Kiddie, Carpineta recognized by PGA of America with two of its national awards

   The Philadelphia Section PGA recognizes the best club pros in the region each year, highlighting the efforts of the men and women who do the job of promoting the game at the grass roots.

   They are always there, teaching the game, stocking the pro shop, keeping track of the tee sheets, running the club tournaments, working with junior golfers, the future of the game. Their jobs are far removed from the people playing for millions of dollars on TV each week, but their efforts are essential to the overall health of the game.

   That’s why it was nice to see a couple of Philadelphia Section pros, each of whom has received plenty of recognition in our area, get a little love on the national level.

   Last week at the PGA Show in Orlando, Fla., it was announced that Aronimink head pro Jeff Kiddie was named the PGA Golf Professional of the Year and John Carpineta, an assistant pro at Bensalem Township Country Club, was the winner of the PGA Patriot Award for 2023.

   It is the first time a Philadelphia Section PGA professional has received these national PGA of America awards in the respective categories.

   And it is absolutely a point of pride, not only for Kiddie and Carpineta, but for the Philadelphia Section and all its members.

   “Both Jeff and Johnny have helped grow the game at their facilities, at the Section level and nationally and are truly model PGA professionals,” Geoffrey Surrette, the Philadelphia Section’s executive director, told the Philadelphia Section PGA website. “Our entire Section is proud of what they have accomplished and are thrilled to celebrate with them this year.”

   Kiddie and Carpineta will receive their honors at the PGA of America’s National Awards Ceremony, which is one of the feature events at the PGA Annual Meeting. Not sure when and where that is, but the 106^th PGA Annual Meeting was held in early November last year in Phoenix.

   The PGA Golf Professional of the Year award won by Kiddie is the highest honor the PGA of America gives to one of its members and goes to a professional who exhibits leadership, strong moral character and a substantial record of service to the Association and the game of golf.

   That is Kiddie in a nutshell. He has been a PGA professional for 23 years, the last 15 of them as the head professional at Aronimink, the Donald Ross gem in Newtown Square that has taken on an increasingly high profile on the national scene during Kiddie’s tenure. Before Aronimink, Kiddie spent seven years as the general manager and head pro at Applebrook Golf Club in East Goshen.

   Kiddie has served the Philadelphia Section in numerous roles, including president, vice president, secretary, District director, director of Section affairs and as a member of the PGA of America Rules Committee.

   Kiddie was elected the Philadelphia Section president in 2019 and his two-year term included a year in 2020 when club pros faced unimaginable challenges with the arrival of a novel coronavirus.

   That was also the year that Aronimink was scheduled to host the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June. The event, a major championship on the LPGA Tour, was ultimately rescheduled for October and, unfortunately, played without fans.

   But Aronimink, pandemic protocols and all, pulled it off. Staging a major championship is a huge challenge in the best of circumstances, but the obstacles popped up on a daily basis in 2020 and I’m sure Kiddie was right in the middle of overcoming all those hurdles.

   The PGA of America will be back at Aronimink in 2026, staging its crown jewel, the PGA Championship, one of the four major championships in men’s professional golf.

   The PGA Tour has also visited Aronimink during Kiddie’s tenure for back-to-back playings of the old AT&T Championship and for the next-to-last stop in the FedEx Playoffs, the BMW Championship, in 2018.

   This is not the first time the PGA of America has recognized Kiddie. In 2011, he was the national winner of the Merchandiser of the Year for Private facilities award. That same year, Kiddie was named the Philadelphia Section’s Golf Professional of the Year. Kiddie has been named the Merchandiser of the Year for Private facilities in the Philadelphia Section in 2007 and ’10.

   Kiddie was the winner of the Philadelphia Section’s Bill Strausbaugh Award in 2021 and the Horton Smith Award (renamed since to the PGA Professional Development Award) in 2016.

   A product of Gannon College in Erie, Kiddie has been an instructor for PGA and USGA Rules of Golf workshops.

   Kiddie considers mentoring the young professionals who work under him as his most important role. Since becoming a head pro in 2001, 12 of his assistants have gone on to become head professionals at golf courses across the country.

   Having covered the high school golf scene for the last couple of decades, I can vouch for the fact that somebody is doing something right when it comes to producing talented junior golfers at Aronimink. From Michael Davis, Matt Davis and John Updike at Malvern Prep and Max Siegfried at The Haverford School to current scholastic standouts Hunter Steteson at Episcopal Academy and reigning PIAA Class AA champion Nick Ciocca at Devon Prep, the pipeline of solid youngsters coming out of Aronimink never seems to run dry.

   Don’t think anybody will be questioning the credentials of Carpineta, the PGA Patriot Award winner, an honor that goes to a professional who personifies patriotism through the game of golf and demonstrates unwavering commitment and dedication to the men and women who serve and protect our country with their service.

   The Philadelphia Section could probably just give Carpineta its Patriot Award every year. He’s only won it three times in 2017, ’18 and ’20.

   Carpineta became a PGA member at age 63 and now, at 81, he is the driving force in leading the growth of the PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) program in the Philadelphia region.

   A U.S. Army veteran, Carpineta advocates developing golf programs that can be used as a form of therapy for veterans. Through Carpineta’s efforts, more than 500 veterans have been reached through these programs.

   Carpineta, of course, is a strong supporter of Patriot Golf Day, making it one of the biggest days on the golf calendar at Bensalem Township Country Club.

   Carpineta was the Philadelphia Section’s Golf Professional of the year in 2019 and was the winner of the Section’s Player Development Award in 2015.

   He has been the co-chair of PGA HOPE at Bensalem Township since 2016, a member of the Philadelphia Section’s Player Development committee since 2016 and a member of the Section’s Education Committee since 2011.

   It will mark the second straight year that a Philadelphia Section pro will be honored at the PGA of America’s National Awards Ceremony.

   Last fall, Andy Miller, the head of instruction at LedgeRock Golf Club, received the PGA Youth Player Development Award at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix. Miller’s creative use of social media kept junior golfers busy with drills they could accomplish even while they were homebound in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

   The Philadelphia Section PGA has some of the most talented and dedicated club pros in the country and the recognition guys like Kiddie, Carpineta and Miller are receiving just proves it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harman, 13 years removed from the Walker Cup at Merion, had himself a year in 2022

   If somebody had asked you to guess which member of the victorious United States team, captained by Merion Golf Club member George “Buddy” Marucci, in the 2009 Walker Cup Match at Merion’s historic East Course would have the best season as a pro 13 years down the road in 2022, I’m guessing Brian Harman, the little left-hander from the University of Georgia, might have been pretty far down the list.

