It was in the coronavirus pandemic summer of 2020 when a New Jersey girl, Megan Meng, playing out of Jericho National Golf Club in Bucks County, swooped in to Lebanon Country Club and beat a pretty strong field to capture the title in the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship by three shots.
Meng, a Pennington, N.J. resident, played out her high school career at Hopewell Valley Central and was one of the best junior players in her class in New Jersey.
Northwestern’s reputation as an academic powerhouse is well-earned. So, yeah, the Wildcats are after smart kids, but that hasn’t stopped them from becoming a perennial Big Ten and national power in women’s golf. And that’s how Meng landed in Chicago.
Meng didn’t make the starting lineup at Northwestern as a freshman in the fall portion of the wraparound 2024-2025 season, although she did tee it up as in individual in the Wildcats’ home event, the Windy City Challenge, a tournament that drew a top field to Westmoreland Country Club in Wilmette, Ill.
Meng, still representing Jericho National, spent the final days of 2024 teeing it up in the Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational, which wrapped up New Year’s Eve at Sun ’n Lake Golf Club’s Deer Run Course in Sebring, Fla. and finished in a tie for seventh place with an 8-over 296 total.
The Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational is a direct descendant of the venerable Harder Hall Ladies Invitational, a stop on the unofficial Orange Blossom Tour of amateur events for women in South Florida in winter that goes back to the 1950s.
It looked like the event was going to die when the golf course at the Harder Hall Resort closed a few years ago, but the golf community in Sebring didn’t want the rich legacy of the Harder Hall to go away and rebranded the event, designed to rotate among the courses that make up the Citrus Golf Trail in the central Florida town.
They seemed to have settled on the Deer Run Course at Sun ’n Lake for the first few editions of the Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational and it seemed to provide quite a challenge with Sophie Renner of Germany edging Shauna Li, a junior standout from Canada, in a playoff after both landed on even-par 288 following the regulation 72 holes.
Meng matched par in the opening round with a 72 that left her just two shots behind Liu, who had grabbed the lead with a 2-under 70.
Meng put together back-to-back 2-over 74s in the middle two rounds Sunday and Monday before closing with a 4-over 76 that enabled her to share seventh place with Bridget Boczar, a junior at Baylor from Canton, Mich., at 8-over.
Smart move by Meng to get to Florida for some competitive reps before the Northwestern season resumes next month in the Purdue Puerto Rico Classic.
Can’t find a lot on Renner, although the roundup of the Citrus Golf Trail Women’s Invitational on amateurgolf.com website – an excellent resource for amateur golf all year long – indicated that she this is the third year in a row she has made the trip to Sebring.
Looks like Renner’s still a junior player and I don’t see her name pop up on anybody’s recruiting list. A lot of the top junior players in Europe play college golf in the States, but not all of them.
Renner only trailed Liu by a shot after opening with a 1-under 71. Renner really got it going early in Sunday’s second round and was 6-under through 12 holes. She cooled off a little down the stretch, but still carded a 2-under 70 that gave her a three-shot lead over Liu.
Renner struggled a little in the third round with a 3-over 75, but still took a one-shot edge over Liu into the final round.
Renner started fast in her final round of 2024, making birdies at the fifth, seventh, ninth and 10th holes, but a bogey at 14, a double bogey at 17 and a bogey at 18 gave her a final round of even-par 72 and enabled Liu to catch her at even-par 288.
Renner captured the title on the third hole of the playoff. Not sure if it was sudden death or a three-hole aggregate deal, but a par on the third hole of the playoff got the job done for Renner.
Liu, a Class of 2027 competitor, was one of five players who finished in tie for fifth place, a group that included Wilmington, Del. native Avery McCrery, in the Rolex Tournament of Champions, the marquee event on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) calendar that was held Thanksgiving week at TPC San Antonio’s Canyons Course in Texas.
It was really just Liu and Renner going head-to-head the whole week at Sun ’n Lake’s Deer Run Course.
After taking the lead with her opening round of 2-under 70, Liu fell three shots behind Renner with a 2-over 74 in the second round and got within a shot of Renner with a 1-over 73 in Monday’s third round.
Liu was really solid in Tuesday’s final round. After making a bogey at third hole, Liu went 2-under the rest of the way, with birdies at eight and 14 and 13 pars as she caught Renner with her final round of 1-under 71.
