Strath Haven's Smith finishes in tie for 10th in AJGA Carolina Trace Junior after claiming medalist honors in qualifier

    There are no guarantees when you show up for an American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) qualifier.

   Only six berths into the main draw of last weekend’s AJGA Carolina Trace Junior at Carolina Trace Country Club’s Lake Course in Sanford, N.C. were available to the 38 girls who teed it up in the qualifier March 25. One of them was Strath Haven junior Grace Smith.

   The coronavirus pandemic proved to be too big an obstacle to overcome in time to hold a qualifier that would have made the Central League’s golfers eligible for the PIAA postseason last fall. Smith had finished in ninth place in Class AAA at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County as a sophomore in 2019.

   The Central League Championship was finally held at Downingtown Country Club the week after last fall’s PIAA Championship and Smith carded a solid 78 to finish third behind two very talented players in Haverford senior Riley Quartermain and Lower Merion sophomore Sydney Yermish.

   Not sure how much golf Smith had played since the end of October, but it couldn’t have been a whole lot if she was staying home in Delaware County this winter. But if Smith, a product of the junior program at The Springhaven Club, was rusty, it didn’t show in the qualifier at Eagle Trace.

   Smith offset five bogeys with five birdies over the 5,905-yard, par-72 Lake Course layout as she not only qualified for the main draw, she was the medalist with an even-par 72. Smith stayed aggressive as she made birdies on the 10^th, 14^th, 16^th and 18^th holes on her way to the clubhouse.

   Once in the main draw, Smith finished in a tie for 10^th place with a 13-over 229 total. After opening with a 75, Smith bettered par in the second round with a 1-under 71, a solid loop that featured three birdies against two bogeys.

   The final round is broken into nines on the AJGA results. Pretty sure there was some weather around last weekend in the Carolinas, so it might have had something to do with that, but Smith carded a 42 and a 41 for the nines to get it to 229.

   Smith didn’t really get serious about golf until 2018, or thereabouts, but she has progressed quickly. She played a big role in the best season in the history of the Strath Haven program in 2019. She was a consistent counter as the Panthers captured their first Central League crown and then shocked everybody, with the exception of maybe themselves, by winning the District One Class AAA team crown at Turtle Creek Golf Club.

   It was a bit of a family affair for the Smiths as the team’s senior leader was Grace’s big brother Kevin, who made his pandemic-delayed college debut for Saint Joseph’s this week. Strath Haven’s success in 2019 was also a Springhaven thing as all the Panthers developed their games on the underrated Donald Ross design.

   Smith’s 74 on the second day of the District One Class AAA girls competition not only earned her a trip to the Class AAA East Regional, it was a key counter for the Strath Haven boys team in its bid to win the district team crown. A week later, Smith survived a playoff at Golden Oaks Golf Club to advance to the PIAA Championship.

   Smith carded a pair of 80s to finish ninth in the Class AAA girls tournament and came back the next day with an 82, a counter for the Panthers as they finished fourth in the Class AAA team chase.

   When the Central League gathered at Downingtown last fall, the coaches decided the league would recognize the tournament team champion as well as the dual-match winner, which is traditionally the league champion. And Smith’s 78 once again helped Strath Haven salvage a little something from a somewhat lost season with a five-shot victory over dual-match champion Conestoga, a perennial power in the Central.

   It will be interesting to see if her performance in the Carolina Trace Junior will be a springboard to a big summer for Smith.

   Sara Im, a Class of 2023 entry from Duluth, Ga., claimed her sixth career AJGA title in the Carolina Trace Junior. She had three birdies in a final round of even-par 36 that gave her a 1-over 217 total for the weekend and a three-shot victory.

   Im, who captured the Georgia Women’s Amateur Championship in a seven-hole playoff – a three-hole aggregate followed by four holes of sudden death – last summer, had opened with a 1-over 73 before adding her best round of the tournament, a 3-under 69, in the second round. She registered a 3-over 39 in the first nine of the split final round before closing with a 36.

   Ava Merrill, another Class of ’23 entry, was the runnerup as she added a 2-under 70 to her opening-round 74 and nines of 39 and 37 for a 4-over 220 total. Kate Song of Alpharetta, Ga. was a shot behind Merrill in third place with a 5-over 221 total. Song, who will join the program at Mercer at the end of the summer, had a pair of 1-over 73s in the first two rounds and was a solid in the split nines with scores of 36 and 37.

   Kiera Bartholomew, another Class of ’23 competitor out of Wake Forest, N.C., finished fourth with an 8-over 224 total. Pretty sure Bartholomew developed her game at Indian Valley Country Club in Telford before moving to North Carolina. Bartholomew opened with a 78, but bounced back with a 1-over 73 and had nines of 38 and 35 as she got stronger as the weekend wore on.

   Anna Swan, who finished in a tie for seventh place in last fall’s PIAA Class AA Championship as a freshman at North East, also teed it up in the qualifier at Carolina Trace, but failed to advance to the main draw. Swan carded an 82 to finish in a tie for 11^th place.

   The winner of the Carolina Trace Junior Boys division was Preston Stout of Dallas, Texas who finished at even-par 216 to edge Bryan Kim of Brookeville, Md. by a shot. Stout matched par in the second round with a 72 over a Lake Course layout that measured 7,031 yards for the guys after opening with a 74. His final two nines of 34 and 36 enabled him to finish at even-par and claim his first career AJGA victory.

   Kim opened with a 76 and added a solid 2-under 70 before closing with nines of 35 and 36 that left him with a 1-over 217 total. Max Jelineck, a native of the Czech Republic whose U.S. base is Boynton Beach, Fla., had the lead after two rounds as he added a 3-under 69 to his opening-round 74. His final two nines of 37 and 38 left him a shot behind Kim in third place with a 2-over 218 total.

   A couple of names that pop up on Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour leaderboards, Zachary Loninger, a Class of ’23 entry from Crosswick, N.J., and John Olsen, a Class of ’22 entry from Boalsburg, failed to advance out of the Boys qualifier. Loninger registered an 80 to finish in 21^st place and Olsen’s 83 left him in a tie for 27^th.