Lydic comes up just short of landing a spot in match play in U.S. Women's Amateur at The Honors Course

 

   Hard to believe it’s been 10 years since the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship was staged at Rolling Green Golf Club, the William Flynn gem in Springfield, right in the heart of Delaware County. Was rooting hard last weekend when Lucy Li showed up on the leaderboard in the AIG Women’s Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s. She faltered down the stretch, but she’s still only 23 and I couldn’t help but recall the 13-year-old kid who blitzed Rolling Green with rounds of 67 and 68 to finish in second place in qualifying for match play. And then this year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur teed off Tuesday …

   Sarah Lydic, twice the winner of the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association individual girls title, once at Sussex Academy and the second time as a senior at Indian River High, is a junior on the Wake Forest golf team.

   Lydic was not in the lineup for Wake Forest postseason because it’s tough to survive the in-team qualifiers at a program that is a power both in the Atlantic Coast Conference and nationally. But Lydic has been hard at work this summer trying to take her game to the next level.

   She captured the title in the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s BMW Women’s Amateur Championship for the second straight year last month at Jericho National Golf Club.

   The 20-year-old Lydic of Ocean View, Del. told the GAP website at the time that one of her major goals for the summer was earning a spot in the match-play bracket in the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

   Wednesday at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tenn., Lydic came up just short.

   Lydic had opened with a 4-over-par 76 in Tuesday’s opening round of stroke-play qualifying for match play. She battled her way to a 1-over 73 in Wednesday’s second round for a 5-over 149 total.

   Stormy weather halted the proceedings for two-and-a-half hours Wednesday and there were still 30-some players who had to come back Thursday morning and complete their second round.

   Lydic was on the bubble the whole time. When stroke play was finally completed Thursday morning, Lydic was thrust into a playoff with eight other players for the final two spots in the match-play bracket.

   A bogey on the first hole of the playoff, the par-4 10^th at The Honors Course, eliminated Lydic.

   It’s a stretch to call Aphrodite Deng, a native of Canada, a local player, but she did capture the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Junior Girls’ Championship as a 13-year-old three summers ago at the Moorestown Field Club.

   Deng’s family had moved to Short Hills, N.J. when she was a youngster and her 14-under 130 total at the Moorestown Field Club certainly caught my eye.

   It’s been fascinating to watch Deng’s rapid ascension in the amateur ranks over the last three years.

   Deng, still only 15, captured the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship last summer at the
Atlanta Athletic Club. She was on the leaderboard for a time in the U.S. Women’s Open, presented by Ally, at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, Calif. in early June and finished in a tie for 17^th place.

   Deng entered this week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at No. 7 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

   The ever-steady Deng carded a pair of 1-under 71s to finish in a tie for eighth place in the stroke-play qualifying.

   Deng’s bid at The Honors Course, however, ended in the first round of match play Thursday as Rachel Lee, an 18-year-old Australian, edged Deng on the 19^th hole.

   Deng was 1-down going to the 18^th tee, but made a birdie on the final hold to send the match to extra holes.

   Another Jersey girl, Duke junior Katie Li of Basking Ridge, N.J. earned a spot in the match-play bracket with a 4-over 148 total, but, like Deng, fell in the first round of match play, dropping a 2 and 1 decision to Yurina Hiroyoshi of Japan.

   Hiroyoshi will take on Australian Ella Scaysbrook in Friday’s second round after Scaysbrook, a semifinalist in the U.S. Women’s Amateur a year ago at the Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon, earned a 3 and 2 victory over Jude Lee of Walnut, Calif. in her first-round match.

   Mary Grace Dunigan, a senior on the Delaware golf team, earned a spot in the U.S. Women’s Amateur field by capturing the title in last month’s Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship at Gulph Mills Golf Club.

   Dunigan, who helped Unionville capture the PIAA Class AAA team crown in 2020, struggled to a 6-over 78 in the opening round of qualifying for match play Tuesday and added a 3-over 75 in Wednesday’s second round for a 9-over 153 total.

   It wouldn’t be a U.S. Women’s Amateur without a phenom making her presence felt.

