Looking back at
another year of blogging and a little looping at Stonewall …
The tee times for the opening round of qualifying for the
U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the Poppy Hills Golf Course on northern
California’s Monterey Peninsula were out.
I always like to check them, mostly just to see if any of
the alternates from any of the local qualifiers that I had blogged about had
managed to sneak into the field. It was in the midst of that process that I had
one of those “Wait, what?” moments.
Sydney Yermish, Wynnewood, Pa.? How could a kid who was just
starting to break 40 while competing in the 12-and-under, coed, nine-hole
division of the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour the previous fall have a
starting time in the most prestigious event for junior girls in the world?
I was pretty sure Sydney was the daughter of Dana Yermish,
whom I had been in contact with during the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rolling
Green Golf Club because she was a co-chair of the group of Rolling Green
members who had staged the event. I still had Dana Yermish’s e-mail address
and, with mom’s help, I was able to recount Sydney Yermish’s road to the U.S.
Girls’ Junior in a post from the opening day of the tournament.
At age 12, Sydney Yermish had carded a 74 in a Girls’ Junior
qualifier at Old York Country Club at Chesterfield in Chesterfield, N.J. to
punch her ticket to Poppy Hills. I have covered some very good players, guys
and gals, who have come up just a little short in the cauldron of a USGA
qualifier.
It is one round against a field filled with equally talented
youngsters vying for two or three spots in the biggest junior event in the
world. Yet Yermish made it in her first try.
Yermish struggled at Poppy Hills, posting rounds of 86 and
87, although she carded a respectable 39 on her final nine holes.
I bring up Sydney Yermish’s trip to the U.S. Girls’ Junior to
highlight a larger point about 2018 because I can only conclude after this
year of blogging that the kids are all right.
Yes, this blog is largely devoted to the up-and-coming young
golfers, but they just were so impressive in 2018. And in many cases, they are
better at a younger age than ever before.
Yermish had turned 13 by the time she booked herself a spot
in another of the more high-profile events in junior golf, the Drive, Chip
& Putt National Finals, broadcast by The Golf Channel the Sunday before the
Masters. It has become the highly anticipated kickoff to Masters week with past
champions coming out with the sun rising over Augusta National to watch the
future of their game unfold.
Yermish captured the Girls 12-13 division in a regional
competition at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. behind a first-place
finish with the driver in her hands to earn a trip to Augusta National next
spring.
Some guys who I’m sure Yermish knows well comprised the
Delaware 1 team that advanced to the PGA Junior League Championship, presented
by National Car Rental, at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. in November.
The group was captained by Dave Seeman, a PGA professional
at Hartefeld National in Chester County right on the border with Delaware, and
coached by Shawn Gross.
The group was largely comprised of players who had developed
their games on the Philadelphia Junior Tour, including two guys who would earn the
Graham Company Player of the Year honors on the Junior Tour a few weeks later,
Win Thomas in the 13-to-15 age group and Nicholas Gross – pretty sure he’s the
pride and joy of coach Shawn Gross – among the nine-holers, the same division
from which Yermish sprang in 2018.
Their teammates included Adrian Jordan, Matthew Normand, Henry
Stone, Michael Maslanka, Zac Antao, Jack Homer and Jax Puskar.
Thomas won eight times on the Junior Tour's wraparound 2017-'18 season, including
the overall title in the Junior Tour Championship as one of the youngest
competitors in the field.
If Yermish needs any tips on what to expect at Augusta
National, she can check with Gross. His 2018 included a third-place finish in
the Boys 10-11 division in the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals. He won a
whopping 20 times on the Junior Tour in the 2017-’18 Junior Tour
campaign.
A Yermish pal, Angelina Tolentino of Mount Laurel, N.J., was
the Junior Tour’s Graham Company Player of the Year in the girls 13-to-15 division.
The two of them teamed up to take a shot at qualifying for next spring’s U.S.
Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship. They didn’t make it, but carded a very
respectable 4-over 76 at Kennett Square Golf & Country Club. Not bad for a
couple of 13-year-olds.
I was able to show up at several stops on the Pennsylvania
high school postseason trail, including the Central League and District One
championships at Turtle Creek Golf Club, the PIAA East Regional at Golden Oaks
Golf Club and the PIAA Championship at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort.
