Yes, it was cold and a persistent wind made it feel even
colder, but that didn’t stop some of the top high school players in Delaware,
male and female, from teeing it up Saturday as the Philadelphia Section PGA
Junior Tour came to the First State with a stop at Cripple Creek Golf &
Country Club in Dagsboro, Del.
The best round of the day belonged to Alex Mulrooney, a
Concord High sophomore and the reigning Delaware junior champion. Mulrooney
took top honors in the 16-to-18 division with a 3-over-par 74 over the
6,473-yard, par-71 Cripple Creek layout, an outstanding round given the tough
conditions.
Mulrooney, who raised a few eyebrows when he finished in a
tie for sixth in the Philadelphia Open at St. Davids Golf Club last summer, had
two birdies on the incoming nine.
Runnerup honors went to Nikita Romanov of Wilmington, Del.,
who has been a regular on Junior Tour leaderboards for the last several years.
He was the Junior Tour’s Graham Company Player of the Year in the 13-to-15
division during the wraparound 2015-’16 season. Romanov finished four shots
behind Mulrooney with a 78 that featured three birdies, one on the front nine
and two on the back.
Pretty sure the Delaware scholastic golf season is still in
the spring, so Mulrooney and Romanov are likely tuning up for that.
William Pabst of Roaring Brook Township finished third with
an 81 that included two birdies, one on each side.
T.Y. Brinker of Wilmington, Del. and Bobby Lugiano of
Shavertown shared fourth place, each carding an 82. Lugiano, a Lake Lehman
junior, was a PIAA Class AA qualifier last fall.
Garnet Valley junior Jake Sokalsky and Unionville junior
Jack Cooley, a member of the Indians’ team that was the PIAA Class AAA runnerup
last fall, shared sixth place, each posting an 83.
Harriton junior David Fitzgerald, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier
last fall, finished alone in eighth with an 84, Christopher Vanhof of
Georgetown, Del. was ninth with an 88 and James Dalzell of Linwood, N.J.
rounded out the top 10, ending up alone in 10th with an 89.
Top honors in the 13-to-15 division went to Saints Phillip
and James eighth-grader Benjamin Saggers, who captured the Golf Association of
Philadelphia’s Boys’ Junior-Junior Championship last summer. Saggers had three
birdies, two of them on par-5s, in carding an 83.
Nicholas Ciocca of Berwyn was the runnerup with an 85.
Matthew Normand of Lumberton, N.J. finished third with an 86 that featured a
birdie at the 14th hole.
Michael Lugiano of Shavertown’s Team Lugiano, finished
fourth with a 92 that included a birdie on the 13th hole. Phillip
Calla of Harrisburg was fifth with a 137.
The two players battling it out in the girls 16-to-18
division, Archmere Academy junior Phoebe Brinker and The Charter School of
Wilmington senior Esther Park, were teammates on Delaware’s entry that finished
second in the final edition of the USGA Women’s State Team Championship on the
Sunrise Course at The Club at Las Campanas in Santa Fe, N.M. in September of
2017.
Brinker took top honors at Cripple Creek with an 8-over 79
with a pair of birdies. Park was the runnerup with an 82 that included a
finishing stretch of four straight pars.
The USGA Team event isn’t the only time Brinker has shined
on a national stage. She qualified for match play in last summer’s U.S. Girls’
Junior Championship at Poppy Hills Golf Course on northern California’s
Monterey Peninsula before falling in the first round.
Emily McAninch of Mechanicsburg claimed the top spot in the
13-to-15 division with a 103 that featured a par on the fourth hole. Nimah
Narinesingh-Smith of Kennett Square was the runnerup with a 110.
Narinesingh-Smith made bogey on all four of the par-3s at Cripple Creek.
Another member of Kennett Square’s Team Narinesingh-Smith,
Kasim Narinesingh-Smith, carded a 7-over 42 to top the field of nine-holers.
Kasim Narinesingh-Smith got off to a good start with a birdie at the first
hole.
Austin Dostal of Harbeson, Del. was the runnerup with a 51
that include a par at the seventh hole. Davis Conaway of West Chester, who made
par at the fifth hole, took third with a 53. Colton Orris of Hershey was fourth
with a 56.
The Junior Tour will keep it in Delaware for what promises
to be a warmer Sunday for a stop at Kings Creek Country Club in Rehoboth Beach,
Del.
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