurel Springs, N.J. and her winters in Jupiter, Fla., was the runnerup to Dunigan in the Philadelphia Girls Junior PGA Championship at Spring Ford to punch her ticket to Hot Springs.
Oberparleiter, who will join the program at SEC power Kentucky later this month, got it going at the Arlington Course in the second round with a 2-under 69 to make the 36-hole cut, but struggled to an 80 in the third round at the Arlington Course and failed to survive the 54-hole cut with a 225 total.
Lenape High senior Angelina Tolentino also landed on 225 after three rounds and failed to advance to the final day. Tolentino, who will join the program at SEC power Vanderbilt at the end of next summer, added a solid 1-over 72 in the second round at the Arlington Course to her opening round of 4-over 75 at the Park Course before posting 7-over 78 in the third round at the Arlington Course.
Avery McCrery, coming off a Delaware individual state title to cap her freshman season at the Tower Hill School in the spring, just missed the cutoff after 36 holes as she added a 4-over 75 at the Arlington Course in the second round to her opening round of 2-over 73 at the Park Course for a 6-over 148 total.
McCrery reached the match-play bracket in the U.S. Girls’ Junior at the U.S. Air Force Academy, falling to Deng in the opening round in a matchup of WGAP Junior Girls’ champions.
Anna Swan, the PIAA Class AA runnerup as a junior at North East last fall, was unable to survive the 36-hole cut as she added a 5-over 76 at the Arlington Course in the second round to her opening round of 4-over 75 at the Park Course for a 151 total.
Ellie Benson, who finished in a tie for fourth place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship to cap her freshman season at Peters Township last fall, struggled to an 83 in the second round at the Arlington Course after opening with a 5-over 76 at the Arlington Course as she failed to survive the 36-hole cut with a 159 total.
No comments:
Post a Comment