And many of the names I had come across in local, regional
and national junior events during the summer were prominent on the scholastic
scene.
Palmer Jackson, a senior at Franklin Regional who plays out
of Hannastown Country Club in Greensburg, had earned a spot in the match-play
bracket in the U.S. Junior Amateur at Baltusrol Golf Club and played all four
rounds in the Boys Junior PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville,
Ky.
So it wasn’t a huge surprise to see the Notre Dame-bound
Jackson deliver Franklin Regional its first PIAA individual champion when he
captured the Class AAA crown with a brilliant final round of 4-under 67.
Central Bucks East senior Patrick Sheehan, who had captured
the District One Class AAA crown a couple of weeks earlier, finished in a tie
for third place in his first look at Heritage Hills. Like Jackson, Sheehan played all
four rounds in the Boys Junior PGA at Valhalla.
Sheehan had defeated Holy Ghost Prep’s Liam Hart and Central
Bucks East’s Luca Jezzeny in a playoff for the district title at Turtle Creek.
Hart, the 2017 Class AAA state champion, shared third with Sheehan at Heritage
Hills.
Jezzeny, who had a strong summer that included trips to both
the U.S. Junior Amateur at Baltusrol and the Boys Junior PGA at Valhalla,
finished eighth at Heritage Hills.
District One had two brother acts at Heritage Hills as
Norristown’s Caleb Ryan, who capped his scholastic career by making it to the
state championship for a third straight year, and brother Joshua were both in
the field for the second year in a row and Unionville’s Bennink twins, Connor
and Will, had strong showings.
Caleb Ryan, the Philadelphia Junior Tour’s Sam Penecale
Scoring Average Leader in the 16-to-18 division, and Connor Bennink finished in
a tie for sixth place, Will Bennink finished in a tie for 12th place and Joshua
Ryan finished in a tie for 19th place.
The Benninks couldn’t quite lead Unionville to a second
straight PIAA Class AAA team title, the Indians finishing as the runnerup to
Pittsburgh Central Catholic. But it was a pretty nice run for the best team in
District One the past two falls.
A face that kept turning up in every stop I made along the
postseason high school trail was that of Harriton left-hander Andrew Wallace.
Short of stature but long on heart, Wallace, betrayed by a driver that broke in
the middle of the second round at districts, had a share of the lead after the
opening round at Heritage Hills before struggling in the second round and
finishing in a tie for 15th place.
The runnerup to Jackson at Heritage Hills was Pittsburgh
Central Catholic’s Jimmy Meyers, who would lead the Vikings to the team title
the next day, and Greater Latrobe’s Brady Pevarnik finished in a tie for ninth
place at Heritage Hills. Pevarnik, like Jackson a product of the junior program at
Hannastown, led the Pennsylvania Amateur at Johnstown’s famed Sunnehanna Golf Club
for two rounds before finishing tied for third.
Sheehan, Meyers and Pevarnik will all be taking their
talents to Penn State, so that’s three pretty good gets for Nittany Lions head
coach Greg Nye.
He was off his game a little at Heritage Hills, finishing in
a tie for 12th in Class AAA, but Central York’s Carson Bacha, an
Auburn recruit, was brilliant in winning the individual title a week earlier in
the East Regional at Golden Oaks and in capturing the Pennsylvania Junior Boys’
Championship at Hershey Country Club’s East Course in the summer.
The Class AA crown went to William Mirams from Notre Dame in
East Stroudsburg. Mirams, playing out of the Shawnee Inn Golf Resort, had
reached the final of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior Boys’
Championship in the summer.
Devon Prep’s Ryan McCabe, the District 12 champion, got a
share of second place behind Mirams at Heritage Hills. McCabe was prominent on Philly
Junior Tour leaderboards all summer.
The Bert Linton Inter-Ac League Championship at Sunnybrook
Golf Club was held the same day as the final day of the PIAA Championships, so
I couldn’t get there, which means I missed Malvern Prep’s senior captain Andrew Curran firing
the round of his life, a brilliant 6-under 66 that gave him the title by seven
shots.
Nobody follows the Inter-Ac like this blog does and Curran’s
stunning round probably eased a little of the disappointment he felt from the
failure of the Friars and everybody else in the league to figure out a way to
stop The Haverford School from claiming its second straight league title.