   But when the curtain closed on the wraparound 2021-2022 season, there was Harman, who turned 36 last week, with $3,226,839 in earnings in 27 starts on the PGA Tour. He reached the Tour Championship at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club for the first time since 2017 and finished 32^nd on the final money list.

   Harman got off to a pretty fast start for the 2022-’23 season, too, with a pair of runnerup finishes before the calendar turned to 2023. Not sure if the number on his PGA Tour page for Harman’s career earnings count the $2 million-plus he’s already made for this season, but either way, $25,743,670 is a pretty nice chunk of change for a guy who, I’m fairly certain, can walk up and down the aisle of the grocery store without being recognized as the player ranked 23^rd in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR).

   Harman did all of this in the midst of unprecedented upheaval in professional golf as LIV Golf arrived on the scene, luring many PGA Tour professionals to a new worldwide tour financed by what many consider fistfuls of soiled money from the sheiks of Saudi Arabia.

   It’s always been a fun little exercise to watch the progress of the 10 guys who represented the United States at Merion, an event I got a chance to cover in a past life as a sports writer at the Delaware County Daily Times. The U.S. claimed a convincing 16.5-9.5 victory over Great Britain & Ireland.

   The end of January has been a pretty quiet time for the stuff I pursue to fill up my golf blog and It’s been really interesting to watch the twists and turns in the careers of all these guys.

   And in searching around to see how some of the members of that U.S. team have fared in the last year, I discovered that a couple of them left the PGA Tour behind for LIV Golf. Can’t say I really had heard about the defections of Peter Uihlein and Cameron Tringale, but both were at a bit of a crossroads in their professional careers and I guess the price was right.

   Not totally shocked that Uihlein took the money from the Saudis. If you had asked me the day after that Walker Cup was completed which player on that Rickie Fowler-led U.S. team had the most potential, I would have said Uihlein.

   A teammate of Fowler’s on a really talented Oklahoma State team, Uihlein would go on to win the U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay in 2010. It looked like his professional career was prepared for takeoff.

   Never really happened, though. Not that Uihlein was terrible. He took the unusual step of playing a couple of years on the European Tour and was named the winner of the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award in 2013.

   Uihlein got a couple of PGA Tour starts with sponsor’s exemptions and eventually earned enough status to get into the Web.com Tour Finals. A victory in the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship on The Ohio State University’s Scarlet Course in 2017 punched his ticket to the PGA Tour.

   Uihlein had his moments in his rookie season in 2017-’18, making the FedEx Cup Playoffs. But by 2021 Uihlein was back on the Korn Ferry Tour. A victory in the MGM Resorts Championship at Paiute near Las Vegas in April of 2021 would prove to be his ticket back to the PGA Tour.

   But Uihlein made just seven cuts in 15 events in the early going of the 2021-’22 season. He had earned just $142,276 for the season when LIV Golf came calling and Uihlein pulled the plug on his PGA Tour career last May.

   Uihlein was never the prototypical struggling PGA Tour pro. His father is Wally Uihlein, president and CEO of the Acushnet Company, you know, Titleist. He’ll always land on his feet.

   Tringale, a product of the powerful Georgia Tech program, played out the 2021-’22 season, reaching the BMW Championship at Wilmington Country Club’s South Course in August, but not advancing to the Tour Championship.

   It was a typically solid campaign for the 35-year-old Tringale as he earned just more than $3 million, making 20 cuts in 29 starts with five top-10 finishes. It didn’t include any wins, but that was also typical for Tringale as, with $17.4 million career earnings, he had become the player who had won more money without a win in the history of the PGA Tour.

   Not exactly what you want to be known for, but not the worst thing in the world either. Regardless, Tringale was off for LIV Golf, which released its 14-event schedule for 2023 this week.

   LIV Golf had sued the PGA Tour for suspending all the players that fled its tour for the fledgling league, although this week, the PGA Tour countersued. Sounds like the PGA Tour would like to legally establish what is already a fairly open secret, that LIV Golf is being financed by the families that run Saudi Arabia.

   I guess that’s an issue for a lot of high-priced lawyers to sort out.

   In the short term, it seems like guys like Uihlein and Tringale both accepted a big pile of money, probably not as a big a pile of money as it took to lure guys like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, to basically retire from competitive golf at a fairly young age.

   Maybe LIV Golf will become a third worldwide tour, as competitive as the PGA Tour and the European Tour, rebranded as the DP World Tour. Right now, though, it would seem unlikely Uihlein or Tringale would be welcome to tee it up in a PGA Tour event anytime soon.

   It’s easy to forget that none of the four major championships, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the Open Championship or the PGA Championship, is run by the PGA Tour. And, unlike the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour will still allow LIV Golf players to tee it up in its events, but I have no idea if exiles from the PGA Tour can just show up at a DP World Tour event and get in the field.

   Meanwhile, Harman is continuing on his merry way on the PGA Tour. He made 21 cuts in 27 starts and had six top-10 finishes during the 2021-’22 season. His tie for sixth place in the Open Championship at the Old Course at St. Andrews last summer was his second top 10 in a major championship to go with his tie for second behind Koepka in the U.S. Open at Erin Hills in 2017.

   Harman finished in a tie for third place in the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first step on the FedEx Cup Playoffs at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tenn., and ended up in a tie for 35^th place in the BMW Championship at Wilmington, although his strong showing in Memphis propelled him to the Tour Championship.

   When the PGA Tour resumed in the fall, Harman kept right on going. He was the runnerup in the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba in Mexico. Then, in a home game for the Sea Island, Ga. resident, he got a share of second place in The RSM Classic at the Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course.

   Harman failed to survive the 54-hole cut in The American Express last weekend in the Southern California desert, but he is playing some of the best golf of his career right now.

   Fowler, who turned 34 in December, and his revamped swing were very much in evidence at The American Express – it will always be the Bob Hope Desert Classic in my mind. Fowler finished in a tie for 54^th place in The American Express at 13-under par, but there have been signs that Fowler, who hasn’t won since capturing the Waste Management Phoenix Open in 2019, is finding his groove again.

   Fowler is clearly the most successful of the members of that U.S. team that won retained the Walker Cup in 2009 at Merion. He has five PGA Tour victories and career earnings of more than $42 million. He has 12 top-10 finishes in major championships, quite memorably finishing no worse than fifth while contending in all four majors in 2014.

