Ringkamp runs away with boys title, Oh the girls winner in Rolex Tournament of Champions at TPC San Antonio

 

   The junior golf resumes that Luke Ringkamp of Palm Desert, Calif. and Nikki Oh of Torrance, Calif. will carry into the start of their college careers at the end of next summer got quite a bit stronger Wednesday when they captured titles in the the boys and girls divisions in the Rolex Tournament of Champions, the marquee event on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) circuit.

   Ringkamp, who will join the program at perennial West Coast Conference power Pepperdine next summer, simply dominated a star-studded field of guys, closing with a 2-under-par 70 on TPC San Antonio’s Canyons Course for a scintillating 15-under 273 total that was a whopping nine shots clear of the field.

   Nikki Oh, who will join the program at powerful Stanford, playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference these days, matched par in some gusty Texas winds with a 72 in the final round to pull out a one-shot victory over Anna Fang of San Diego, Calif., who plans to join Nikki Oh at Stanford in the summer of 2027.

   It was the first victory in an AJGA invitational for both players, although you have to be an accomplished performer just to get into the field for the Rolex Tournament of Champions.

   Ringkamp probably won the boys title when he went off with an eight-birdie, no-bogey masterpiece of an 8-under 64 in Tuesday’s third round over a Canyons Course that measured 7,106 yards and played to a par of 72 for the guys.

   That gave him a three-shot cushion going into the final round on the eve of Thanksgiving and Ringkamp never gave any of his fellow competitors a chance to catch him.

   Ringkamp did make a bogey on the first hole, but quickly got it to 15-under for the tournament by ripping off consecutive birdies at five, six and seven.

   After making a bogey at the eighth hole, Ringkamp made a birdie at nine. He followed up a bogey at the 14^th hole with a birdie at 15. It added up to a really impressive week for Ringcamp.

   “It hasn’t set in yet,” Ringkamp told the AJGA website. “I know how good this field is, it’s probably one of the best in junior golf. I just decided to come out here with no expectations and I got it done. We all make art on the golf course and I just decided to be an artist.

   “My smile on 18 wasn’t a smile of relief, it was a smile of gratitude. I was just satisfied to step up on that tee with the lead and I was grateful to be where I was.”

   Drake Harvey of Las Vegas, Nev., who will join the program at Brigham Young next summer, was Ringkamp’s closest pursuer going into Wednesday’s final round as he was nearly as good as Ringkamp was in the third round with a 7-under 65 that left him three shots behind the leader.

   Harvey closed with a 3-over 75, but held on to get a share of second place with Tyler Mawhinney of Fleming Island, Fla., who will join the program at Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference next summer, and Sam Carraher of Crown Point, Ind., who plans to join the program at Purdue in the Big Ten in the summer of 2027.

   It’s been a pretty good year for Mawhinney as he teamed with his pal Will Hartman of Charlotte, N.C., who is on the Vandy roster as a freshman this fall, to capture the title in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Plainfield Country Club in Edison, N.J. in May and made the cut in the RBC Canadian Open on the PGA Tour in June.

   Mawhinney closed with a 1-over 73 to get his share of runnerup honors.

   Carraher finished up with a 2-over 74 to join the trio at 6-under, albeit nine shots behind the champion.

   Tyler Watts of Huntsville, Ala. and No. 29 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) had the best round of the day in the difficult conditions, a 4-under 68 that vaulted him into a trio tied for fifth place at 5-under 283.

   Watts, a runnerup in the U.S. Junior Amateur in 2024 at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., beat a field of the top amateurs in the country in June in the Sunnehanna Amateur at Sunnehanna Country Club, the A.W. Tillinghast gem in Johnstown.

   Joining Watts at 5-under were Sohan Patel of Weston, Fla., a quarterfinalist in the U.S. Junior Amateur in July at the Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, Texas, and Jessy Huebner of Port St. Lucie, Fla.

   Patel, a Class of 2027 competitor, closed with a 1-over 73 while Huebner, another Class of ’27 guy, finished up with a solid 1-under 71.

   Ayden Fynaut of Fresno, Calif., who will join Ringkamp in what looks like a promising freshman class at Pepperdine next summer, Canadian Dawson Lew, who plans to join the program at ACC power North Carolina in the summer of 2027, and Ronin Banerjee, a Class of ’27 entry from Irvine, Calif. who plans to join the program at Tennessee in the SEC in the summer of 2027, finished in a tie for eighth place, each ending up with a 4-under 284 total.

   Fynaut closed with a solid 1-under 71, Lew struggled a little with a 3-over 75 in Wednesday’s final round and Banerjee climbed the leaderboard with one of the best rounds of the day, a 3-under 69.