   This year it was 15-year-old Hailey Kim of Simi Valley, Calif. as she shared medalist honors in qualifying with Japan’s Anna Iwanaga, a 17-year-old who is No. 19 in the Women’s WAGR, each landing on 6-under 138.

   Kim had to return to the golf course first thing Thursday morning to play one more hole. She missed the green at the ninth hole at The Honors Course, but got it up and down for a gutsy par that completed a remarkable 5-under 67 that gave her a share of medalist honors.

   Kim, showing a maturity beyond her years, made birdies at the third, eighth, 11^th, 12^th and 16^th holes with nary a bogey on her card.

   Kim had opened with a steady 1-under 71 in which she offset her lone bogey in 36 holes of qualifying with a pair of birdies and 15 pars.

   Like Deng, however, Kim was an upset victim in Thursday’s first round of match play, dropping a 1-up decision to Hsin Chun Liao of Chinese Taipei, one of the two survivors of Thursday morning’s 9-for-2 playoff for the final spots in the match-play bracket.

   Iwanaga had grabbed the lead in stroke play with an opening round of 5-under 67. Iwanaga started off the 10^th tee, and made birdies at 10, 12 and 15. Birdies at the first and sixth holes got her to 5-under for her round. Iwanaga made the lone bogey on her scorecard at the eighth hole, but got that shot back at nine, her final hole of the day.

   It was an up-and-down second round for Iwanaga.

   Iwanaga made a bogey at the first hole and a birdie at two, but bogeys at three and five left her at 2-over for her round. She made a birdie at the ninth hole followed by a bogey at 10 before rattling off birdies at 11, 12 and 15. A bogey at the 16^th hole dropped Iwanaga back to even-par for the round, but a clutch birdie at the finishing hole gave her a 1-under 71 and a share of medalist honors with Kim.

   Iwanaga got the other survivor of the 9-for-2 playoff, Addison Klonowski, a junior on the Florida golf team. Klonowski put up a fight before falling, 2 and 1, to Iwanaga.

   Iwanaga will take on Natalie Blonien, a junior on the Arkansas golf team from Altus, Okla., in Friday morning’s round of 32. Blonien reached the second round with a 2 and 1 victory over Bella Dovhey, an incoming freshman at Miami from Orlando, Fla.

   Auburn senior Anna Davis, who helped the United States reclaim the Curtis Cup in May at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, finished in fourth place in qualifying for match play, adding a 3-under 69 in the second round of stroke play to her opening-round 71 for a 4-under 140 that left her two shots behind the co-medalists.

   The vagaries of the match-play bracket left Davis, No. 22 in the Women’s WAGR, with a first-round match against a player with a pretty strong match-play resume of her own in Rachel Heck, who helped Stanford capture two NCAA crowns during her time on The Farm and played on two winning U.S. Curtis Cup teams.

   Heck, a Memphis, Tenn. native, decided to remain an amateur after finishing up at Stanford in the spring of 2024, but admitted she hasn’t been playing a lot of high-level golf.

   But she had enough experience to pull out a 1-up decision over Davis in Thursday’s marquee matchup.

   As I’m wrapping up this post, Heck is preparing for a second-round match against Gianna Singh, an Elk Grove, Calif. native who will join the program at Grand Canyon University later this month. Singh reached the second round with a 1-up victory over England’s Nancy Cox in Thursday’s opening round.

   The match-play draw was also not kind to Southern California junior Jasmine Koo, another member of the winning U.S. Curtis Cup team at Bel-Air who is No. 14 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Koo of Cerritos, Calif. ended up with a first-round meeting with Duke sophomore Rianne Malixi of the Philippines, the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion at Southern Hills Country Club and No. 10 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Malixi, who struggled a little in the stroke-play qualifying, particularly in an opening round of 5-over 77, was on her game Thursday and rolled to a 6 and 5 victory over Koo.

   Malixi will take on Yujie Liu, a 16-year-old from China who is No. 20 in the Women’s WAGR, in Friday’s second round. Liu is coming off a third-place finish in last week’s Girls Junior PGA Championship at the PGA Frisco Golf Club in Frisco, Texas.