   But he is coming off a forgettable 2022, during which he wasn’t even in the field for three of the majors. Fowler made 13 cuts in 22 events, earning just more than $1 million and failing to make the FedEx Playoffs. There have been rumblings that LIV Golf has been trying to get him to join, but he has resisted their offers.

   He and his wife, Allison Stokke, good enough of a pole vaulter to have competed in the Olympic Trials in 2012, became parents for the first time late in 2021, so Fowler can be forgiven for paying more attention to his newborn daughter than his golf game in 2022.

   Fowler, though, is off to a good start in the wraparound 2022-’23 season with four made cuts in five starts and two top-10 finishes. He was the runnerup in the Zozo Championship in October in Japan after having at least a share of the lead following the second and third rounds. He has already won more money this season than he did in 2021-’22.

   If you had told me in 2009 that in 2023 I’d still be rooting for a major champion to emerge from that U.S. team at Merion, I would have been surprised. Do I think now, as I did then, that Fowler was the most likely member of that team to be crowned a major champion? I do, yes I do.

   The third Oklahoma State Cowboy on that 2009 U.S. Walker Cup team was Morgan Hoffmann, who was in the midst of a solid career on the PGA Tour when he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy.

   Not long after I put together my annual update on the 2009 U.S. Walker Cup team a year ago, Hoffmann was the subject of a fascinating story authored by Dan Rappaport in Golf Digest, as good a piece as I read about golf, or anything else for that matter, in 2022.

   Rappaport visited Hoffmann in a faraway corner of Costa Rica, where he was taking a holistic approach to try to overcome a disease that has no cure. If you Google Hoffman, you can find the story. I can’t really do it justice in this post.

   Hoffmann was working toward a return to the PGA Tour and he did just that. He didn’t make enough money while using a medical exemption to retain his playing privileges. While making the cut at the Travelers Championship and again at the John Deere Classic might not seem like a big deal for most players, they were tremendous testaments to Hoffmann’s indomitable spirit.

   Another talented guy from that U.S. Walker Cup team, Bud Cauley, has never quite recovered from the injuries he suffered in a car accident he was involved in after he missed the cut at the Memorial Tournament in 2018.

   Late in 2021 it sounded like Cauley was planning to make a comeback, but I couldn’t find any mention of him playing in 2022. Too soon, though, to say that the final chapter of Cauley’s golf career has been written.

   The Walker Cup experience for western Pennsylvania amateur standout Nathan Smith will come full circle when he captains the U.S. team in 2025 at Cypress Point, the classic layout on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula.

   The 44-year-old Smith had won the first of his four U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship titles in 2003 when the USGA selected him to be part of the U.S. team at Merion in 2009. He would play in two more Walker Cups for the U.S.

   Smith, the 1994 PIAA champion as a sophomore at Brookville, just missed making the match-play bracket in last summer’s Pennsylvania Golf Association R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship, an event he’s won six times. Smith teamed with Todd White to win the title in the inaugural U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in 2015 at The Olympic Club’s Lake Course. Guy’s got this match-play thing down.

   The USGA had taken to making captainships for the Walker Cup and the Curtis Cup last for two cycles. Marucci had been the captain for the U.S. in a Walker Cup win in 2007 at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland – bunch of major champions came out of that group on both sides, Dustin Johnson and Webb Simpson from the U.S. and that McIlroy fella and Danny Willett from GB&I.

   Nathaniel Crosby was the winning U.S. captain on either side of the coronavirus pandemic in 2019 at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England and again on his home course, the iconic Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., in the unusual spring Walker Cup edition in 2021.

   But the USGA has split up its captains for the next two playings of the Walker Cup with Mike McCoy, winner of the U.S. Mid-Am in 2013 at age 50 and a member of the U.S. Walker Cup team in 2015 at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in England, getting the plum assignment for this year’s edition at the Old Course at St. Andrews.

   I imagine Smith will get a free trip to the home of golf out of it this summer and Cypress Point figures to be quite a memorable setting to be a U.S. Walker Cup captain.

   Drew Weaver was a standout on the Virginia Tech golf team and was on the campus in Blacksburg that fateful day in the spring of 2007 when a man slaughtered 32 people in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. A few weeks later, Weaver became the first American since Jay Sigel did it in 1979 to win The Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

   That victory had a lot to do with him getting a berth on the U.S. team for the 2009 Walker Cup Match at Merion. Weaver kept banging away, mostly on the Korn Ferry Tour, but never was quite able to make it to the big leagues of pro golf. It looks like he might have moved on in 2022.

   Harman’s fellow Georgia Bulldog, Adam Mitchell, and former Wake Forest standout Brendan Gielow rounded out the U.S. roster for that Walker Cup at Merion. They never quite made it to the PGA Tour either, but they share a bond with all of their U.S. teammates that lasts a lifetime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaur makes eagle at the last to claim dramatic one-shot victory in Annika Invitational

   If you wanted a peek at the immediate future of the junior girls scene for 2023 or for the future of the women’s college golf scene for years to come, it was all right there at this week’s Hilton Grand Vacations Annika Invitational, presented by Rolex, the first big American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) event of the year for girls, which wrapped up Tuesday at Eagle Trace Golf Club in Orlando, Fla.

   And you got a pretty dramatic finish, too, at the event hosted Annika Sorenstam, one of the greatest players in the history of women’s golf, so synonymous with the women’s game that her first name suffices for the name of the tournament.

   Ashleen Kaur of Cypress, Texas, who will join the Baylor program at the end of his summer, reached the putting surface at the par-5 finishing hole at Eagle Trace and promptly rolled in a 40-foot putt for eagle that gave her a stunning one-shot victory, her second career AJGA win and her first in an AJGA invitational.

   Katie Li of Basking Ridge, N.J., who has been playing some really solid golf dating back to the last big AJGA event of 2022, the Rolex Tournament of Champions in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, had a one-shot lead over Kaur and Alice Ziyi Zhao, the 13-year-old phenom from China, going to the 18^th hole at the 6,531-yard, par-73 Eagle Trace layout.

   But Kaur’s clutch eagle putt enabled her to finish with a 4-under-par 69 that gave her a 15-under 204 total that smashed the tournament record by three shots. These kids are good and getting better all the time.

   Kaur had carded a 4-under 69 in Sunday’s opening round, but really made her move in Monday’s second round, posting a sizzling 7-under 66.