It’s not that Malvern Prep and Episcopal Academy, which got
a share of second place with the Friars, weren’t good teams. It’s just that the
Fords were that good and that deep.
Haverford School had seven players – A.J. Aivazoglou, Peter
Garno, Mac Costin, Sam Walker, David Hurly, Charlie Baker and Jake Maddaloni –
finish among the top 12 in the individual points standings compiled over the
course of the six invitationals that make up the Inter-Ac’s regular season.
The Fords also rolled to the title in the Pennsylvania
Independent Schools Athletic Association Championship at Gulph Mills Golf Club
with the individual crown going to Curran’s fellow Malvern Prep senior Matt
Civitella.
The Inter-Ac girls still play in the spring and for the
sixth year in a row I made it to the championship held at Gulph Mills for the
third year in a row. And for the second year in a row and the third time in
those six years I’ve been there, Agnes Irwin’s Kaitlyn Lees captured the title.
Before she headed off to Dartmouth to start her college
career, Lees would win the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship at Hershey East for the
third time in four years and play four rounds in the Girls Junior PGA
Championship at Kearney Hill Golf Links in Lexington, Ky.
Notre Dame’s nine-year run as the Inter-Ac champion was
halted by Episcopal Academy. The Churchwomen were led by freshman Lauren Jones,
who finished third behind Lees and her Agnes Irwin teammate Meghan Fahey, in
the individual championship.
Lees will be joined at Dartmouth next summer by Samantha
Yao, who capped her brilliant scholastic career at Conestoga by finishing in a
tie for fifth in the PIAA Class AAA Championship.
Yao’s pal, Downingtown East’s Liddie McCook, finished tied
for 11th at Heritage Hills and led the Vikings to a runnerup finish
in the Class AAA team competition. McCook will play college golf at Monmouth.
A couple of promising youngsters burst onto the scholastic
scene in the fall as West Chester East freshman Victoria Kim denied Yao a third
straight District One title by winning that championship at Turtle Creek and
Pennsbury sophomore Jade Gu was the East Regional winner a week later at Golden
Oaks.
Gu finished alone in seventh at Heritage Hills while Kim
shared 11th place with McCook.
Haverford High was represented in the state championship by
sophomore Riley Quartermain, who finished alone in 14th place in her
first crack at Heritage Hills.
A couple of very talented youngsters from Delaware continued
to impress in 2018 as Phoebe Brinker earned a trip to the U.S. Girls’ Junior at
Poppy Hills and Jennifer Cleary, like Lees, played four rounds in the Girls
Junior PGA at Kearney Hill.
Brinker of Archmere Academy earned a spot in the match-play
bracket at Poppy Hills before falling in the first round. Cleary plays out of
Tower Hill.
Rylie Heflin is from Avondale, but she is a scholastic
teammate of Cleary’s at Tower Hill in Delaware. Heflin was the runnerup to Lees
in defense of the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship Heflin won in 2017.
Cleary, who plays out of Applecross Country Club, finished sixth in the state
Junior Girls’ at Hershey East.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a couple of guys who
finished their junior careers in style last summer.
Former Conestoga standout Ryan Tall went on a remarkable
match-play run when he reached the semifinals of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur
Championship at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club and then rolled to GAP’s Junior
Boys’ title, defeating Mirams in the final at Blue Bell Country Club. On his
way to Lafayette, Tall went 7-1 in two highly competitive match-play events.
Brian Isztwan, the Inter-Ac’s best player in his final two
seasons at Penn Charter, has been a favorite of mine since I looped for him in
the 2017 Christman Cup at Stonewall’s North Course. He capped a strong junior
career by earning a trip to the U.S. Junior Amateur at Baltusrol. He failed to
make match play, but Harvard got itself a good one in that guy.
The national scene was equally rich in standout youngsters.
I have been a Lucy Li fan ever since the California Kid lit up Rolling Green Golf
Club with rounds of 67 and 68 in qualifying for match play in the 2016 U.S.
Women’s Amateur at 13.
In a stretch of eight weeks or so this summer, Li was
incandescent, even in defeat. She was the darling of the Fox Sports crew that
broadcast the Curtis Cup Match at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y. And
to the hard-core golf fans who showed up to root on the US of A to a rousing
17-3 victory over Great Britain & Ireland as well, I’m sure.