   Asterisk Talley of Chowchilla, Calif. no longer qualifies as a phenom, although she’s still only 17 and a year away from joining the program at Stanford.

   Talley, who has already played on two U.S. Curtis Cup teams and finished in a tie for 22^nd play in the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera in June, finished in third place in qualifying for match play, adding a 3-under 69 to her opening-round 70 for a 5-under 139 total.

   The runnerup to Malixi in both the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at El Cabellero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif. and in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills in 2024, got her match-play journey off to a solid start with a 4 and 3 victory over High Point sophomore Makayla Grubb of Stafford, Va. Thursday.

   Talley will take on Rayee Feng, like Deng, a Short Hills, N.J. resident who is headed for Harvard and the Ivy League later this month, in a second-round match Friday morning.

   Feng reached the second round with a 3 and 1 victory over Jie-En Lin of Chinese Taipei in Thursday’s opening round.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nikolaidis, Gallagher share medalist honors in Philly Junior Tour's Hickory Valley Open

 

   Billy Nikolaidis, a junior on the Muhlenberg golf team, and Quinn Gallagher, a senior on the golf team at The Haverford School, shared medalist honors in the Hickory Valley Open, a two-day Junior Golf Scoreboard (JGS) event July 16^th and 17^th.

   Hickory Valley Golf Club’s pair of challenging courses, the Ambassador Course and the Presidential Course, where Route 662 and Route 73 come together in New Hanover Township, just east of Gilbertsville, were both utilized in what has been an annual stop on the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour.

   The JGS events offer points that can help players earn status on some of the higher-profile junior circuits, most notably the American Junior Golf Association.

   The Philly Junior Tour broke out its usual 16-to-18 and 13-to-15 age groups and I’ll wrap them up. The JGS awards points to players ages 13 to 18 and normally I would refer to the overall scoring, but, in this case, all of the top-10 finishers in the overall standings came out of the older 16-to-18 division.

   The Ambassador Course seems to have played tougher in the opening round July 16^th and Nikolaidis got a big jump on the field with a sparkling 2-under-par 69.

   Nikolaidis made birdies on the first, third, seventh, eighth, 14^th and 18^th holes and had eight pars on his scorecard, touring the outgoing nine in 3-under 33.

   Nikolaidis made birdies at the ninth, 10^th and 17^th holes and had nine pars on his card as he struggled a little with a 5-over 77 in the second round July 17^th at the Presidential Course.

   That left him with a 3-over 146 total and tied at the top of the leaderboard in the 16-to-18 division and in the overall scoring with Gallagher.

   Nikolaidis was coming off a Philly Junior Tour victory earlier in the week at The Berkshire Country Club, a little closer to home for him in Reading.

   Gallagher came on strong in his second round at the Presidential Course as he went back-to-back with birdies at the fifth and sixth holes, added another birdie at 11, went back-to-back again with birdies at 13 and 14 and put an exclamation point on an even-par 72 with an eagle at the par-5 17^th as he caught Nikolaidis at 3-over.

   Gallagher also had eight pars on his card, including four straight pars to open his second round at the Presidential Course.

   Gallagher had entered the second round trailing Nikolaidis by five shots as he made birdies at the first, 11^th and 15^th holes and had 11 pars on his card, including a string of four straight from five through eight, in an opening round of 3-over 74 at the Ambassador Course. Gallagher toured the incoming nine in 1-under 34.

   Alex Hoskins, a junior on the State College golf team, had the best round of the day in the second round at the Presidential Course with a 2-under 70 that left him two shots behind Nikolaidis and Gallagher in third place with a 5-over 148 total.

   Hoskins made birdies at the third, sixth, ninth, 13^th and 17^th holes and had 10 pars on his card in his solid second round at the Presidential Course.

   Hoskins couldn’t find a birdie in his opening round at the Ambassador Course as he had 11 pars on his card on his way to a 7-over 78.

   It was another five shots back to Daniel Herzchel of Linwood, N.J. in fourth place as he added a 3-over 75 in the second round at the Presidential Course to his opening round of 7-over 78 at the Ambassador Course for a 10-over 153 total.

