Phoenixville senior Kayley Roberts has always been a good player.
In three trips to the PIAA Class AAA Championship, the worst Roberts has been is fourth place.
But Kayley Roberts has taken it up notch this summer and Monday at DuPont Country Club’s Nemours Course just outside of Wilmington, Del. she secured her second berth in a major national junior tournament by cruising to a five-shot field in the Philadelphia Girls Junior PGA Championship.
Pretty sure the weather was at least a little bit of a factor Monday. We had a stoppage of play for lightning and a brief heavy downpour where I was looping at Stonewall. But they got 36 holes in at DuPont and Roberts was dominant right from the start.
Roberts’ opening salvo at the par-72 Nemours Course out of the gate Monday morning was a birdie at the first, a birdie at two and then an eagle at the par-5 third. She was 4-under before the rest of the field knew what hit it.
It was the start of a brilliant, bogeyless, 7-under 65. Roberts would add a solid 1-under 71 in the afternoon for an 8-under 136 total that earned her medalist honors in the qualifier for the Girls Junior PGA Championship, which tees off July 29 at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.
Pretty sure Roberts’ victory makes her the Philadelphia Section PGA’s automatic qualifier to the PGA of America’s biggest event for junior golfers. Pretty sure the Philadelphia Section will get a wild card or two through to the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex.
Last month, Roberts carded a solid 1-under 71 at the U.S. Naval Academy Golf Club in Annapolis, Md. to punch her ticket to the U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship, which tees off July 14 at the Atlanta Athletic Club’s Riverside Course in Johns Creek, Ga.
Pretty exciting month of July coming in the fledgling golf career of one Kayley Roberts, a golf journey that appears to really be starting to take flight.
And Roberts seems to be playing her best golf at just the right time. After that stunning opening burst in her first round Monday at DuPont, Roberts ripped off 10 straight pars before closing with another birdie binge, making birdies at the 14th, 15th and 18th holes.
It added up to a 3-under 32 tour of the incoming nine at the Nemours Course.
Roberts actually made a couple of bogeys on the outgoing nine at the Nemours Course in the afternoon at the first and seventh holes. But birdies at the 11th, 13th and 15th holes gave Roberts another 3-under 32 on the back nine.
The Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour broke out its usual 16-to-18 and 13-to-15 age groups, although the qualifiers for the Girls Junior PGA Championship were determined out of the overall 13-to-18 scoring.
I’ll wrap up the Philly Junior Tour age groups while referring to the overall scoring.
In addition to finishing at the top of the overall standings, Roberts finished in first place in the 16-to-18 division. Only two girls from the younger 13-to-15 division were able to crack the top 10 in the overall scoring.
Roberts’ closest pursuer was Hannah Webb, who captured the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association (DIAA) individual title at the St. Anne’s Golf Links in Middletown, Del. to cap her sophomore season at Archmere Academy in the spring.
Webb, a Woolwich, N.J. resident, had the best round of the afternoon, a sparkling 5-under 67, after opening with a 2-over 74 to finish five shots behind Roberts in second place in the 16-to-18 division and in the overall scoring with a 3-under 141 total.
Webb edged Roberts by a shot to claim medalist honors in the U.S. Girls’ Junior qualifier at the Naval Academy Golf Club last month and will join Roberts in the field at the Atlanta Athletic Club next week.
Rhianna Gooneratne, who wrapped up an outstanding scholastic career at Plymouth-Whitemarsh with a runnerup finish in the PIAA Class AAA Championship last fall, finished a shot behind Webb in third place among the older girls and in the overall standings with a 2-under 142 total.
Gooneratne, the PIAA Class AAA champion as a junior at P-W in 2023, was Roberts’ closest pursuer following a solid opening round of 3-under 69 before adding a 1-over 73 in the afternoon at the Nemours Course.
Pretty sure Gooneratne’s third-place finish will earn her a wild card to the Girls Junior PGA Championship and she is in the middle of a serious summer heater before joining the program at Delaware.
Gooneratne earned a trip to the Atlanta Athletic Club for the U.S. Girls Junior along with Roberts and Webb with a runnerup finish in a Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered qualifier last week at Chambersburg Country Club.
But Gooneratne’s week got even better when she survived a playoff among five players for the four spots available in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship in a qualifier Thursday at Neshanic Valley Golf Course in Branchburg, N.J.
Five players carded a 3-under 69 at Neshanic Valley and Gooneratne was one of the four players who punched their ticket to the U.S. Women’s Amateur at one of the premier destinations in golf, the Bandon Dunes Resort along the rugged Oregon coastline.
One of the other survivors of the playoff was Avery McCrery, the Wilmington, Del. native who, I suspect, will be defending the Girls Junior PGA Championship crown she won a year ago at Congressional Country Club’s Blue Course in Bethesda, Md. later this month at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex. McCrery will join the program at perennial Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke later this summer.
Another interesting name that popped up among the survivors of that playoff at Neshanic Valley was that of Elle Lundquist, who disappeared from the scholastic golf scene after finishing in a tie for fourth place as a freshman at Central Bucks East in the fall of 2021.
Pretty sure there was an interruption due to injury or illness in there, but Lundquist has, obviously, continued to get better. Looks like she had some high finishes on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) circuit. She will join the program at Southeastern Conference power Oklahoma later this summer.
