Badgett, Zalsman surge to top of respective boys, girls leaderboards in Rolex Tournament of Champions

 

   Pennson Badgett, who plans to join the program at Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference at the end of next summer, moved to the front of the pack at the halfway point of the Rolex Tournament of Champions with a sparkling 5-under-par 67 at TPC San Antonio’s Canyons Course on a rainy Monday.

   The Rolex Tournament of Champions is the marquee event on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) circuit and has settled into its traditional spot on the golf calendar in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

   Badgett of Pilot Mountain, N.C. had opened with a 1-under 71 Sunday over a Canyons Course that measured 7,106 yards for the boys and played to a par of 72.

   After starting off with a birdie at the first hole, Badgett got hot in the middle of his round, ripping off birdies at six, seven, 10 and 11 to get it to 5-under for his round. The only blemish on his scorecard came at the 17^th hole, where he made a bogey, but Badgett got that shot right back with a birdie at the last.

   Badgett’s 67 gave him a 36-hole total of 6-under 138 and a one-shot lead over a trio of pursuers.

   Heading that group tied for second place at 5-under 139 was defending Rolex T of C champion Miles Russell, a Class of 2027 competitor who is No. 14 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

   The talented left-hander, a quarterfinalist in the U.S. Junior Amateur at a sweltering Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, Texas in July, added a 3-under 69 to his opening-round 70.

   Joining Russell at 5-under were Luke Ringkamp of Palm Desert, Calif. who will join the program at perennial West Coast Conference power Pepperdine late next summer, and Nicholas Logis of Austin, Texas, who will join the program at SMU in the Atlantic Coast Conference next summer.

   After opening with a 1-under 71, Ringkamp moved up the leaderboard on the strength of a 4-under 68 in Monday’s second round. Logis was the overnight leader after opening with a sizzling 6-under 66, but backed off a little in Monday’s second round with a 1-over 73.

   Heading a foursome tied for fifth place was Sohan Patel, a Class of ’27 entry from Weston, Fla., who, like Russell, was a quarterfinalist in the U.S. Junior Amateur at Trinity Forest. After matching par with a 72 in the opening round, Patel made his move with a 4-under 68 in Monday’s second round for a 4-under 140 total, just two shots behind Badgett.

   Joining Patel in the quartet tied for fourth place at 4-under was the trio of players who had landed in a tie for second place behind Logis following opening-round 4-under 68s.

   That group included Dawson Lew, a Canadian who plans to join the program at ACC power North Carolina at the end of the summer of 2027, Mingbo Jiang of China, who will join the program at the Big Ten’s Southern California at the end of next summer, and Giuseppe Puebla of Royal Palm Beach, Fla. who plans to join the program at SEC power Florida at the end of the summer of 2027.

   Lew, Jiang and Puebla each matched par with a 72 in Monday’s second round.

   Tyler Mawhinney of Fleming Island, Fla., who will join the program at SEC power Vanderbilt at the end of next summer, headed a group of five players tied for ninth place at 3-under 141 as he matched par in Monday’s second round with a 72 after opening with a 3-under 69.

   Mawhinney teamed up with his pal, Will Hartman of Charlotte, N.C., who is a freshman on the Vandy roster this fall, to capture the title in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in May at Plainfield Country Club in Edison, N.J.

   Mawhinney also made the cut at the RBC Canadian Open on the PGA Tour in June, earning his spot in the field on the strength of his victory in the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship in 2024. Mawhinney’s red-hot summer of 2024 also included a run to the round of 16 in the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn.

   Joining Mawhinney in the group tied for ninth place at 3-under were Harrison Zipfel of St. Louis, Mo., who will join the program at Big Ten power Illinois at the end of next summer, Chase Bauer, a Class of ’28 entry from Gotha, Fla., Sam Carraher of Crown Point, Ind. who plans to join the program at Purdue in the Big Ten in the summer of 2027, and Ayden Fynaut of Fresno, Calif. who will join Ringkamp as part of the incoming freshman class at Pepperdine next summer.

   Zipfel bounced back from an opening round of 1-over 73 with a solid 4-under 68 in Monday’s second round. Bauer and Carraher had identical splits, each adding a 1-under 71 in Monday’s second round to an opening-round 70. After matching par in the opening round with a 72, Fynaut signed for a solid 3-under 69 in Monday’s second round.