   William Thorkelson, a Bryn Mawr resident and a sophomore on the golf team at The Haverford School, and Colby Seislove, who wrapped up his scholastic career at Spring-Ford by earning a trip to the District One Class AAA Championship last fall, finished in a tie for fifth place among the older guys and in the overall standings, each landing on 155, two shots behind Herzchel.

   Thorkelson bounced back from an 81 in the opening round at the Ambassador Course with a solid 2-over 74 in the second round at the Presidential Course.

   After opening with a 6-over 77 at the Ambassador Course, Seislove added a 6-over 78 in the second round at the Presidential Course.

   Avon Grove senior Shane Cornell, a District One Class AAA qualifier last fall, finished a shot behind Thorkelson and Seislove in seventh place with a 156 total as he added a 7-over 79 in the second round at the Presidential Course to his opening round of 6-over 77 at the Ambassador Course.

   Garnet Valley senior Jack Ferm, a District One Class AAA qualifier a year ago, and Mason Matlack of Boyertown shared eighth place, each ending up two shots behind Cornell with a a 158 total.

   Ferm opened with an 8-over 79 at the Ambassador Course and added a 7-over 79 in the second round at the Presidential Course. Matlack opened with a 5-over 76 at the Ambassador Course, but struggled a little in the second round with an 82 at the Presidential Course.

   Parker Bohn, a senior on the North Penn golf team, rounded out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division and in the overall scoring as he was a shot behind Ferm and Matlack in 10^th place with a 159 total.

   Bohn opened with a 9-over 80 at the Ambassador Course before adding a 7-over 79 in the second round at the Presidential Course.

   Ryan Comly of Newtown Square opened with a 7-over 78 at the Ambassador Course before struggling a little in the second round with an 83 at the Presidential Course, but that was good enough to earn him a Philly Junior Tour victory in the 13-to-15 division with a 161 total.

   Ryan Comly made birdies at the second, 15^th and 17^th holes and had eight pars on his scorecard in his opening round at the Ambassador Course that gave him a one-shot lead among the younger guys with his 7-over total.

   Ryan Comly made a birdie at the 12^th hole and had eight pars on his card while struggling a little in the second round at the Presidential Course.

   Sam Nelligan, an incoming freshman at Boyertown playing not far from his Gilbertsville home, and Connor Bates of Schwenksville, had identical splits, each opening with an 80 at the Ambassador Course and adding an 83 in the second round at the Presidential Course, to finish two shots behind Ryan Comly in a tie for second place with a 163 total.

   Nelligan made a birdie at the seventh hole and added an eagle at the par-4 15^th at the Ambassador Course. He had nine pars on his card. Nelligan had 10 pars on his card in his second round at the Presidential Course.

   Bates made birdies at the 10^th and 15^th holes and had eight pars on his card in his opening round at the Ambassador Course. Bates made a birdie at the fifth hole and had eight pars on his card in his second round at the Presidential Course.

   Leonard Anthony of Center Valley finished two shots behind Nelligan and Bates in fourth place with a 165 total as he added an 80 in the second round at the Presidential Course to his opening-round 85 at the Ambassador Course.

   Jack Shea of Harleysville and Stephen Comly III, another member of Newtown Square’s Team Comly, were a shot behind Anthony in a tie for fifth place, each landing on 166.

   Shea bounced back from an opening-round 87 at the Ambassador Course with a solid 7-over 79 in the second round of the Presidential Course. Stephen Comly opened with an 83 at the Ambassador Course and matched that score in the second round at the Presidential Course.

   Joseph Hoynoski IV of Hatfield opened with an 82 at the Ambassador Course and added an 88 at the Presidential Course as he finished in seventh place with a 170 total.

   Toby Parker of Chester Springs finished a shot behind Hoynoski in eighth place with a 171 total as he added an 85 in the second round at the Presidential Course to his opening-round 86 at the Ambassador Course.

   Aidan Maguire of Blue Bell and Nolan Johnson of West Chester shared ninth place, each tallying a 178 total.

