Phoenixville's Roberts has work to do after opening with a 75 in qualifying for match play in U.S. Girls' Junior

 

   Phoenixville senior Kayley Roberts has some work to do if she is to earn a spot in the match-play bracket at the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship after opening with a 4-over-par 75 at a sweltering Atlanta Athletic Club’s Riverside Course in Johns Creek, Ga. Monday.

   Roberts, who has finished in the top five in the PIAA Class AAA Championship in each of her three appearances, finished in a tie for 76^th place with her 6-over round. The top 64 players following Tuesday’s second round of qualifying will earn a spot in the match-play bracket when match play gets under way Wednesday morning.

   Roberts was the runnerup in a U.S. Girls’ Junior qualifier last month at the U.S. Naval Academy Golf Club in Annapolis, Md.

   Teeing off in a field of the top junior players in the world, Roberts made bogeys at the second, fifth, seventh and 11^th holes before getting a shot back with a birdie at the 12^th.

   Roberts hung tough, making a bogey at the 14^th hole and five pars on her way to the clubhouse. There had to be some nerves in her first really big national event, but Roberts is still in with a shot.

   Roberts tuned up for her trip to the Atlanta Athletic Club by claiming medalist honors in last week’s Philadelphia Girls Junior PGA Championship at DuPont Country Club’s Nemours Course, which earned her a spot in the field for the Girls Junior PGA Championship later this month at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

   Aphrodite Deng, the native of Canada whose family relocated to Short Hills, N.J., signed for a 1-over 72 at the Riverside Course and was among a large group tied for 24^th place.

   Deng showed up at the Moorestown Field Club for the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior Girls’ Championship as a 13-year-old two summers ago and promptly rolled to a 12-shot victory with a startling 14-under 130 total.

   Deng wore the gold jacket that goes to the winner of the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley in Graniteville, S.C. after cruising to a six-shot victory in March in what is arguably the second most prestigious junior event in the country.

   She has risen to No. 38 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), which makes her the second-highest ranked player in the U.S. Girls’ Junior.

   Starting off the 10^th tee, Deng made bogeys at the 11^th, 12^th and 16^th holes and turned for the front nine at 3-over. She rallied with birdies at the first and sixth holes to put herself in solid position to earn a spot in the match-play bracket.

   Rinka Nakayama, a native of Japan, stood alone atop the leaderboard following Monday’s opening round after she fired a sizzling 5-under 66.

   Staring off the 10^th tee, Nakayama made birdies at the 13^th, 16^th and 18^th holes and headed for the front nine at 3-under. After a birdie at the second hole, Nakayama made a bogey at four, the only blemish on her scorecard.

   Nakayama bounced back with back-to-back birdies at the sixth and seventh holes that gave her a one-shot lead over Xingtong Chen of Singapore and Sophie Han of Hong Kong.

   The highest-ranked player in the Women’s WAGR in the field, No. 17 Asterisk Talley, a 16-year-old from Chowchilla, Calif., matched par with a 71 and was among the group tied for 16^th place.

   Talley was the runnerup to Rianne Malixi in last summer’s U.S. Girls’ Junior at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif. and in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.

   Malixi had not aged-out of the U.S. Girls’ Junior, but didn’t return to defend her title, opting instead to accept an invitation to last week’s Amundi Evian Championship, a major championship on the LPGA Tour in Evian-les-Bains, France.

   Talley shared low-amateur honors in the U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club in the spring of 2024 as a 15-year-old.

   Joining Roberts in the group tied for 76^th place at 4-over and with work to do to earn a spot in the match-play bracket was Wilmington, Del. native Avery McCrery, winner of last summer’s Girls Junior PGA Championship, another of the major national events for juniors, at Congressional Country Club.

   McCrery, who started off the 10^th tee, struggled on her way to the clubhouse, finishing up with a double bogey at the ninth hole.

   McCrery, who captured the WGAP’s Junior Girls’ Championship in 2020, will join the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke later this summer. Duke’s recruiting class also includes Malixi, giving the Blue Devils a powerhouse pair of freshmen for the wraparound 2025-2026 season.

   It was a tough debut on the national stage for Cardinal O’Hara sophomore Alaina Carson, who punched her ticket to the Atlanta Athletic Club by capturing the Pennsylvania Golf Association Junior Girls’ Championship last month at Lebanon Country Club.

   Carson, who finished in a tie for third place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a freshman last fall, couldn’t find a birdie on the Riverside Course to offset bogeys at the fourth, fifth, seventh, 11^th, 13^th and 16^th holes as she recorded a 6-over 77 that left her in the group tied for 104^th place.

   Archmere Academy junior Hannah Webb, a Woolwich, N.J. resident, struggled to an 80 and was among the group tied for 134^th place following the opening round.

   Webb, who captured the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association individual crown at the St. Anne’s Golf Links in Middletown, Del. in the spring, was the medalist in the U.S. Girls’ Junior qualifier at the U.S. Naval Academy Golf Club.

   Rhianna Gooneratne, the PIAA Class AAA champion as a junior at Plymouth-Whitemarsh in the fall of 2023, struggled to an 81 at the Riverside Course Monday and was tied for 141^st place.

   Gooneratne, who will join the program at Delaware later this summer, earned her spot at the Atlanta Athletic Club in a Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered qualifier at Chambersburg Country Club.

   Kayley Roberts’ older sister Kate, who also starred scholastically at Phoenixville before joining the program at Mountain West Conference power San Jose State, was the first alternate out of the qualifier at Chambersburg, but apparently did not get the call from the USGA to get into the field for the U.S. Girls’ Junior.