Another Canadian youngster, Clara Ding – she’s a Class of ’29 competitor, so yeah, basically an eighth-grader – shared third place with defending champion Sofia Cherif Essakali, a Moroccan who was all of 14 when she captured the title in the Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational a year ago. Ding and Essakali landed on 3-over 291, three shots behind Renner and Liu.
After posting back-to-back 2-over 74s in the first two rounds, Ding matched par in Monday’s third round with a 72 before closing with a solid 1-under 71.
Cherif Essakali struggled in the opening round with a 79, but bounced back with a 1-under 71 in Sunday’s round before charging into contention with a sparkling 3-under 69, one of the very few sub-70 rounds in the tournament, in the third round. Cherif Essakali matched par in the final round with a 72 to complete a spirited defense of her title.
Siuue Wu, a native of Hong Kong who moved right into the starting lineup as a freshman at Florida in the fall, finished two shots behind Ding and Cherif Essakali in fifth place with a 5-over 293 total.
Wu, coming off a tie for fifth place in the Women’s Dixie Amateur earlier in December at Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs, Fla., opened with a 2-over 74 and matched par in the second and third rounds with back-to-back 72s before finishing up with a 3-over 75.
Ana Boone, a high school senior playing not far from her Champions Gate, Fla. home, finished two shots behind Wu in sixth place with a 7-over 295 total. Boone, who will join the program at Rice this summer, struggled a little in the opening round with a 5-over 77, but settled down with back-to-back 73s in the middle two rounds before matching par with a 72 in her New Year’s Eve final round.
Joining Meng in the tie for seventh place was Baylor’s Boczar, who bounced back from an opening round of 4-over 76 with a sparkling 3-under 69 in the second round. Boczar struggled again in Monday’s third round with a 77 before closing with a 74 that enabled her to join Meng at 8-over.
A couple more college players, Mimi Burton, a sophomore at Notre Dame from Austin, Texas, and Nancy Cox, a freshman at Florida Atlantic from Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., rounded out the top 10 as they finished in a tie for ninth place, each ending up with an 11-over 299 total, three shots behind Meng and Boczar.
After struggling to a 6-over 78 in the opening round, Burton carded a 75 in the second round before finishing up with back-to-back 1-over 73s in the final two rounds.
Cox struggled in the first two rounds adding a 6-over 78 in Sunday’s second round to her opening-round 79. But she found her groove in the final two rounds, matching par in Monday’s third round with a 72 before closing with a solid 2-under 70.
Martha Leach of Hebron, Ky., playing out of Traditions Golf Club, was the runaway winner of the Forever 49 Division at Sun ’n Lake’s Deer Run Course with a 15-over 303 total.
Leach captured the title in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship in 2009. Got a chance to watch Leach 14 years later when she was in the group I was caddying in in two days of qualifying for match play in the 2023 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Stonewall’s North Course and still good enough to earn a spot in the match-play bracket against younger players.
Leach, the sister of three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion Hollis Stacy, earned a spot in the match-play bracket in last summer’s U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle, Wash., but ran into a buzzsaw in the opening round when she lost to eventual champion Nadene Gole of Australia.
Leach added a 79 in Sunday’s second round to her opening round of 4-over 76, then turned it up a notch, posting a 3-over 75 in Monday’s third round before closing with a solid 73 on her way to an 11-shot victory.
Kembra Benson, playing out of Pinehurst Country Club, was Leach’s closest competitor as she earned runnerup honors with a 315 total. After carding back-to-back 6-over 78s in the first two rounds, Benson recorded back-to-back 79s in the final two rounds.
Kim Keyer-Scott of Bonita Springs, Fla. finished a shot behind Benson in third place with a 315 total. Keyer-Scott started slowly, adding an 80 in Sunday’s second round to her opening-round 81, but put together back-to-back 5-over 77s in the final two rounds.
Like Leach, Keyer-Scott earned a spot in the match-play bracket in last summer’s U.S. Women’s Senior Am at Broadmoor, but was knocked out in the opening round.
Finishing in a tie for 10th place with a 337 total in the Forever 49 division was Merion Golf Club’s Liz Haines, who is 76 or so years old. Haines had a pair of 86s in the first two rounds at Sun ’n Lake’s Deer Run Course before signing for an 83 in Monday’s third round and an 82 in the final round.
At some point last summer, Haines could celebrate the 20th anniversary of her run to the final of the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at Pasatiempo Golf Course in Santa Cruz, Calif., where she lost to Carolyn Creekmoore. More than 20 years later and she’s still getting it around in pretty good fashion on a golf course set up for a championship.
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