Looks like perennial West Coast Conference power Pepperdine is getting a pretty good player when Luke Ringkamp of Palm Desert, Calif. arrives next summer.
Ringkamp built a three-shot lead in the Rolex Tournament of Champions, one of the marquee events on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) circuit, with a brilliant eight-birdie, no-bogey 64 at TPC San Antonio’s Canyons Course in Tuesday’s third round.
The Rolex Tournament of Champions has settled into its traditional spot on the golf calendar during Thanksgiving week. The 72-hole stroke play event concludes Wednesday, the eve of Thanksgiving.
After a couple of chilly, showery days, the weather warmed up into the 80s and Ringkamp’s game warmed up right along with the temperatures.
Ringkamp, who began the day in a tie for second place, a shot out of the lead, started slowly with a birdie at the second hole before going back-to-back with birdies at five and six.
But Ringkamp really got it going on the incoming nine at the 7,106-yard, par-72 Canyons Course layout, making birdies on five of the last six holes. Ringkamp ripped off three straight birdies at the 13th, 14th and 15th holes and went back-to-back with birdies at 17 and 18.
Ringkamp’s sizzling 64 gave him a 12-under 203 total going into Wednesday’s final round. After opening with a 1-under 71, Ringkamp had moved into contention with a 4-under 68 in Monday’s second round.
Drake Harvey of Las Vegas, Nev., who will join the program at Brigham Young in the Big 12 at the end of next summer, was nearly as good as Ringkamp as he posted a sparkling 7-under 65 that left him alone in second place with a 9-under 207 total.
After matching par in the opening round with a 72, Harvey moved up the leaderboard with a 3-under 69 in Monday’s second round.
Sam Carraher of Crown Point, Ind., who will join the program at Purdue in the Big Ten in the summer of 2027, continued his steady rise up the leaderboard in the Rolex Tournament of Champions as he signed for a sparkling 5-under 67 that left him a shot behind Harvey in third place with an 8-under 208 total.
Carraher had opened with a 2-under 70 before adding a 1-under 71 in Monday’s second round.
Tyler Mawhinney of Fleming Island, Fla., who will join the program at Southeastern Conference power Vanderbilt next summer, and Canadian Dawson Lew, who plans to join the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power North Carolina in the summer of 2027, were another shot behind Carraher in a tie for fourth place, each landing on 7-under 209.
Mawhinney, who made the cut in June’s RBC Canadian Open on the PGA Tour, tallied a solid 4-under 68 in Tuesday’s third round. He had opened with a 3-under 69 before matching par with a 72 in Monday’s second round.
Lew recorded a solid 3-under 69 in Tuesday’s third round to join Mawhinney at 7-under. Lew had opened with a 4-under 68 before matching par in Monday’s second round with a 72.
Sohan Patel of Weston, Fla., who reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur at Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, Texas in July, and China’s Mingbo Jiang, who will join the program at Southern California in the Big Ten next summer, each carded a 2-under 70 in Tuesday’s third round that left them in a tie for sixth place at 6-under 210.
Patel, a Class of 2027 competitor, matched par in the opening round with a 72 before adding a 2-under 70 in Monday’s second round. Jiang opened with a 4-under 68 before matching par in Monday’s second round with a 72.
Defending champion Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach, Fla. and No. 14 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) could only manage a 1-over 73 that left him among a trio of players tied for eighth place at 4-under 212.
Russell, named the AJGA’s Rolex Junior Player of the Year for a second time earlier this month, had opened with a 2-under 70 before adding a 3-under 69 in Monday’s second round.
Nine shots might be too big a deficit for Russell to make up in Wednesday’s final round, but the little left-hander has proven to be a special talent.
Joining Russell at 4-under were Ronin Banerjee of Irvine, Calif., who plans to join the program at Tennessee in the SEC in the summer of 2027, and Jessy Huebner of Port St. Lucie, Fla. and another Class of ’27 entry.
Banerjee moved into the top 10 on the strength of a 3-under 69 in Tuesday’s third round. He had opened with a 1-under 71 before matching par in Monday’s second round with a 72.
Huebner, who had opened with a 2-under 70 and matched par in Monday’s second round with a 72, posted his second 2-under 70 of the week in Tuesday’s third round.
It’s been a pretty good week for Baldwin junior Michael Quallich, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a sophomore in the fall of 2024.
Quallich registered a 2-under 70 in Tuesday’s third round and will enter Wednesday’s final round with a shot at a top-10 finish as he was among a large group tied for 11th place with a 3-under 213 total. Quallich had matched par in the opening round with a 72 before adding a 1-under 71 in Monday’s second round.