   After birdies at the sixth and ninth holes in the second round, Kaur made an eagle at the par-5 13^th before adding birdies at 15, 17 and 18 on her way to the clubhouse as she creeped within a shot of Zhao, who had put together a 66 of her own in the second round after opening with a 68, heading into Tuesday’s final round.

   Kaur got off to a good start in the final round with birdies at the second, sixth and 10^th holes before a bogey at 12 slowed her roll. Kaur made a birdie at the 14^th hole before a bogey at 17 left her a shot behind Li and set the stage for her dramatic finish.

   “It means a lot to compete in this event hosted by Annika,” Kaur told the AJGA website. “She was a huge inspiration to me growing up, so getting to compete here and win it is incredible.”

   Li, who will join the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke at the end of the summer, has been playing a lot of golf at a time of year when a lot of players put the sticks away.

   After finishing in a tie for 22^nd place in the Rolex Tournament of Champions in November at TPC San Antonio in Texas, she lost in a playoff to Emma Schimpf in the Women’s Dixie Amateur at the Palm Aire Country Club in Sarasota, Fla. in December and ended up in a tie for 12^th place in The Sally at Oceanside Country Club in Ormond Beach, Fla. earlier this month.

   Li was two shots behind Zhao going into the final round at Eagle Trace after adding a bogey-free 6-under 67 in the second round to her opening-round 69. Li settled for par on the finishing hole for another 4-under 69 that left her a shot behind Kaur with a 14-under 205 total.

   Li has very quietly been of the best players in junior golf for the last few years. And she’s been at her best on some big stages, making a couple of nice runs in the last two U.S. Girls’ Junior Championships and reaching the round of 16 in last summer’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash.

   It was at Chambers Bay where Zhao, whose base of operation in the U.S. is Irvine, Calif., made her presence known as the 13-year-old earned a share of medalist honors in qualifying for match play with a remarkable 10-under 136 total.

   Like Li, Zhao has been busy as 2022 gave way to 2023. She got a share of second place in the Rolex Tournament of Champions at TPC San Antonio and finished a shot behind Li in a tie for third place in the Dixie Women’s Amateur at Palm Aire.

   A birdie at the finishing hole at Eagle Trace gave Zhao a final round of 2-under 71 as she finished in a tie for second place with Li at 14-under 205.

   Canadian Vanessa Borovilos, who will join the program at Texas A&M in the summer of 2024, was in the hunt the whole week before a final round of 2-under 71 left here alone in fourth place, three shots behind Li and Zhao with an 11-under 208.

   Another Canadian, Lauren Kim, who will join the program at Texas at the end of this summer, had a strong finish with a final round of 6-under 67 as she ended up a shot behind Boroviolos in fifth place with a 10-under 209 total.

   Kim teed it up in last spring’s U.S. Women’s Open at the Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C.

   Kiara Romero of San Jose, Calif., a prized Class of 2023 recruit for the program at Pac-12 power Oregon, headed a strong trio tied for sixth place at 9-under 210. After matching par with a 73 in the opening round, Romero recorded a solid 6-under 67 in Monday’s second round before closing with a 3-under 70.

   Romero had a big summer in 2022, reaching the round of 16 in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky. before falling to eventual runnerup Gianna Clemente. Along the way Romero knocked off Japan’s Saki Baba, a victory Baba flattered a few weeks later by marching to the U.S. Women’s Amateur crown at Chambers Bay.

   Romero also finished in third place in the Girls Junior PGA Championship at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in suburban Chicago.

   The best round of the week, a sizzling 8-under 65, was turned in in the final round by Rianne Malixi of the Philippines as she made a big move up the leaderboard to get a share of sixth place at 210.

   Malixi, a Class of ’25 competitor based in San Bernardino, Calif. in the States, was the runnerup in last summer’s Girls Junior PGA Championship at Cog Hill. She was coming off a runnerup finish in last month’s Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational at Sun ’N Lake Golf Course in Sebring, Fla., the successor to the old Harder Hall.

   Rounding out the trio at 9-under was Japan’s Nika Ito, a Class of ’24 entry who also finished strong, carding a 6-under 67 in the final round. Ito was another young amateur player who earned herself a starting time in the U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles last spring.

   Anna Davis, the winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur last spring, registered her second straight 3-under 70 in the final round to get a share of 14^th place with a 5-under 214 total. Davis has risen to No. 7 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

   The Spring Valley, Calif. left-hander, who recently announced her intention to join the program at Southeastern Conference power Auburn in the summer of 2024, was coming off victory in the Junior Orange Bowl International Championship earlier this month at the Donald Ross classic at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Springs, Fla.

   A year ago, the Annika Invitational proved to be a preview of things to come in 2022 as Yana Wilson of Henderson, Nev. holed out from 75 yards out for an eagle to beat Davis in a playoff for the title. Davis would go on to win at Augusta and Wilson captured the U.S. Girls’ Junior crown at Olde Stone in July.

   Gianna Clemente of Estero, Fla. and No. 58 in the Women’s WAGR finished in a group tied for 22^nd place with a 3-under 216 total. Clemente, the 14-year-old who lost to Wilson in the U.S. Girls’ Junior final at Olde Stone, opened with a 2-under 71 and added a 1-under 72 in Monday’s second round before matching par with a 73 in the final round.

   Clemente, a native of Warren, Ohio, was coming off a nice win in The Sally, a stop on the unofficial Orange Blossom Tour at Oceanside that oozes history and tradition.

   Also in the group at 3-under was Megan Meng, a Jersey girl from Pennington who closed with a 2-under 71. Meng a junior at Hopewell Valley Central High plans to join the program at Big Ten power Northwestern in the summer of 2024.

   Meng was coming off a tie for sixth place in the Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational at Sun ’N Lake in Sebring.

   Wilson, the defending champion and No. 83 in the Women’s WAGR, closed with a 1-under 72 to finish in a tie for 30^th place with a 1-under 218 total. Wilson is a junior at Coronado High.

   Tower Hill junior Avery McCrery finished with her best round of the tournament, a 2-under 71, to end up in a tie for 35^th place with a 1-over 220 total. After opening with a 1-under 72, McCrery struggled a little in Monday’s second round with a 77.

   McCrery was coming off a really solid third-place finish in The Sally at Oceanside.

   Kiera Bartholomew of Wake Forest, N.C., who will join the program at Virginia at the end of this summer, finished alone in 58^th place with an 8-over 227 total as she registered a pair of 77s in the last two rounds after matching par with a 73 in the opening round. Bartholomew began her junior career playing out of Indian Valley Country Club.