Li had some company in the phenom department in the Girls
Junior PGA at Kearney Hill as fellow Cali girl Yealimi Noh blazed her way to
the title with a 24-under 264 total. Another teen star, Floridian Alexa Pano,
was fourth at Kearney Hill at 17-under 271 while Li settled for a share of
sixth at 13-under 275.
Li followed that up with a remarkable 9-under 62 in the
opening round of qualifying for match play in the U.S. Girls’ Junior at Poppy
Hills.
By the time a foggy week at Poppy Hills reached its final
day, Li and Pano were matched in the semifinals with Noh in the other semi.
Pano pulled out a 1-up decision over Li and she and Noh went at it for 33 more
holes in the final with the red-hot Noh claiming a 4 and 3 victory. Pano played
51 holes and Noh 49.
Noh, who turned 17 the week after the U.S. Girls’ Junior,
will bypass college golf and plans to turn pro at some point in 2019.
Li was at it again a couple of weeks later, firing a
brilliant 6-under 65 in the second round of qualifying in the U.S. Women’s
Amateur Championship at The Golf Club of Tennessee to get a share of medalist
honors. Pano, who was the leader after the opening round of qualifying with a
sparkling 66, and Noh also made the match-play bracket.
Li made it all the way to the semifinals at The Golf of
Tennessee before falling to her Curtis Cup teammate and eventual U.S. Women’s
Amateur champion Kristen Gillman, 1-up, in a tremendous match.
On the boys side, two guys dominated the junior scene with
Cole Hammer and Akshay Bhatia hooking up in the semifinals of the U.S. Junior
Amateur at Baltusrol. Hammer, making his junior swan song, fell, 4 and 2, to Bhatia
in a riveting match before Bhatia dropped a 1-up decision to Michael Thorbjornsen in a
hard-fought 36-hole final that went the distance.
A week later, Bhatia nervelessly bumped a little chip shot
from the deep rough behind the 18th green at Valahalla and watched the ball trickle down the slope and into the hole for an eagle that gave him his
second straight title in the Boys Junior PGA. It was about as good a shot to
win a golf tournament as you’ll ever see. Like Noh, Bhatia plans to bypass
college golf and turn pro.
Hammer arrived on the Monterey Peninsula for the U.S.
Amateur fresh off an impressive win in the Western Amateur at Sunset Ridge
Country Club in Northfield, Ill., 72 holes of qualifying and four matches.
The Texan added a 4-under 68 at Spyglass Hill Golf Course to
his opening round of 2-under 69 at the iconic Pebble Beach Golf Links to get a
share of medalist honors. Hammer made it all the way to the semifinals before
falling to eventual champion Viktor Hovland, a Norwegian who added a U.S.
Amateur title to the NCAA team crown he helped Oklahoma State claim in the
spring.
I didn’t check in much on the first fall of Hammer’s college
career at Texas, but I’m sure he’ll be a key figure for the Longhorns in the
spring of 2019.
There weren’t any big tournaments at Stonewall in 2018, but
I did manage to hook up again with Jeff Frazier and Brent Will, a couple of Harrisburg
area guys, for the Fall Scramble.
I was, at the very least, an effective good-luck charm when
Frazier, a talented left-hander who has played in, I believe, seven U.S.
Mid-Amateur Championships, and the long-hitting Will won the Fall Scramble in 2016.
I watched in awe as they carded a brilliant 8-under 62 on a chilly day with a
fierce wind on the Old Course and added another 62 in the second round at the
North Course.
They didn’t quite have the same magic this year, although
they never stopped competing in a second round that was played in temperatures
in the low 40s, an occasional drizzle and a steady 20 mph wind. The occasional
drizzle was the leftovers of an overnight drencher that dropped upwards of two
inches of rain on the golf course.
The weather? Yeah, let’s not talk about the weather in 2018.
It was not good.
What was good were all the tremendously talented young kids
who proved that the future of golf is bright.
Did I miss somebody in this year-ender? Undoubtedly, because
there are just so many talented youngsters out there. But the beauty of the
blog is that if you finished in the top 10 in a Junior Tour event in 2018,
you’re in here somewhere.
And I’ll be keeping an eye out for the next Sydney Yermish
who comes storming out of the Junior Tour nine-holers onto a national stage in
2019. She proved it can happen.
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