Rindgen stays hot at chilly Landis Creek with another Philly Junior Tour victory

 

   Andrew Rindgen of Havertown has come out of the gate playing some solid golf this spring on the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour.

   Coming off a victory in the 16-to-18 division in last Sunday’s Philly Junior stop at Chesapeake Bay Golf Club in Rising Sun, Md., Rindgen again bested the older guys with a 4-over-par 74 Saturday at Landis Creek Golf Club in Limerick.

   The Philly Junior Tour also scored an overall 13-to-18 division for the boys, which might mean there were some Junior Golf Scoreboard (JGS) points up for grabs. Piling up JGS points can earn players some status on some of the higher profile junior circuits, most notably the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA).

   I’ll break out the usual Philly Junior Tour divisions and refer to the overall scoring along the way.

   Rindgen made birdies at the second, seventh and 18^th holes and had eight pars on his scorecard and his 4-over total also topped the overall scoring by a shot over Haverford School freshman Jack Luterman, whose 5-over 75 topped the 13-to-15 division.

   Winter made a brief comeback Saturday and chilly temperatures and brisk, gusty winds made for a challenging day for the junior golfers.

   Zachary Miller of Nazareth made birdies on the third and 11^th holes and had eight pars on his card as he finished in second place among the older guys and third overall with a 6-over 76.

   Two of the Central League’s top sophomores last fall, Lower Merion’s Seiji Sako and Harriton’s Carson Deringer, and Christopher Mark Parrish of Woolwich Township, N.J. finished in a tie for third place in the 16-to-18 division and were part of a tie for fifth overall as each landed on 80.

   Sako, whose tie for fourth place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship at Penn State’s Blue Course last fall was the highest finish for a District One player, made a birdie at the seventh hole at Landis Creek and had seven pars on his card, five of them on the outgoing nine.

   Deringer made birdies at the third, 14^th and 15^th holes and had six pars on his card. Parrish made birdies on the seventh and 11^th holes and had nine pars on his card, six of them on the incoming nine at Landis Creek.

   Boyertown junior Chase Dillman took sixth place in the 16-to-18 division and was ninth overall with an 81.

   Strath Haven sophomore Luca Kleinschmidt and Mason Wiener of Holland finished in a tie for seventh place among the older guys and rounded out the top 10 in the overall scoring as they both signed for an 82 to finish in a tie for 10^th place.

   Sam Rosenberg took ninth place with an 83 and Brandon Carrigan of Warrington rounded out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division as he finished 10^th with an 85.

   Luterman, an Ardmore resident, made a birdie on the fifth hole and had a steady round that featured 12 pars, including a run of seven in a row from the seventh through the 13^th holes, as his 75 topped the 13-to-15 division and trailed only Rindgen in the overall standings.

   Niklas Skjeveland of Jamison made birdies at the 14^th and 18^th holes and had eight pars on his scorecard, including six straight from the sixth through the 11^th holes as he finished two shots behind Luterman in second place among the younger guys with a 7-over 77 and ended up fourth in the overall scoring.

   Thomas Carpenter of Bristol had 10 pars on his card, including runs of four in a row from the third through the sixth holes on the front nine and 14 through 17 on the back nine, as he took third place in the 13-to-15 division with an 80.

   Carpenter was the last player among the younger guys to finish in the top 10 in the overall scoring as he joined Sako, Deringer and Parrish from the 16-to-18 division in a tie for fifth place.

   Benjamin Robbins of Holland took fourth place in the 13-to-15 division with an 84 and Pierce Drake of Glenmoore and Wyatt Underwood of Telford finished in a tie for fifth, each posting an 85.

   Sebastian Park of Lansdale and Max Berish of Pottstown ended up in a tie for seventh place, each tallying an 87 and Rayan Shah of Newtown and Zachary Daniels of Bryn Mawr rounded out the top 10 in the 13-to-15 division as they finished in a tie for ninth, each registering an 88.

   Shah has moved up to the 13-to-15 division from the coed 12-and-under nine-holers, a group he dominated in 2023 with 21 wins on his way to Philly Junior Tour Player of the Year honors in the division.

   The best score among the girls at Landis Creek came out of the younger 13-to-15 division as Gege Ren of Bryn Mawr had six pars on her scorecard on her way to an 87 that earned her a Philly Junior Tour victory.

   Stella Bernardi of Sewell, N.J. and Saloni Patel of Collegeville shared second place in the division, each landing on 95. Stella Bernardi had five pars on her card and Patel made a birdie at third hole and had three pars on her card.

   Isha Garg of Berlin, Md. finished in fifth place with a 99 and Lydia Bernardi, another member of Team Bernardi of Sewell, N.J., rounded out the field in the 13-to-15 division as she finished sixth with a 106.

   Nadia Yackanicz of Schwenksville claimed a victory in the 16-to-18 division as she had four pars on her scorecard on her way to a 98.

   Keira Conner of Ridley Park and Sarah Lester-Stranick of Lewes, Del. rounded out the 16-to-18 division field as they finished in second and third place, respectively, Conner carding a 122 and Lester-Stranick posting a 125.

   Adam Revness of Yardley and Xunnan Dang of Newtown Square finished in a tie atop the leaderboard among the nine-holers as each carded a 7-over 43. Adam Revness had three pars on his scorecard and Dang had four pars on his card.

   Another member of Yardley’s Team Revness, Ben Revness, finished a shot behind the top two in third place with a 44 as he made a birdie on the second hole and had three pars on his card.

   Sam Whitehouse of Pottstown took fourth place with a 46, Nathan Lebo of Collegeville was fifth with a 46 and Cole Miller of York was sixth with a 48.

   Ryan Dungan of Warrington and Noah Howard of Lafayette Hill shared seventh place, each posting a 49, and Jack Kolmer of Wayne finished ninth with a 51.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the coed 12-and-under division were David Gilman of Cape May Court House, N.J. and Connor Masulis of Pottstown as they finished in a tie for 10^th place, each registering a 53.