   Sussex Academy sophomore Sawyer Brockstedt finished in 68^th place with a 230 total. Brockstedt had a pair of 3-over 76s in the first two rounds before closing with a 78.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stasi, a South Jersey legend, will captain the U.S. team in 2024 Curtis Cup Match

   It was only fitting that the news that Meghan Stasi would be the captain of the next U.S. Curtis Cup team would drop on the eve of the 90^th Ione D. Jones/Doherty Women’s Amateur Championship at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

   It was at the Jones/Doherty where the then Meghan Bolger caught the eye of Coral Ridge member Danny Stasi, owner/chef of Shuck n Dive, a popular Fort Lauderdale restaurant that featured Chef Staz’s cajun specialties.

   And it was at the Curtis Cup Match in 2008 at the Old Course at St. Andrews when Stasi popped the question on the Swilcan Bridge. Timing, of course, is everything, but give Danny Stasi credit for being prepared for the moment.

   Meghan Bolger, soon to be Meghan Stasi, had won two U.S. Women’s Amateur Championships, which earned the then 30-year the nod to be on the U.S. Curtis Cup team that included future major champion Stacy Lewis and that was captained by the great Carol Semple Thompson, the World Golf Hall of Famer from western Pennsylvania.

   As Megahn Stasi, she would win two more U.S. Women Mid-Am titles, her total of four matched only by Ellen Port.

   As John Bodenheimer, the USGA’s chief championship officer, said in making the announcement that Stasi would captain the U.S. team in the 43^rd Curtis Cup Match at Sunningdale Golf Club in England, it was just a matter of when not if Stasi would get a chance to lead the U.S. in one of the premier events in international women’s amateur golf.

   Stasi was, as you would expect, thrilled to accept her appointment as captain.

   “My experience in 2008 with the Curtis Cup was incredibly meaningful and rewarding,” Stasi told the USGA website. “Being asked to fill the role of captain is humbling. I’ve had the opportunity to attend the Match the last two years in Wales and at Merion and the level of talent and poise these amateur golfers have is inspiring and infectious to be around.

   “I can’t wait to begin this journey and most of all, be part of the USA Team again.”

   For the women who competed in the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Match Play Championship at the turn of the century, none of this is surprising.

   Meghan Bolger, playing out of Tavistock Country Club, won the thing seven years in a row, from 1999 to 2005. Anybody who has followed women’s amateur golf in the Philadelphia area over the years – and those women have never seemed to care a whole lot if anybody is paying attention to them or not – knows that winning WGAP’s biggest championship is no easy feat. And to do it seven straight years is almost impossible.

   The Eastern High product had gone away to play college golf at Tulane and then, at age 23 in July of 2001, Stasi became the youngest coach in Division I women’s college golf at Mississippi. Still, Stasi would come home every summer and capture the Philadelphia Women’s Amateur crown right on schedule.

   Then in 2006, Stasi won the first of her four U.S. Women’s Mid-Am crowns at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss. By the spring of 2007, Stasi was thinking more about playing than coaching and her career as a college coach came to an end.

   She made it two straight U.S. Women’s Mid-Am titles that year, capturing the title at Desert Forest Golf Club in Carefree, Ariz.

   It’s pretty easy to connect the dots between the woman who won seven straight Philadelphia Women’s Amateur crowns from 1999 to 2005 and the woman who won back-to-back U.S. Women’s Mid-Am crowns in 2006 and ’07. Stasi had become pretty good at this match-play thing during those years of competing against the best women in the Philadelphia area and, as it turned out, the step to a national stage wasn’t all that different.

   Stasi would win two more U.S. Women’s Mid-Am crowns following her 2008 Curtis Cup experience, claiming the title for a third time in 2010 at Wichita Country Club and for a fourth time in 2012 at Briggs Ranch Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas. But even in her 40s, Stasi remains competitive in the Mid-Am, reaching the quarterfinals last summer at Fiddlesticks Country Club’s Long Mean Course in Fort Myers, Fla.

   And while Stasi has become a fixture in the amateur golf scene in Florida, she hasn’t forgotten her roots.

   WGAP held its Match Play Championship at Tavistock last summer and Stasi came home to tee it up at the golf course that sent her on her golfing way. Stasi won the title for a ninth time and nobody was laying down for Haddonfield’s favorite daughter. If you haven’t been paying attention, it’s not easy to win a Philadelphia Women’s Amateur crown. It’s why Stasi is such a great player.

   Which brings us back to last Monday, qualifying for match play at Coral Ridge for the Jones/Doherty, an event on the unofficial Orange Blossom Tour of women’s amateur events in Florida each winter that Stasi has won twice in 2012 and again in 2018.

   Stasi carded a 6-over 78, finishing in a tie for 10^th place in qualifying and then fell in the opening round of match play Tuesday, 2 and 1, to Ashley Zagers, who wrapped up a solid college career at South Florida last spring. Stasi could be forgiven for being a little distracted.

   Stasi did have a rooting interest in Friday’s final of the Amateur division of the Jones/Doherty as Ina Kim-Schaad, with whom Stasi has partnered to capture the title in the Women’s International Four Ball Championship at The Wanderers Club in Wellington, Fla. three of the last four years, played for the title against Morgan Miller, a freshman at Colorado from Cedar Park, Texas.

   Kim-Schaad is a pretty interesting story in her own right. A standout at Northwestern, Kim-Schaad put the sticks away, at least competitively, for a decade while working in corporate board rooms. A couple of years after her husband coaxed her back on the golf course, Kim-Schaad won the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am in 2019 at Forest Highlands Golf Club in Flagstaff, Ariz., beating Stasi in the semifinals.

   I don’t have a whole lot of details from the Jones/Doherty, but I do have all the names and results.

   Kim-Schaad came up short in Friday’s final as Miller captured the title with a 2 and 1 victory.

   Miller had reached the final with a 3 and 2 victory over Zagers, the conqueror of Stasi in the opening round, in one of Thursday’s semifinals.

   Kim-Schaad, who reached the round of 16 in last summer’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Fiddlesticks, advanced to the final with a 3 and 2 victory over the latest in a long line of Florida phenoms, Honorine Nobuta Ferry, in the other semifinal.

   Nobuta Ferry, one of two 12-year-olds in the field for last summer’s U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky., was the qualifying medalist for the Jones/Doherty, carding a 2-under 70.