    It is a testament to the talent level in the Rolex T of C that defending champion Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach, Fla. and No. 14 in the WAGR only managed to finish just outside the top 10 in 11^th place with a 3-under 285 total.

   It looked like Russell, named the AJGA’s Rolex Junior Player of the Year for a second time earlier this month, was poised to make a move when he climbed within a shot of the lead at the halfway point of the tournament Monday. Russell, however, finished up with back-to-back 1-over 73s.

   Michael Quallich, a junior at Baldwin and a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a sophomore on the fall of 2024, struggled a little in the final round with a 79, but finished among the group tied for 22^nd place with a 4-over 292 total. A pretty solid showing in San Antonio for Quallich.

   On the girls side, Nikki Oh entered Wednesday’s final round locked in a tie for first place with defending champion Amelie Zalsman, a Class of ’27 competitor from St. Petersburg, Fla.

   After making a bogey at the first hole, Nikki Oh made a birdie at six followed by bogeys at eight and 10 that dropped her to 6-under for the tournament. But Nikki Oh put the tournament away with a back-nine burst of birdies at the 12^th, 15^th and 17^th holes that got her to 9-under before finishing up with a bogey at 18.

   What Nikki Oh didn’t know was that, up ahead, her future Stanford teammate Fang, unbothered by the difficult conditions, was ripping off a 6-under 66 over a Canyons Course that measured 6,242 yards for the girls. Ultimately, Fang’s sizzling round left her a shot behind Nikki Oh in second place with a 7-under 281 total.

   “I feel like it’s been a long time coming,” Nikki Oh told the AJGA website. “I’ve had a lot of runnerup finishes to get to this point, so it feels really good. I didn’t know Anna shot 6-under today. It was a little up and down on the front nine, but once the wind died down, I was able to take advantage on the back nine.”

   Zalsman struggled a little on her way to a 3-over 75 in the final round that left her two shots behind Fang in third place with a 5-under 283 total. Still, a second straight strong showing at TPC San Antonio for Zalsman.

   Much like Russell with the guys, it is a testament to the talent level among the girls at TPC San Antonio that Asterisk Talley of Chowchilla, Calif. and No. 11 in the Women’s WAGR had to settle for a fourth-place finish with a 4-under 284 total that left her a shot behind Zalsman.

   Talley, the runnerup to Rianne Malixi at both the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif. and the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. in the summer of2024, has made a commitment to join Fang as part of the freshman class at Stanford in the summer of 2027.

   Talley finished strong at the Canyons Course with a 3-under 69 in Tuesday’s third round and a 2-under 70 in the final round. It should be an interesting 2026 for the best junior girl player on the planet.

   Asia Young of Bend, Ore., who plans to join the program at Texas in the SEC in the summer of 2027, finished two shots behind Talley in fifth place with a 2-under 286 total.

   Young, who teamed with her pal Natalie Yen of West Linn, Ore. to capture the title in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at the Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club in April, finished up with a 2-over 74.

   The trio of Canadian Shauna Liu, Alexandra Snyder of Orlando, Fla. and Zoe Cusack of Potomac, Md. finished in a tie for sixth place, each ending up two shots behind Young at even-par 216.

   Liu, a Class of ’27 entry and a two-time Canadian Junior Girls Championship winner, closed with a 1-over 73. Snyder, a Class of ’28 entry, matched par in the final round with a 72.

   Cusack, who will join the program at Virginia in the ACC at the end of next summer, closed with a solid 2-under 70.

   Mia Clausen of Carlsbad, Calif., a Class of ’28 competitor, also finished with a 2-under 70 to end up alone in ninth place with a 1-over 289 total.

   Eliana Saga of Stevenson Ranch, Calif., who plans to join the program at Southern California in the Big Ten in the summer of 2027, headed a group of four players who rounded out the top 10 by finishing in a tie for 10^th place at 3-over 291.

   Saga, who finished in a tie for third place in the Rolex T of C a year ago, closed with a 3-over 75, but still earned a second straight top-10 finish in the AJGA’s biggest tournament.

   Amber Lee, a Class of ’29 competitor from San Diego, had a share of the lead with her opening round of 3-under 69. She finished up with a 4-over 76 Wednesday, but hung in there tough enough to join the group tied for 10^th place at 3-over.

   Rounding out the quartet tied for 10^th place were Juliet Oh of Diamond Bar, Calif. and Michelle Xing of Canada.

   Juliet Oh struggled a little in the final round, finishing up with a 6-over 78. Xing, who will join the program at UCLA in the Big Ten next summer, closed with a solid 1-over 73.