Episcopal Academy's Leung prevails in a playoff to repeat as Inter-Ac's individual champion

 

   WEST NANTMEAL – Clarissa Leung had just one more item to add to her glittering golf resume at Episcopal Academy.

   Leung will graduate from EA without ever having tasted defeat in an Inter-Ac League team competition.

   A year ago, Leung, a product of the junior program at White Manor Country Club, captured the Inter-Ac’s individual crown with a spectacular 3-under-par 32 on the outgoing nine at French Creek Golf Club, an early Gil Hanse design in the northwest corner of Chester County.

   On a sun-splashed May Wednesday back at French Creek, Leung put an exclamation point on her scholastic career by holing a two-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff to repeat as the Inter-Ac individual champion.

   Baldwin’s Megan Adelman had gone back-to-back in 2022 and 2023 in the Inter-Ac Championship, both also at French Creek.

   Leung had finished in a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard with fellow Episcopal senior Addie Chang and Agnes Irwin’s diminutive junior Makalya Stone, about 4-feet-10 of all heart, at 1-over 36 over the 2,639-yard, par-35 front nine at French Creek.

   The pins were in some hard-to-reach places and the speed of the greens proved to be a bit of a mystery.

   But after Leung and Stone both made birdie at the 401-yard, par-5 sixth hole to join Chang at 1-over, the trio stayed that way over the final three holes.

   Leung could have won it right there at the sixth as her brilliant approach left her four feet for eagle. She just never looked comfortable over the putt and it slid by as she was forced to settle for a two-putt birdie.

   “That was an 8-iron I hit in there,” said Leung, who, like Stone, consults with the area’s leading swing guru, John Dunigan. “That was a good shot I hit. The pins were tough. I was just trying to take it one hole at a time.”

   They all had birdie looks on the green at the final hole, the 315-yard ninth, but none could get them to fall.

   It was decided to utilize the ninth for the playoff. Leung bombed her drive and her approach with a 58-degree wedge left her nine feet for birdie.

   Chang’s 22-footer for birdie slid a couple of feet by. Stone had 20 feet for birdie and, perhaps sensing Leung was going to make a birdie, went for it and sent her putt five feet past the hole.

   Leung smacked her birdie putt through the break and it went by on the high side. Stone missed her five-footer for par and she was done, but Chang calmly holed her par putt and it was down to the two EA seniors. Again, they played the ninth hole.

   “That it came down to Addie and me, that was really great,” Leung said.

   Leung bombed her drive to nearly the same spot she had on the first hole of the playoff while Chang’s drive caught one of the fairway bunkers. Chang blasted it out just short of the green.

   But Leung would no longer be denied. She lofted her trusty 58-degree to two feet and it was over.

   “Same shot as the first playoff hole,” Leung said. “I chunked my wedge a little the first time. I got it just right the second time.”

   It was the same ninth hole where Leung holed a 25-yard chip shot for eagle to close out her round a year ago. You like this course, huh?

   “I do,” she confirmed with a smile.

   Leung is headed for California at Berkley, “more for school than golf,” she said. She might not be able to compete in the top levels of Division I golf with Cal in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but make no mistake about it, the girl’s got a lot of game.

   Chang had the early advantage when she made a par on the first hole and then stuck her approach at the 393-yard, par-4 second to six feet and converted the birdie try. Chang has a pretty nice record at French Creek, too, as she finished in third place in the Inter-Ac Championship a year ago.

   Stone got off to a tough start with a three-putt double bogey at the first hole and a three-putt bogey to an impossible pin at the short par-3 third. Despite watching her opponents outdrive her by nearly 100 yards, Stone just kept battling.

   She was just off the green in two at the 371-yard, par-5 fourth hole, but got it up and down for birdie. Stone yanked her tee shot at the neat, downhill par-3 eighth hole left and long, but calmly chipped it close for a great par save.

   Carter Yearley, another of Episcopal coach Jenna Sorrano Longen’s senior stalwarts, finished a shot behind the playoff participants in fourth place with a solid 2-over 37.

   The Inter-Ac girls followed the lead of the boys during the regular season with each team hosting an invitational and Episcopal swept them all for a perfect 20-0 record.

   The top 11 point-getters throughout the five invitationals were automatic qualifiers for Wednesday’s individual championship and each coach got to add a coach’s pick to round out the elite 16-player field.

   Sorrano Longen had seven players competing at French Creek. The two other seniors, Libby Flaisher and Arden Mankovich, finished in a tie for 10^th place and a tie for 13^th, respectively, Flaisher posting a 45 and Mankovich tallying a 47.

   Freshman Julia Griffin finished alone in fifth place with a 40 and sophomore Marietta Hartmann landed in a tie for eighth with a 44.

   “My seniors have been so great, I’m going to miss them,” Sorrano Longen said. “We’ll be counting on Julia and Marietta next year.”

   Chang is headed for Fairfield, Yearley will attend Clemson, Flaisher is bound for Georgetown and Mankovich will play field hockey at William & Mary.

   It was a frustrating day for Notre Dame sophomore Kiersten Bodge, whose run of three straight runnerup finishes in the Inter-Ac League individual championship was halted as she ended up alone in sixth place, a shot behind EA’s Griffin with a 41.

   Playing in the lead group along with Leung, Chang and Stone, Kiersten Bodge couldn’t get the speed of the greens early, resulting in some three-putts. Kiersten Bodge might have tried to do a little too much to try to play catch-up late in the round.

   Kiersten Bodge, a product of the junior program at Overbrook Golf Club, finished in ninth place in last summer’s Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship at Waynesborough Country Club. It was no fluke.

   Kiersten Bodge did get low-Bodge honors, though, as younger sister Katelyn finished a shot behind her big sister in seventh place with a 42 in the Notre Dame seventh-grader’s debut in the Inter-Ac Championship.

   Joining EA’s Hartmann in the tie for eighth place at 44 was Springside Chestnut Hill Academy junior Sami Acuna.

   Joining EA’s Flaisher in the tie for 10^th place at 45 was Agnes Irwin freshman Anna Rufo.

   Notre Dame senior Ciara Kelly finished in 12^th place with a 46 and Agnes Irwin sophomore Audrey Comly shared 13^th place with EA’s Mankovich, each recording a 47.

   Rounding out the field were Agnes Irwin senior Caitlyn Monestere and Baldwin freshman Charlotte Grant as they each signed for a 50 to finish in a tie for 15^th place.