   Miller cruised to a 5 and 4 victory over Lea Zeitler, a senior at Iowa from Austria, in her quarterfinal match Wednesday while Kim-Schaad also knocked off a current college player, Canice Screene, a Boston College junior from England, 4 and 3, in her quarterfinal match.

   Miller’s road to the title began in the opening round with a 5 and 4 victory over Noelle Maertz, a talented mid-am from Clark, N.J.

   In an opening-round battle between a pair of Stasi’s favorite four-ball partners, Kim-Schaad edged Dawn Woodard, 1-up.

   Woodard of Greenville, S.C. and Stasi are the only pair to have teed it up in each of the first seven editions of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship and they will run that streak to eight, having already booked a spot in this spring’s Four-Ball at The Home Course in DuPont, Wash.

   Screene knocked off defending Jones/Doherty champion Brooke Oberparleiter, who splits her time between Jupiter, Fla. and Blackwood, N.J., 4 and 3. Oberparleiter, who has been a solid junior player, will join the program at Kentucky at the end of the summer.

   Samantha Perrotta, playing out of Centerton Golf Course in Pittsgrove, N.J., was another first-round casualty as she dropped a 1-up decision to Staci Pla, a youngster representing The First Tee of Palm Beaches.

   Perrotta reached the final of the WGAP Match Play Championship three straight times from 2019 to 2021, claiming the title in 2020.

   In Thursday’s First Flight final, Ava La Belle of Webster, N.Y., captured the title with a 6 and 5 victory over Reggie Parker of Hobe Sound, Fla.

   Merion Golf Club’s Liz Haines, although certainly eligible to compete in the Senior division at 70-something, teed it up qualifying for match play in the Amateur division and finished in 21^st place with a 90. She fell to Parker in the First Flight’s opening round.

   There wasn’t much of a break between The Sally, another Orange Blossom Tour event that concluded Jan. 7 at Oceanside Country Club up the coast in Ormond Beach, Fla, but Haines played four rounds in the Rockefeller division there and hustled down to Coral Ridge and played a couple of rounds in the Jones/Doherty. Six rounds of competitive golf in seven days by my count.

   Friday’s Senior division final was a battle that went beyond the 18^th hole as Shelly Haywood, the former head coach at Arizona, outlasted 2017 U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur champion Judith Kyrinis on the 20^th hole to capture the title.

   Haywood earned a spot in the title match with a hard-fought 2-up victory in Thursday afternoon’s semifinals over Gigi Higgins while Kyrinis earned a 2 and 1 victory over Kathy Hartwiger in the other semifinal.

   Higgins and Hartwiger both reached the quarterfinals of the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at The Lakewood Club in Port Clear, Ala. Higgins was the co-medalist in qualifying for match at Lakewood. Hartwiger is a legendary amateur player in Alabama.

   Earlier Thursday, Haywood knocked off three-time Jones/Doherty Senior champion Andrea Kraus, 3 and 2, in a quarterfinal match while Kyrinis got past a tough customer in 2002 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion Corey Weworski, 4 and 3, in another quarterfinal contest.

   In Wednesday’s second round, Haywood pulled out a 2 and 1 decision over 2015 WGAP Match Play Championship winner Suzi Spotleson, who, I’m pretty sure, lives and works in Ohio, but keeps an affiliation with the RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve that enables her to compete in WGAP events.

   Regardless, Spotleson can play. She fell to Merion’s Loraine Jones in the final as the WGAP included a Senior division for the first time in its Match Play Championship last summer at Tavistock.

   Kyrinis advanced to the quarterfinals with a 3 and 1 victory over Susie Keane, a professional tennis player who took up golf in her 40s after injuries derailed her tennis career.

   Haywood opened her bid for the Senior division title with a tough 1-up victory over another former tennis standout, Susan West, another Alabama resident, in the opening round.

   Kyrinis cruised to a 6 and 5 victory in the opening round over Beatriz Arenas, the native of Guatemala who was coming off a win in the Rockefeller division at The Sally.

   Terrill Samuel had claimed medalist honors in qualifying for match play as she matched par with a 72. Samuel was the runnerup to Kyrinis in the all-Canadian final in the 2017 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at Waverley Country Club in Portland, Ore. Samuel won the Royal & Ancient’s Senior Women’s Amateur Championship last summer at Royal Dornoch.

   Samuel fell to Kraus in the second round, dropping a 1-up decision.

   Another second-round casualty in the Senior division was Sarah LeBrun Ingram, Stasi’s predecessor as the U.S. Curtis Cup captain who capped her unusual two terms with a 15.5-4.5 victory for the homestanding Stars & Stripes last summer at Merion’s historic East Course.

   The onset of the coronavirus pandemic threw a monkey wrench into the Curtis Cup schedule with the 2020 Match postponed until August of 2021 at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales. As a result, Ingram led the U.S. to a pair of Curtis Cup victories in a nine-month stretch.

   Ingram fell to Higgins, 5 and 4, in a second-round match in the Jones/Doherty Senior division. I’m sure Ingram, a three-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champ herself, will be an invaluable resource for Stasi as she embarks on her captaincy of the U.S. side.

   The Senior First Flight title went to Marilyn Hardy, the runnerup in the Jones/Doherty Amateur division in 1989 and in the Senior division in 2014 who claimed a 3 and 2 decision over Susan Temple in Friday’s final.

   One of the matches of the week came in Thursday’s Senior Second Flight final as Denise Callahan claimed the title in a 22-hole marathon with Carolyn Creekmore.

   Callahan was coming off a runnerup finish to Arenas in The Sally’s Rockefeller division last weekend at Oceanside. Creekmore defeated Merion’s Haines in the 2004 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur final at Pasatiempo Golf Course in Santa Cruz, Calif. and also owns a Jones/Doherty Senior division crown that she won in 2009.

   Hopefully, women’s golf fans in the Philadelphia area will get to see Stasi and the always fashionable Kim-Schaad in action, in September when the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship is played at Stonewall’s North Course in the northwest corner of Chester County.

   As I checked out the results from the Jones/Doherty last week, they used the old-fashioned let’s-take-a-picture-of-the-scoreboard maneuver to update the tournament.

