Gross struggles in final round, finishes 10th in Rolex Tournament of Champions

    It was a disappointing day in Wednesday’s final round for Downingtown West junior Nick Gross in the final round of the 45^th Rolex Tournament of Champions, the marquee event on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) circuit.

   In contention all week at TPC San Antonio’s Canyons Course, Gross, who won the District One Class AAA crown for the second time last month, faltered on the back nine and ended up with a 10^th-place finish.

   It was reminiscent of Gross’ performance in last summer’s Boys Junior PGA Championship when he had just one bad nine, the front nine of his third round on Cog Hill’s tough Dubsdread Course in suburban Chicago, in that 72-hole event and ended up in third place.

   This one will probably sting a little more in that his bad nine was his final nine, lowlighted by a quadruple bogey 9 on the par-5 15^th hole over the 7,106-yard, par-72 Canyons Course layout. It led to a final round of 5-over 77 that left him alone in 10^th place with a 3-under 285 total.

   A top-10 finish in an event that caps what the AJGA bills as the Greatest Week in Junior Golf is nothing to be disappointed with and one bad nine certainly takes nothing away from what has been an epic 2022 for Gross.

   Gross finished in fourth place in the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley in South Carolina in March then really took off in the summer, making the match-play bracket in the U.S. Junior Amateur and reaching the second round at the Bandon Dunes resort on the Oregon coastline, the aforementioned third-place finish in the Boys Junior PGA Championship at Cog Hill and then his spectacular run to the U.S. Amateur quarterfinals at The Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., all before his 16^th birthday.

   A couple of weeks after winning the District One crown and leading the Whippets to the district team crown at Turtle Creek Golf Course and finishing in third place in defense of the PIAA Class AAA crown he won in 2021, Gross announced that he had made a verbal commitment to join the program at Southeastern Conference power Alabama in the summer of 2024. Not a bad year at all.

   There were lessons in dealing with adversity all around for Gross at TPC San Antonio.

   Jackson Koivun of Chapel Hill, N.C. arrived at the final round of the 2021 Rolex Tournament of Champions at the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. with a two-shot lead. He was caught by Eric Lee of Fullerton, Calif., who then defeated Koivun in a playoff to claim the title.

   This time, Koivun, who will join the program at another SEC power, Auburn, next summer, arrived at the final round of the Rolex Tournament of Champions trailing Johnnie Clark of Mesa, Ariz. by three shots. Clark, as Koivun had a year earlier, had held the lead for three days.

   Koivun unleashed a final round of 4-under 68 Wednesday as he overtook Clark, even having the luxury of taking a bogey on the 18^th hole, the only blemish on his scorecard for the day. Koivun finished with a 13-under 275 total.

   Koivun made birdies at the second and third holes to jump-start his round and then took control of the championship with birdies at 12, 13 and 15.

   Clark, who will join the program at Big 12 power Oklahoma State next summer, had a little disappointment to deal with, too. But he had a breathtaking opening-round 63 that featured nine birdies, seven on the front nine alone. Clark closed with his second straight even-par 72 to finish a shot behind Koivun with a 12-under 276 total.

   “It’s pretty awesome,” Koivun told the AJGA website after making the most of his second chance to win a Rolex Tournament of Champions crown. “Last year I got second place at this tournament, but I lost in a playoff, so that one kind of hurt.

   “It’s really nice to come back and compete for the second time and take the win.”

   Jeremy Chen of Taiwan finished strong with a 4-under 68 in Wednesday’s final round to finish in third place, two shots behind Clark with a 10-under 278 total. Chen will join the program at Big Ten power Northwestern next summer.

   Gerardo Gomez of Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla. via Mexico was in the hunt all week and closed with a solid 1-under 71 to finish in fourth place, a shot behind Chen with a 9-under 279 total.

   Asher Whitaker of Wichita, Kan. made the biggest move of Wednesday’s final round, posting a scintillating 8-under 64 to zoom up the leaderboard and finish a shot behind Gomez in fifth place with an 8-under 280 total. Whitaker plans to join the program at Big 12 power Oklahoma in the summer of 2024.

   Lee, the defending champion, finally found his groove in the final round, closing with a 4-under 68 to finish in the group tied for 27^th place with a 9-over 297 total. Lee, who will join the program at the University of California next summer, picked up his Rolex Junior Player of the Year award at the AJGA gala that always precedes the Rolex Tournament of Champions.

