Archmere Academy senior Phoebe Brinker, increasingly
comfortable on the national stage, fired a solid 2-under-par 70 in the opening
round of qualifying for match play in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship
Monday at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis.
Brinker, coming off a tie for 13th place in the
Girls Junior PGA Championship at the Keney Park Golf Course in Windsor, Conn.,
started on the back nine Monday and made birdies at the 14th, 18th
and third holes to get it to 3-under before recording her only bogey of the day
at the ninth hole.
The top 64 finishers following Tuesday’s second round of
qualifying will advance to match play, which gets under way Wednesday.
And Brinker, who claimed her third DIAA crown at Cripple
Creek Country Club in May, put herself in very good position to be one of those
match-play participants. She reached match play in the U.S. Girls’ Junior at
year ago at the Poppy Hills Golf Course on northern California’s Monterey
Peninsula and fell in the opening round, suffering a tough 2-up decision at
hands of Valery Plata of Colombia, who went on to reach the quarterfinals.
Plata, coming off a solid freshman season at Michigan State,
was one of five players tied for fifth after carding a 3-under 69 Monday.
Brinker claimed medalist honors in a U.S. Women’s Amateur
qualifier last week with a 68 at Thorney Lea Golf Club in Brockton, Mass. That
means she’ll be headed for Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss. for
another big national tournament when the U.S. Women’s Amateur tees off Aug. 5.
Recent Conestoga High graduate Samantha Yao also put herself
in good position to earn a spot in match play as she rallied with birdies on
her last three holes for a 1-over 73 that left her among the group tied for 28th
place.
Yao, one of Pennsylvania’s top high school players each of
the last three years, started on the back nine Monday and made bogeys at the 10th,
17th, third and sixth holes to stand at 4-over for her round. Yao,
who will join the Dartmouth program later this summer, then birdied the seventh,
eighth and ninth holes to finish with a flourish.
Yao was the medalist with a 72 in a Golf Association of
Philadelphia-administered qualifier for the U.S. Girls’ Junior at the Steel
Club. Yao also played four rounds in the Girls Junior PGA Championship at Keney
Park.
A year ago, Californian Yealimi Noh completed the toughest
double in girls junior golf by adding a victory in the U.S. Girls’ Junior at
Poppy Hills to the Girls Junior PGA Championship she had won a couple of weeks
earlier at the Kearney Hill Golf Links in Lexington, Ky.
Yuka Saso, the talented 18-year-old from the Philippines, is
making noises like she plans to duplicate Noh’s feat from a year ago. Saso,
coming off an impressive two-shot victory at Keney Park, fired a women’s
competitive course-record of 7-under 65 at SentryWorld Monday to take a
three-shot lead after the opening round of qualifying for match play.
Saso, No. 24 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking
(WAGR), had nary a bogey on her card and seven birdies, including four straight
on the eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th holes.
It is Saso’s fourth U.S. Girls’ Junior appearance and she
has never made it past the second round. But, as I noted in my posts on the
Girls Junior PGA Championship, I remembered her well from her spectacular run
as a 15-year-old to the semifinals of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rolling
Green Golf Club.
Three players are tied for second as each carded a solid
4-under 68.
Sophia Bae, a 15-year-old from Norwood, N.J., made a double
bogey at the fourth hole and then went 6-under the rest of the way to finish at
4-under. Bae plans to join the powerhouse Duke program in the summer of 2021.
Nicole Adam, a 17-year-old from Pinehurst, N.C., had a
4-under 32 on the front nine at SentryWorld on her way to a 68.
Adam, who will join the North Carolina-Wilmington program in
the summer of 2020, had plenty of support after qualifying for match play in
last week’s North & South Women’s Amateur Championship at the Pinehurst
Resort’s No. 2 Course.
Adam gave the eventual champion, Southern California junior
Gabriela Ruffels of Australia, all she wanted in a 3 and 1 setback in the
opening round of match play.
Rounding out the trio tied for second at 4-under was Lei Ye
of China, who will join the Stanford program later this summer. Ye holed a
12-foot birdie putt on the 18th green to join the group at 68.
Tower Hill junior Rylie Heflin of Avondale, another player
who emerged from the Steel Club qualifier, carded a 78 and is among the group
tied for 103rd.
Episcopal Academy junior Lauren Jones, who plays out of
Merion Golf Club, struggled to a 79 and is among the group tied for 117th.
Jones, who led the Churchwomen to their second straight Inter-Ac League title
this spring, also earned her ticket to SentryWorld at the Steel Club.
Jones was joined at that figure by Caroline Wrigley, who
claimed the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at North Allegheny last
fall. Wrigley, who added the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ crown to her scholastic
state title last month at Hershey Country Club’s East Course, will join the
Furman program later this summer.
One of the other players who emerged from the Steel Club
qualifier, Virginie Ding of Hong Kong, was in the group tied for fifth at
3-under 69 along with Plata.
The final Steel Club qualifier in the field, Jana Ni of
China, posted a 3-over 75 that left her among the group tied for 66th.
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