   In the corner was a little note that said. “Congratulations … Meghan Stasi 2024 Curtis Cup captain.” It was a message worth celebrating at Coral Ridge, at Tavistock, at Tulane and at Old Miss.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clemente's star keeps rising as she captures title in The Sally, McCrery finishes third

   Gianna Clemente, the transplanted Ohioan who resides in Estero, Fla., has been coming to the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur Championship, the venerable stop on the unofficial Orange Blossom Tour known better simply as The Sally, for years.

   Which makes it easy to forget she’s still only 14. Clemente has been a star in the making ever since she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss. as an 11-year-old in 2019.

   You really want to make an impression, though, you’ve got to get yourself on TV. So, when Clemente showed up The Golf Channel in a determined bid in the final of the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky. last summer that ultimately came up a little short, the golf world really took notice.

   Which was quickly followed by: She’s how old? Yeah, still just 14.

   And Clemente was still just 14 when she held off a typically strong field at The Sally, an event that dates to 1926, to capture the title by a shot with an even-par 288 total over Oceanside Country Club layout in Ormond Beach, Fla. that has hosted The Sally for each of its 97 editions. The 72-hole stroke-play event wrapped up Saturday.

   Not sure if Clemente is going to high school in Florida, but if she was, she’d be a freshman. She is a Class of 2026 kid and is No. 72 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

   When the scheduled 36-hole U.S. Girls' Junior final against Yana Wilson of Henderson, Nev. was slipping away in the 100-degree heat and humidity in Kentucky last summer, Clemente retained a poise and focus that belied her youth. She took the match to the 35^th hole before falling 3 and 1.

   Clemente has plenty of time before she decides whether she wants to go to college or turn professional in a few years. She made three straight appearances on the LPGA Tour last summer via Monday qualifiers, so there’s that. In the meantime, she can continue playing the kind of tremendous golf she displayed at Oceanside last week.

   Clemente took control of the championship with a stunning burst of six birdies in an eight-hole stretch of Friday’s third round. It enabled her to fire a 3-under 69 and gave her a two-shot advantage over the field heading into Saturday’s final round.

   Clemente stumbled a little on the way to the clubhouse in Saturday’s final round, but, poised as always, put together a 3-over 75 that enabled her to hold off a hard-charging Morgan Ketchum, a freshman at Virginia Tech, by a shot.

   After opening with a 1-over 73 in Wednesday’s opening round, Clemente, a native of Warren, Ohio, carded a solid 1-under 71 in Thursday’s second round.

   Clemente started quietly enough in the third round with a bogey at the first hole. And then she went off. Clemente ripped off four straight birdies at the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh holes and added birdies at nine and 11 to get it to 5-under for the round. She cooled off with bogeys at the 13^th and 17^th holes. There weren’t many sub-70 rounds at Oceanside, but her 69 was one of them.

   Clemente started slowly in the final round with bogeys at the second and third holes, but righted the ship a little with a birdie at seven. She made a bogey at the 10^th hole, had a birdie at 12 and made bogeys at 13 and 17.

   Ketchum, who was a scholastic standout at North Carolina powerhouse Reagan High School in Pfafftown before joining the Hokies, made four birdies on the back nine in the final round as she closed with a 1-under 71 to finish a shot behind Clemente with a 1-over 289 total.

   Have to admit I was a little surprised by the third-place finish by Tower Hill sophomore Avery McCrery, who finished up with a 2-under 70 that left her two shots behind Ketchum with a 3-over 291 total.

   McCrery has been steadily improving and finished in 25^th place in the Rolex Tournament of Champions, the marquee event on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) schedule, Thanksgiving week at TPC San Antonio in Texas.

   And maybe I shouldn’t be surprised with the steady parade of talented girls who keep emerging from the First State in recent years. McCrery, who, I’m pretty sure, plays out of Wilmington Country Club, took a big step forward with her showing at Oceanside.

   After adding a 4-over 76 in the second round to her opening round of 2-over 74, McCrery made her move with a solid 1-under 71 in Friday’s third round.

   After a birdie at the fourth hole, McCrery made a bogey at nine. But she got it into red figures for the round again with birdies at the 15^th and 17^th holes before making a bogey at the closing hole.

   McCrery made back-to-back birdies at the fifth and sixth holes to get on a roll in Saturday’s final round before bogeys at seven and 10 dropped her back to even for the round. But she finished strong with birdies at the 12^th and 18^th holes to grab third place, finishing ahead of a ton of talented players.

   Mia Hammond of New Albany, Ohio was another Class of ’26 player who made some noise at Oceanside. Hammond, winner of the Girls 14-15 division in last spring’s Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club, closed with the best round of the week, a sparkling 5-under 67, to get a share of fourth place with Arizona freshman Julia Misemer, each landing on 4-over 292.

   Misemer of Overland Park, Kan. carded back-to-back 1-under 71s in the middle two rounds after opening with a 2-over 74 and only trailed Clemente by three shots heading into the final round, but struggled a little in the final round with a 4-over 76 to end up in the tie for fourth place.

   Another talented player who calls New Albany, Ohio home, Ohio State freshman Kary Hollenbaugh, finished in a tie for sixth place with Molly Smith, a Central Florida recruit from Westfield, Mass.

   Hollenbaugh, who worked her way into the head coach Lisa Strom’s starting lineup as a freshman with the Buckeyes in the fall, opened with a solid 1-under 71 and was solid the rest of the way, adding a 3-over 75 in the second round and a 73 in Friday’s third round before closing with a 74.

   Smith, who will join the UCF program at the end of this summer, surged into contention with a sparkling 3-under 69 in Friday’s third round before finishing up with a 4-over 76.

   Smith was coming off a solid fifth-place finish in the Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational at the Sun ’N Lake Golf Club’s Deer Run Course in Sebring, Fla. in another Orange Blossom Tour event the week before the calendar flipped to 2023.

   I’ll have more on the Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational, which has replaced the old Harder Hall Invitational on the Orange Blossom Tour circuit, later in this post. Gathering intel from the Citrus Trail Invitational was a bit of a challenge, but I’ll give you what I was able to pick up.

   Ryleigh Knaub, another talented Florida youngster from DeBary, closed with her best round of the tournament, a 1-over 73, to finish alone in ninth place with a 6-over 294 total. Knaub, a Class of ’25 competitor, is a sophomore on the Lake Mary Prep team.

   Kaitlyn Schroeder, AJGA’s 2022 Rolex Junior Player of the Year from Jacksonville, Fla., bounced back from a tough start to get a share of 10^th place with Kate Owens, a fifth-year senior at James Madison from Suwanee, Ga., each ending up with a 7-over 295 total.