   Maguire bounced back from an opening-round 95 at the Ambassador Course with an 83 in the second round at the Presidential Course. Johnson opened with an 86 at the Ambassador Course before adding a 92 in the second round at the Presidential Course.

   Rounding out the field in the 13-to-15 division was Ryan Englehart of Schwenksville as he bounced back from an opening round of 102 at the Ambassador Course with a 93 in the second round at the Presidential Course to finish in 11^th place with a 195 total.

   Niko Muego of Bryn Mawr capped a remarkable week by besting the field of boys 12-and-under nine-holers for the fourth straight time with a 3-over 75 total.

   Muego began his week with a victory at The Berkshire in Reading July 13^th, claimed a win the next day at the Cobbs Creek Q School Short Course and finished first at Pennsauken Country Club July 15^th before closing out the week with a victory in the two-day Hickory Valley Open.

   Muego made a birdie at the third hole and had seven pars on his scorecard, closing out his round with a run of six straight pars, as he matched par in the second round with a 36 to rally for the victory.

   Muego made a birdie at the sixth hole and had four pars on his card in an opening round of 3-over 39 at the Ambassador Course that left him a shot behind Ryan Stefanski of Newtown Square and Samuel Karas of Blue Bell going into the second round.

   Jack Kolmer of Wayne had six pars on his card as he matched Muego’s 3-over 39 in the opening round at the Ambassador Course. Kolmer had five pars on his card on his way to a 40 in the second round at the Presidential Course that left him in second place, four shots behind Muego with a 7-over 79 total.

   Joey Charpentier of Schwenksville made a birdie at the fourth hole and had four pars on his card as he closed with a 4-over 40 at the Presidential Course to finish two shots behind Kolmer in third place with an 81 total. Charpentier had five pars on his card in an opening-round 41 at the Ambassador Course.

   Stefanski added a 44 in the second round at the Presidential Course to his solid opening-round 38 at the Ambassador Course as he finished in fourth place, a shot behind Charpentier with an 82 total.

   Karas, who had grabbed a share of the lead with Stefanski with an opening round of 2-over 38 at the Ambassador Course, added a 46 in the second round at the Presidential Course to finish two shots behind Stefanski in fifth place with an 84 total.

   Kash Gray of Eagleville carded a pair of 45s on the two courses to take sixth place with a 90 total.

   Nolan English of Villanova added a 48 in the second round at the Presidential Course to his opening-round 44 at the Ambassador Course as he finished in seventh place with a 92 total.

   Cameron Persons of Collegeville added a 46 in his second round at the Presidential Course to his opening-round 48 at the Ambassador Course as he finished in eighth place with a 94 total.

   Bennett Cho of Chesterbrook added a 49 in his second round at the Presidential Course to his opening-round 51 at the Ambassador Course as he finished in ninth place with a 100.

   Jacob Salansky, playing not far from his Gilbertsville home, rounded out the field in the boys 12-and-under division as he added a 52 at the Presidential Course to his opening-round 57 at the Ambassador Course to finish in 10^th place with a 109 total.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gohel has the hot hand on his way to a Philly Junior Tour victory at Pennsauken

 

   Ravi Gohel of Mount Laurel, N.J. heated up at Pennsauken Country Club as he earned a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour victory in the 16-to-18 division with a sizzling 3-under-par 67 July 15^th.

   Gohel made birdies at the first, fourth, eighth and 17^th holes and had 13 pars on his scorecard, including a string of eight straight pars from nine through 16. Gohel’s three birdies on the outgoing nine enabled him to tour Pennsauken’s front side in 2-under 33.

   David Watts of Haddonfield, N.J. made a birdie at the sixth hole and had 12 pars on his card, including a run of six straight pars from nine through 14, as he earned runnerup honors with a 4-over 74.

   Conor Coughlin of Haddon Township, N.J. and Benjamin Perticari of West Deptford, N.J. shared third place, each posting a 7-over 77.

   Coughlin had 11 pars on his card. Perticari also had 11 pars on his card, finishing up his round by making seven straight pars.

