Still have a way to go to get caught up on the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour schedule and I plan to do that, but decided to skip ahead and put together a post on Monday’s Junior Tour Championship …
With all that heat and humidity that has dominated the last eight weeks on the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour finally swept away – at least for a little while -- the 46th Junior Tour Championship teed off Monday at Chester Valley Golf Club, the East Whiteland, Chester County classic that once played host to a regular stop on what was then the fledgling Senior Tour (now PGA Tour Champions).
A big field of many of the kids whose hard work on their games has been paying off all summer gathered at Chester Valley. The Junior Tour Championship also offered a glimpse into the scholastic season that is about to get under way for a lot of the Pennsylvania youngsters.
This year’s Junior Tour Championship revealed just how deep the talent pool is in 2024. Looks like it was also a Junior Golf Scoreboard (JGS) event, which means there were points up for grabs that offer some status that gives players an opportunity to play on some of the higher-profile junior circuits, including the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA).
As usual with the JGS events, there was overall scoring in the 13-to-18 division for boys and girls. I’ll break out the Philly Junior Tour’s usual 13-to-15 and 16-to-18 age groups while referring to the overall scoring.
On the boys side, there was a four-way logjam at the top of both the 16-to-18 division and the overall scoring as Conestoga junior Chris Sung, Perkiomen Valley junior Alex Hall and a couple of New Jersey guys, Tommy Marshall of Marlton and Christopher Parrish of Woolwich Township, each carded a solid 3-over 73 on the challenging Chester Valley layout.
On the girls side, the overall winner emerged from the 13-to-15 division as Hannah Webb of Woolwich, N.J. posted an 82. Webb helped Archmere Academy capture the team title in the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association (DIAA) Championship at Maple Dale Country Club as a freshman in the spring.
There was no indication in the results that the four-way tie among the guys was broken with a playoff.
Sung, who has been playing solid golf all summer, made birdies at the second, fifth, 14th, 15th and 18th hole and had seven pars on his scorecard. Hall made birdies at the sixth and 18th holes and had 11 pars on his card.
Marshall made birdies at the 10th, 12th and 14th holes while seven of his 10 pars came on the outgoing nine at Chester Valley. Parrish made birdies on the 14th and 16th holes and had 11 pars on his card, including a run of six straight pars from the seventh through the 12th holes.
Lower Merion junior Seiji Sako and Malvern Prep junior William Shuford finished in a tie for fifth place in the 16-to-18 division and shared fifth in the overall scoring with Frederik Hartmann of Devon, who finished atop the leaderboard in the 13-to-15 division, with all three landing on 3-over 75.
Sako had the best finish among the District One contingent in the PIAA Class AAA Championship last fall at Penn State as he ended up in a tie for fourth place.
Radnor junior Brad McDermott, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier last fall, finished in seventh place among the older guys and was eighth in the overall scoring with a 6-over 76.
Hall’s Perkiomen Valley teammate, Andrew Brendlinger, also a junior, and Downingtown West sophomore Ian Larsen each registered a 7-over 77 as they finished in a tie for eighth place in the 16-to-18 division and shared ninth in the overall scoring with a couple of guys from the 13-to-15 division, West Chester Rustin junior Cole Berry and Logan McGinn of South Williamsport.
Five players rounded out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division by finishing in a tie for 10th place at 8-over 78, including Governor Mifflin junior Nate Radwanski, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier last fall, Archmere junior Michael Liu, another member of the Auks’ DIAA championship team in the spring, Brayden Tritsch of Medford, N.J., P.J. Foley of Northfield, N.J. and Nick Belgrade of Wilmington, Del.
That’s 14 guys at 78 or better on a tough golf course like Chester Valley in the 16-to-18 division. Pretty strong.
Hartmann’s steady 5-over 75 featured just one birdie at the 16th hole and he had 11 pars on his scorecard in finishing atop the leaderboard in the 13-to-15 division and in a tie for fifth place in the overall scoring with Sako and Shuford from the 16-to-18 division.
Berry, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier last fall, and McGinn, a 12-year-old phenom, were the last two players in the 13-to-15 division to finish in the top 10 in the overall scoring as they each tallied a 7-over 77 that left them two shots behind Hartmann in a tie for second place among the younger guys and in a tie for ninth in the overall scoring with Brendlinger and Larsen from the 16-to-18 division.
Berry had a steady round as he had 12 pars on his scorecard, grinding out eight straight pars to finish up his round.
McGinn made birdies on the fourth and ninth holes and had nine pars on his card. I said it when he finished in sixth place in the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship at Bellewood Country Club earlier this summer: Look out for this kid.