On the girls side, defending champion Amelie Zalsman, a Class of ’27 competitor from St. Petersburg, Fla., and Nikki Oh of Torrance, Calif., who will join the program at ACC power Stanford at the end of next summer, will head into Wednesday’s final round in a tie for the lead at 8-under 208, four shots clear of the rest of the field.
Zalsman, the winner of another of AGJA’s marquee events, the Rolex Junior Girls Championship at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis. in June, had taken a one-shot lead over Nikki Oh at the Rolex Tournament of Champions’ halfway point on the strength of a 7-under 65 in Monday’s second round that featured a run of eight straight birdies.
Zalsman, who had matched par in the opening round with a 72, carded a solid 1-under 71 in Tuesday’s third round over a Canyons Course layout that measured 6,242 yards for the girls.
Nikki Oh had been hovering around the top of the leaderboard with back-to-back 3-under 69s in the first two rounds. She posted a 2-under 70 in Tuesday’s third round to catch Zalsman at 8-under.
After making an early birdie at the third hole, Zalsman made a bogey at five. She bounced back with birdies at the sixth and 12th holes to get it to 9-under for the tournament before giving a shot back with a bogey at 13.
Nikki Oh made a bogey at the first hole, but then ripped off birdies at three, seven, 11 and 16 to reach 9-under for the tournament. She let a chance to take the outright lead into the final round slip away with a bogey at the last.
Asia Young of Bend, Ore., who plans to join the program at Texas in the SEC in the summer of 2027, was four shots behind the co-leaders in third place at 4-under 212 after she carded a 3-under 69 in Tuesday’s third round.
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 in April at the Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club, had struggled in the opening round with a 3-over 75 before adding a sparkling 4-under 68 in Tuesday’s second round.
Juliet Oh of Diamond Bar, Calif. was a shot behind Young in fourth place at 3-under 213 after tallying a solid 4-under 68 in Tuesday’s third round. Juliet Oh had opened with a 1-under 71 before struggling a little with a 2-over 74 in Monday’s second round.
Asterisk Talley of Chowchilla, Calif. and No. 11 in the Women’s WAGR recorded a solid 2-under 69 that left her a shot behind Juliet Oh in fifth place with a 2-under 214 total.
Talley, who has made a verbal commitment to join the powerful Stanford program in the summer of 2027, was the runnerup to Rianne Malixi in both the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif. and the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. in an epic summer of 2024.
Talley had opened with a 1-under 71 before adding a 2-over 74 in Monday’s second round.
A couple of San Diego, Calif. girls, Amber Lee, a Class of ’29 competitor, and Anna Fang, a Class of ’27 entry, joined Canadian Shauna Liu, who plans to join the program at UCLA in the Big Ten in the summer of 2027, in a tie for sixth place, each landing on 1-under 215.
Lee had grabbed a share of the lead with an opening round of 3-under 69, but fell back a little with a 2-over 74 in Monday’s second round before matching par in the third round with a 72.
Fang, who reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Girls’ Junior at the Atlanta Athletic Club in July, matched par Tuesday with a 72. Fang had bounced back from an opening round of 3-over 75 with a sparkling 4-under 68 in Monday’s second round.
Liu had opened with a 1-over 73 and surged into contention with a 4-under 68 in Monday’s second round before falling back a little with a 74 in the third round.
Rayee Feng, who made the cut and played the weekend in the U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills in Wisconsin and then reached then reached the semifinals of the U.S. Girls’ Junior at the Atlanta Athletic Club where she fell to fellow Short Hills, N.J. resident and eventual champion Aphrodite Deng, headed a trio of players tied for ninth place at even-par 216.
After opening with a 1-over 73, Feng registered a 2-under 70 in Monday’s second round before adding her second 73 of the week in the third round.
Joining Feng at even-par were Eliana Saga of Stevenson Ranch, Calif. who plans to join the program at Southern California in the Big Ten in the summer of 2027, and Alexandra Snyder, a Class of ’28 competitor from Orlando, Fla.
Saga, who finished in a tie for third place in last year’s Rolex Tournament of Champions, moved into the top 10 on the strength of a 2-under 70 Tuesday. Saga had opened with a 2-over 74 before matching par in Monday’s second round with a 72.
Snyder fell back a little with a 2-over 74 in Tuesday’s third round, but she has been solid all week, matching par in the opening round with a 72 and adding a 2-under 70 in Monday’s second round.
No comments:
Post a Comment