   Vaughn Smartt of Bryn Mawr and Anthony Beach of Westville, N.J. shared fifth place, each tallying a 78, David Dempsey of Franklinville, N.J. took seventh with a 79 and Logan Nye, a senior at Plymouth-Whitemarsh, and Bradford Bergstrom of Moorestown, N.J. finished in a tie for eighth, each recording an 82.

   Brayden Holland, another Haddon Township, N.J. entry, rounded out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division as he finished in 10^th place with an 84.

   The trio of Christian Speitel of Haddonfield, N.J., Thayer Boyd of Kennett Square and Jack Venne of Moorestown, N.J. finished in a tie atop the leaderboard in the 13-to-15 division as each signed for a 7-over 77.

   Speitel made birdies at the third and 11^th holes and had nine pars on his scorecard, including five straight pars to finish up his round.

   Boyd’s steady round featured 11 pars. Jack Venne had bookend birdies on the outgoing nine at the first and ninth holes and had 10 pars on his card, including four straight pars to finish up his round.

   Roy Jackson of Medford, N.J. and Jonathan Thomas of Landenberg shared fourth place, each registering a 78, Max Charbonneau of Wayne was sixth with a 79, David Padgett of Barnegat, N.J. was seventh with an 81 and Thomas Holt IV of Haddonfield, N.J. was eighth with an 82.

   Luke George of Mullica Hill, N.J. took ninth place with an 83 and Dillon Tierney of Marlton, N.J. rounded out the top 10 in the 13-to-15 division as he finished 10^th with an 85.

   Christina St. Pierre, who wrapped up her scholastic career at Pennsbury last fall, had seven pars on her scorecard as she captured a Philly Junior Tour victory in the girls 16-to-18 division with an 88.

   Morgan Tyhanic of Little Egg Harbor, N.J. also had seven pars on her card as she earned runnerup honors with a 92.

   Emily Renouf of Cinnaminson, N.J. had four pars on her card as she finished in third place with a 93.

   Madison Gibson, another Cinnaminson, N.J. gal, rounded out the field in the 16-to-18 division as she took fourth place with a 97.

   Mallie Heenan of Ocean City, N.J. made a birdie at the 14^th hole and had four pars on her scorecard as she finished at the top of the leaderboard in the 13-to-15 division with a 92.

   Emma Cowan of Moorestown, N.J. and Lanie Whitehead of Swedesboro, N.J. were right on Heenan’s heels as they finished in a tie for second place, each ending up a shot behind Heenan with a 93.

   Cowan and Whitehead each had four pars on their respective cards.

   Gigi Lake of Newtown took fourth place with a 98, Naaya Patel of Moorestown, N.J. was fifth with a 99, and Antonella Ferrer of Wynnewood was sixth with a 106.

   Hridya Shah of Downingtown rounded out the field in the 13-to-15 division as she finished in seventh place with a 109.

   Niko Muego of Bryn Mawr finished up his round with a birdie at the ninth hole and had six pars on his scorecard as he bested the field of boys 12-and-under nine-holers for the third time in as many days with a 1-over 36.

   Muego had earned a Philly Junior Tour victory two days earlier at The Berkshire Country Club in Reading and followed that up by finishing in first place at the Cobbs Creek Q School Short Course.

   Damien Dollard of Cinnaminson, N.J., the Philly Junior Tour’s boys 12-and-under division Player of the Year in 2025, made birdies on the second and ninth holes and had four pars on his card as he finished a shot behind Muego in second place with a 2-over 37.

   Ryan Stefanski of Newtown Square had seven pars on his card as he finished in third place with a 40.

   Andrew DElia of Clarks Summit took fourth place with a 42 and the trio of Sid Joshi of Coopersburg, Chase Venne, another member of Team Venne out of Moorestown, N.J., and Nolan English of Villanova finished a shot behind DElia in a tie for fifth place, each signing for a 43.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the boys 12-and-under division was the trio of Kamran Patel of Moorestown, N.J., Samuel Karas of Blue Bell and Jordan Chase of Philadelphia as they finished in a tie for eighth place, each tallying a 45.