   It was another solid showing for Michael Quallich, a junior at Baldwin who was a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a sophomore in the fall of 2024. Quallich had matched par in the opening round with a 72 and added a 1-under 71 in Monday’s second round to join a large group tied for 17^th place with a 1-under 143 total.

   On the girls side, defending champion Amelie Zalsman, a Class of ’27 competitor from St. Petersburg, Fla., had a breathtaking run of eight straight birdies on her way to a 7-under 65 as she took a one-shot lead at the halfway mark with a 7-under 137 total.

   It took Zalsman four holes to get acclimated to the cool and rainy conditions, but then she went off with birdies at the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th holes to get it to 8-under for the round.

   Zalsman, who also owns a victory in another of the AJGA’s biggest events, the Rolex Girls Junior Championship in June at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis., stumbled with the lone bogey on her scorecard at the 13^th hole, but parred out to complete her brilliant tour of the Canyons Course, which measured 6,242 yards for the girls.

   Zalsman had opened with a 1-under 71 that left her three shots off the pace, but she moved to the top of the leaderboard with her 65 Monday.

   Zalsman’s closest pursuer was Nikki Oh of Torrance, Calif., who will join the program at ACC power Stanford next summer. Nikki Oh had grabbed a share of the lead with a 3-under 69 in the opening round and added another 69 in Monday’s second round that left her a shot behind Zalsman in second place with a 6-under 138 total.

   It was three shots back to Shauna Liu, a Canadian who plans to join the program at UCLA in the Big Ten in the summer of 2027, in third place at 3-under 141. Liu, who finished in a tie for fifth place in the Rolex T of C a year ago, had opened with a 1-over 73, but climbed the leaderboard on the strength of a 4-under 68 in Monday’s second round.

   Alexandra Snyder, a Class of ’28 competitor from Orlando, Fla., was another shot behind Liu in fourth place with a 2-under 142 total as Snyder recorded a 2-under 70 in Monday’s second round after matching par in the opening round with a 72.

   Amber Lee, a Class of ’29 competitor from San Diego, Calif., had grabbed a share of the lead with Nikki Oh with a 3-under 69 in the opening round. Lee fell back with a 2-over 74 in Monday’s second round, but headed a group of four players tied for fifth place, a shot behind Snyder at 1-under 143.

   It is a pretty talented group joining Lee at 1-under that includes Rayee Feng of Short Hills, N.J., Asia Young of Bend, Ore. who plans to join the program at SEC power Texas in the summer of 2027, and Anna Fang, a Class of ’27 competitor who is, like Lee, a San Diego resident.

   Feng made the cut and played four rounds in the U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills in Wisconsin in the spring. She reached the semifinals of the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club in July before falling to fellow Short Hills resident and eventual champion Aphrodite Deng.

   After opening with a 1-over 73, Feng added a 2-under 70 in Monday’s second round.

   Young teamed with Natalie Yen of West Linn, Ore. to capture the title in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship in April at the Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club. After opening with a 3-over 75 at the Canyons Course, Young shot up the leaderboard on the strength of a 4-under 68 in Monday’s second round.

   Fang, who made a run to the round of 16 in the U.S. Girls’ Junior at the Atlanta Athletic Club, had the same splits as Young did, adding a sparkling 4-under 68 in Monday’s second round to her opening-round 75.

   Michelle Xing, a Canadian who will join the program at UCLA next summer, added a 2-under 70 in Monday’s second round to her opening round of 2-over 74 and was alone in ninth place at even-par 144.

   Heading a trio of players tied for 10^th place at 1-over 145 was the formidable Asterisk Talley of Chowchilla, Calif. and No. 11 in the Women’s WAGR.

   The 16-year-old Talley, who announced in September she plans to join the program at powerful Stanford in the summer of 2027, struggled a little with a 2-over 74 in Monday’s second round after opening with a 1-under 71.

   Talley was the darling of the fans in the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club, where she was in contention through 36 holes and shared low-amateur honors.

   Talley also played for the United States in the Curtis Cup Match in the summer of 2024, stunning Lottie Woad, then the top-ranked amateur in the world and already a winner on the LPGA Tour as a fledgling pro, in the Sunday singles on Load’s home turf at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England.

   Joining Talley at 1-over were Juliet Oh of Diamond Bar, Calif. and Zoe Cusack of Potomac, Md., who will join the program at Virginia in the ACC at the end of next summer.

   Juliet Oh and Cusack had the same splits as Talley did, opening with a 1-under 71 before struggling a little in the tough conditions of Monday’s second round with a 2-over 74.