   In addition to his successes on the AJGA circuit, Lee reached the semifinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur at Bandon Dunes, losing on the 20^th hole to eventual champion Wenyi Ding of China.

   On the girls side, Meja Ortengren of Sweden and No. 16 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) took most of the drama out of it as she closed with a 4-under 68 over a Canyons Course that played to 6,242 yards for the girls to repeat as the champion with a 15-under 273 total.

   It was a dominating four-shot victory for Ortengren, who had four rounds in the 60s, opening with a 69, adding a 5-under 67 in Monday’s second round and another 69 in Tuesday’s third round before finishing up with her 68 in Wednesday’s final round.

   Ortengren started fast with birdies at the first, third and fourth holes before making a bogey at five. She ripped off three straight birdies at the 10^th, 11^th and 12^th to open the back nine before closing with a bogey at the finishing hole.

   Not sure what’s going on in Irvine, Calif. these days, but Ortengren’s three closest pursuers all come from that Orange County town.

   Alice Ziyi Zhao, a native of China who has made Irvine her home base in the United States, and Irvine home girl Leigh Chien shared second place, each finishing with an 11-under 277 total, four shots behind Ontengren.

   Ziyi Zhao, a Class of 2027 entry – the kid’s an eighth-grader – was in contention the whole way, closing with a 1-under 71.

   Chien, who plans to join the program at Pac-12 power Stanford – at the top of the current Cardinal lineup is another Irvine golfer you might have heard of, Rose Zhang, the No. 1 player in the Women’s WAGR – in the summer of 2024, finished up with the best individual round of the week, a sparkling 6-under 66.

   A third Irvine resident, Elise Lee, who plans to join the program at Big Ten power Northwestern next summer, finished five shots behind Ziyi Zhao and Chien in fourth place with a 6-under 282 total after matching par in the final round with a 72.

   Another talented Class of ’27 youngster who hung around near the top of the leaderboard all week at TPC San Antonio, Asterisk Talley of Chowchilla, Calif., and Siuue Wu of Reunion, Fla. via Hong Kong finished in a tie for fifth place, each landing on 5-under 283.

   Talley finished up with a 2-over 74 while Wu, a Class of ’24 entry, closed with a solid 4-under 68.

   Gianna Clemente of Estero, Fla. and No. 73 in the Women’s WAGR, closed with a 3-under 69 to finish in a tie for seventh place with a 4-under 284 total. Clemente, a runnerup in last summer’s U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky. at age 14, is a native of Warren, Ohio.

   Anna Davis of Spring Valley, Calif. and No. 7 in the Women’s WAGR carded a final round of 2-over 74 and finished alone in ninth place with a 2-under 286 total.

   The bucket-hatted left-hander who was the surprising winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship on one of the biggest stages in golf made a verbal commitment this week to join the program at SEC power Auburn in the summer of 2024. Bypassing college and turning professional right out of high school still appears to be an option Davis is considering.

   Kaitlyn Schroeder of Jacksonville, Fla., honored as the girls Rolex Junior Player of the Year earlier in the week, matched par in the final round with a 72 to finish in the group tied for 14^th place with a 1-over 289 total.

   Schroeder, who won the Girls Junior PGA Championship at Cog Hill and reached the second round of match play in the U.S. Girls’ Junior at The Club at Olde Stone, will join the program at SEC power Alabama next summer.

   Katie Li of Basking Ridge, N.J. matched par in the final round with a 72 to finish among a trio of golfers tied for 22^nd place at 6-over 294.

   Li, who reached the round of 16 in last summer’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash., will join the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke next summer.

   Avery McCrery, a Wilmington, Del. resident and a sophomore at the Tower Hill School, capped a really solid week with her third straight 1-over 73 that left her alone in 25^th place with a 7-over 295 total.

   McCrery, playing out of Wilmington Country Club, won the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior Girls’ Championship in 2020 at Sandy Run Country Club.

   Megan Meng of Pennington, N.J. and a junior at Hopewell Valley was part of a group of five players tied for 31^st place at 10-over 298 after closing with a 4-over 76. Meng, playing out of Jericho National Golf Club, won the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship in 2020 at Lebanon Country Club.

   Also in the group at 298 was Kiera Bartholomew of Wake Forest, N.C. as she finished up with a 1-over 73. Bartholomew, who will join the program at Virginia next summer, began her career as a junior golfer at Indian Valley Country Club in Telford before her family moved to North Carolina.