Rayan Shah of Newtown took fourth place in the 13-to-15 division and Wissahickon sophomore Ty Sheftic and Sussex Central sophomore Jake Hollerback finished in a tie for fifth place, each signing for a 79.
Spring-Ford sophomore Michael Gravinese and Landon Finsen of Westampton, N.J. shared eighth place, each posting an 80.
Like the 16-to-18 division, there were five players rounding out the top 10 in the 13-to-15 division, each ending up in a tie for 10th place with an 81. That quintet included Haverford School sophomore and Ardmore resident Jack Luterman, Brendan Schott of Wilmington, Del., Jackson Lane of Cinnaminson, N.J., Evan Walters V of Emmaus and Jimmy Warmkessell of Malvern.
Archmere’s Webb made a birdie on the second hole and had nine pars on her scorecard on her way to an 82 that gave her the top spot in the 13-to-15 division and enabled her to take the overall title among the girls.
Conestoga sophomore Corinne McReynolds, who helped the Pioneers capture the District One Class AAA championship last fall, had seven pars on her card as she finished second among the younger girls and in the overall scoring with an 85.
Mt. Pleasant High junior Anna Firko and Isha Garg of Berlin, Md. shared third place in the 13-to-15 division and were in a tie for third in the overall standings with recent West Chester Rustin graduate Sophia DeSantis, the top finisher in the 16-to-18 division, as they all landed on 86.
Firko had six pars on her card while Garg made a birdie on the 17th hole and had four pars on her card.
Conestoga sophomore Jill Burks, the leading lady on the Pioneers’ district championship team last fall, finished two shots behind Firko and Garg in fifth place in the 13-to-15 division and in a tie for seventh in the overall standings with recent Neshaminy graduate Sabrina Swope, who took third among the older girls, as each registered an 88.
Nazareth Academy sophomore Adriana Seravalli and Katherine Liu of Moorestown, N.J. finished in a tie for sixth place in the 13-to-15 division and rounded out the top 10 in the overall scoring by ending up in a tie for ninth as each recorded an 89. Seravalli helped Nazareth capture the Catholic League girls golf crown in its first year in the league last fall.
Perkiomen Valley sophomore Saloni Patel took eighth place with a 90, Stella Bernardi of Sewell, N.J. and Megan Choi of Penn Valley shared ninth, each posting a 91, and Alexa Shure of Malvern rounded out the field in the 13-to-15 division as she finished 11th with a 105.
DeSantis had seven pars on her scorecard as she edged her pal Makayla Stone, a junior at Agnes Irwin and a Garnet Valley resident, by a shot with an 86 to claim the top spot in the 16-to-18 division and share third in the overall scoring with Firko and Garg from the 16-to-18 division.
Stone, who finished in fourth place in the Inter-Ac League Championship in the spring, had three pars on her card as she earned runnerup honors among the older girls and was alone in sixth overall with a solid 87.
Swope, who will join the program at Millersville later this month, was also very much in contention in the 16-to-18 division as she made birdies on the third and 14th holes and had four pars on her card and finished a shot behind Stone in third place among the older girls while sharing seventh overall with Burks from the 13-to-15 division with an 88.
Rounding out the field in the 16-to-18 division were Mariana Walker of Richboro and Annalise Capoli of Medford, N.J. as they finished in a tie for fourth place, each carding a 99.
Taimoor Naseem of Sinking Spring bested the field of nine-holers as he made a birdie on the fourth hole and had three pars on his scorecard on his way to a 4-over 39.
Bobby Stefanski of Newtown Square made a birdie on the eighth hole and had two pars on his card as he earned runnerup honors with a 6-over 41.
The foursome of Gavin Lane of Team Lane out of Cinnaminson, N.J., Patrick Thomas of Hockessin, Del., Grayson McCann of Downingtown and Eric Cunningham of Wayne all landed a shot behind Stefanski at 7-over 42 in a tie for third place.
Gavin Lane had three pars on his card. Gavin Lane finished in a tie for first place in the Philly Junior Tour’s 12-and-under Championship Aug. 1st with a 2-over 35 at McCall Golf Club in Upper Darby. I’ll get around to a roundup of that event in the upcoming days.
Thomas made a birdie on the first hole and had three pars on his card. McCann had five pars on his card.
Cunningham, who finished a shot behind Lane in third place in the 12-and-under Championship at McCall, had three pars on his card at Chester Valley.
Xunnan Dang of Newtown Square, Preston Minio of Lansdale and John (Jack) Shea of Harleysville finished in a tie for seventh place as each tallied a 43.
Damien Dollard, another Cinnaminson, N.J. entry, rounded out the top 10 in the coed 12-and-under division as he finished in 10th place with a 44.
It’s a testament to the level of competitiveness among the nine-holers that only five shots separated first place from 10th.
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