Reigning PIAA Class AA champion Maddie Koshko, a State College resident and a senior at St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy, finished two shots behind Gooneratne in fourth place in the 16-to-18 division and in the overall standings with an even-par 144 total.
Maddie Koshko, coming off a runnerup finish in the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship a couple of weeks ago at Lebanon Country Club, opened with a solid 1-under 71 at the Nemours Course before adding a 1-over 73 in the afternoon.
Kiersten Bodge, a West Chester resident and a junior at Notre Dame Academy, shared fifth place in the 16-to-18 division with Exeter junior Giulia Weisser, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier, and with Makenna Heckman, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a freshman at Ephrata last fall from the 13-to-15 division, in the overall scoring as each landed on 1-over 145.
Bodge, coming off a seventh-place finish in the Pennsylvania Junior Girls at Lebanon, matched par in the second round with a 72 at the Nemours Course after opening with a 1-over 73.
After opening with a 3-over 75, Weisser added a solid 2-under 70 in the afternoon.
Savannah Laverty, a junior at Moorestown High in South Jersey, finished in seventh place among the older girls and eighth in the overall scoring with a 2-over 146 total. After opening with a 3-over 75, Laverty bounced back with a solid 1-under 71 in the afternoon.
Meredith Finger, who capped her junior season at Archmere by finishing in fourth place behind her teammate Webb at St. Anne’s and, along with Webb, helped the Auks capture the DIAA team crown, finished in eighth place in the 16-to-18 division and ninth overall with a 3-over 147 total.
Finger might have had a little bit of local knowledge at the Nemours Course because her father Matt works out of the DuPont pro shop. Finger added a 1-over 73 in the afternoon to her opening round of 2-over 74.
Rounding out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division were Laverty’s Moorestown High teammate, Katherine Liu, a senior, and recent Warwick High graduate Elle Overly as they shared ninth place in the division, each signing for a 7-over 151 total.
Liu added a 5-over 77 in the afternoon at the Nemours Course to her opening round of 2-over 74. Overly, a four-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier during an outstanding scholastic career at Warwick, bounced from an opening round of 7-over 79 by matching par in the afternoon with a 72.
Heckman, coming off that solid freshman season at Ephrata, finished at the top of the leaderboard in the 13-to-15 division at the Nemours Course with her 1-over 145 total. Heckman shared fifth place in the overall standings with Notre Dame’s Bodge and Exeter’s Weisser.
Heckman opened with a solid 1-under 71 before adding a 2-over 74 in the afternoon.
Nicolette Bottos, who helped Conestoga reach the PIAA Class AAA Championship in the team competition as a freshman last fall, was the runnerup to Heckman in the 13-to-15 division and was the only other player among the group of younger girls to finish in the top 10 in the overall scoring as she landed in 10th place with a 6-over 150 total.
Bottos opened with a solid 1-under 71 before struggling a little in the afternoon with a 79.
Chloe Donohue, another member of the deep stable of talented junior players out of Moorestown, N.J., finished three shots behind Bottos in third place in the 13-to-15 division with a 153 total. After opening with a 2-over 74, Donohue struggled a little in the afternoon with a 79.
Playing against older girls, Avondale’s 11-year-old phenom, Valerie Danby, finished in fourth place in the 13-to-15 division with a 155 total. Danby added a 5-over 77 in the afternoon to her opening-round 78.
For an 11-year-old kid to break 80 twice against this level of competition in the heat and humidity and on a big-girl golf course is really strong.
Vivienne Powers, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a sophomore at York Suburban last fall, finished two shots behind Danby in fifth place in the 13-to-15 division with a 157 total as she bounced back from an opening-round 81 with a 4-over 76 in the afternoon.
Cardinal O’Hara’s Alaina Carson, who finished in a tie for third place in her PIAA Class AAA Championship debut as a freshman last fall, was a shot behind Powers in sixth place among the younger girls with a 158 total.
Coming off a fairly spectacular victory in the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship at Lebanon a couple of weeks ago, Carson struggled a little at the Nemours Course as she added an 80 in the afternoon to her opening round of 6-over 78.
That state Junior Girls crown gave Carson a ticket to next week’s U.S. Junior Girls at the Atlanta Athletic Club, so she can be forgiven for looking ahead to her debut on a national stage.
Lauren Springman, a junior on the Methacton golf team, finished five shots behind Carson in seventh place in the 13-to-15 division with a 163 total. Springman added an 84 in the afternoon to her opening-round 79.
Megan Choi, who earned a trip to the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a freshman at Harriton last fall, finished in eighth place in the 13-to-15 division, two shots behind Springman with a 165 total. Choi added an 84 in the afternoon to her opening-round 81.
Rounding out the top 10 in the 13-to-15 division were another member of State College’s Team Koshko, Olivia Koshko, a PIAA Class AA qualifier as a freshman at St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy last fall, and Ellie Walls, who capped her freshman season at Indian River High by finishing in fifth place in the DIAA Championship at St. Anne’s in the spring, as they finished in a tie for 10th at 167.
Olivia Koshko and Walls had identical splits, each adding an 83 in the afternoon to an opening-round 84.
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