   Schroeder, an impressive winner of the Girls Junior PGA Championship last summer at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in suburban Chicago, will join the program at Southeastern Conference power Alabama at the end of this summer.

   After opening with an 80, Schroeder ripped off back-to-back 1-under 71s in the middle two rounds before closing with a 2-over 73. Schroeder had shared fourth place with Clemente in The Sally a year ago.

   Owens was Clemente’s closest pursuer through three rounds as she posted a sparkling 4-under 68 in the second round after opening with a 1-over 73 and added a 2-over 74 in Friday’s third round that left her at 1-under entering Saturday’s final round. Owens struggled with an 80 in the final round, but still got a share of 10^th place with Schroeder.

   Katie Li, the Basking Ridge, N.J. resident who is headed for Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke at the end of the summer, struggled a little in the final round with a 77 to finish among the group tied for 12^th place with a 9-over 297 total. Li sandwiched a 2-over 74 in the second round with a pair of 73s in the first three rounds.

   Li made a run to the round of 16 in last summer’s U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash.

   It was a solid showing for Penn State’s Isha Dhruva, a senior from Katy, Texas who finished in the group tied for 15^th place with a 299 total. After opening with a 4-over 76, Dhruva matched par in the second round with a 72 and added a 74 in the third round before closing with a 77.

   Beatriz Arenas, a native of Guatemala who resides in Florida, was the runaway winner of the The Sally’s Rockefeller Division with a 325 total.

   From what I can surmise, Arenas, an accomplished artist, is 74ish and still playing great golf. She added an 80 in the second round to her opening-round 81 and carded an 85 in Friday’s third round before closing with her best round of the week, a 79.

   Merion Golf Club’s ageless Liz Haines, at 70-something, finished in a tie for third place with Christine Hunt at 342. The runnerup to Carolyn Creekmore in the 2004 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, Calif., Haines battled back from an opening-round 89 with a pair of 84s in the second and final rounds around an 85 in the third round.

   The runnerup was Denise Callahan, who finished a distant 16 shots behind Arenas with a 341 total. Looks like Callahan is a Canton, Ohio native who resides in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. these days. Callahan added an 86 in the second round to her opening-round 88 and added an 83 in Friday’s third round before finishing up with an 84.

   The Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational wrapped up Dec. 30^th and it was a battle between a couple of talented Asian teens as Thanana Kotchasanmanee of Thailand captured the title by two shots over Rianne Mikhaela Malixi of the Philippines.

   Kotchasanmanee, a Class of ’25 competitor whose base in the U.S. is Rome, Ga., blew by the field with a remarkable final round of 7-under 65 over Sun ’N Lake’s Deer Run Course layout to finish with a 4-under 284 total.

   Couldn’t really locate the par for the Deer Run Course, but it was 72 a year ago when the old Harder Hall first passed the baton to the Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational. The common denominator is Sebring, a community that valued the Harder Hall tradition and wanted to continue to host an Orange Blossom Tour event.

   Kotchasanmanee had opened with a 1-over 73 and added a 74 in the second round before matching par in the third round with a 72 that left her three shots behind Malixi heading into the final round.

   Not that Malixi, also a Class of ’25 competitor who is based in San Bernardino, Calif. in the U.S., played poorly in the final round. She carded a 2-under 70, but just couldn’t keep up with Kotchasanmanee’s sizzling pace. Malixi finished with a solid 2-under 286 total.

   Malixi, the runnerup to Schroeder in last summer’s Girls Junior PGA Championship at Cog Hill, struggled a little in the opening round with a 6-over 78 over the Deer Run layout, but got it going in the middle two rounds to the tune of back-to-back 3-under 69s that gave her that three-shot lead heading into the final round.

   Vanessa Zhang, a Gonzaga recruit from Pasadena, Calif., finished in a tie for third place with Arkansas’ Fifion Tynan, a sophomore from Wales, each ending up four shots behind Malixi at 2-over 290 total.

   After opening with a solid 3-under 69, Zhang carded a 1-over 73 in the second round and a 78 in the third round before finishing up strong with a 70 in the final round.

   Tynan, winner of the Women’s Welsh Amateur Championship at Pennard last summer, saved her best for last, closing with a 3-under 69 to get her share of third place.

   Molly Smith, the UCF recruit who would finish in a tie for sixth place at week later in The Sally, closed with a 2-under 70 to finish alone in fifth place with a 292 total at the Deer Run Course, two shots behind Zhang and Tynan. Smith struggled in the opening round with a 78, but shaved 10 shots off that with a sparkling 4-under 68 in the second round. She carded a 4-over 76 in the third round.

   Heading a trio of players tied for sixth place at 294, two shots behind Smith, was Jersey girl Megan Meng, a junior at Hopewell Valley Central.

   Looks like Meng will join the program at Big Ten power Northwestern in the summer of 2024. Meng was steady in the Citrus Invitational, matching par in the second round with a 72 after opening with a 1-over 73 and adding another 73 in the third round before closing with a 76.

   Joining Meng at 294 were another Thai junior player, Nattachanok Tanwannarux and Macy Pate, a Wake Forest recruit who is another product of North Carolina scholastic powerhouse Reagan High School.

   Tanwannarux was steady with 1-over 73s in the first, third and final rounds around a 75 in the second round.

   Pate gained quite a bit of notoriety when she recorded an astounding 14-under 57 in a state regional tournament in the fall of 2021. Pretty sure she was a teammate of Morgan Ketchum, the runnerup in The Sally, that fall.

   Pate bounced back from an opening-round 76 with a sparkling 3-under 69 in the second round. She added a 2-over 74 in the third round before finishing up with a 75. Pate came back a week later to finish in a tie for 12^th place in The Sally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saucon Valley's Wood, Woodcrest's Sieracki head list of Philadelphia Section PGA award winners for 2022

   A little more attention is often paid to the winners of the Philadelphia Section PGA season-long award for what happened on the golf course in 2022.

   But the real work for the Section pros comes in the day-to-day operations of all the golf courses, be they private, public or resort, that make up the Section. And the awards that go to those people are no less well-deserved than the ones that are handed out to those who excel on the golf course.

   There is no bigger award for a Philadelphia Section PGA pro than that of Golf Professional of the Year and that honor for 2022 belongs to Mike Wood, the director of golf of the sprawling operation that is Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem.

   The Golf Professional of the Year award goes to a Section pro who displays leadership and strong moral character and who has a substantial record of service to the Philadelphia PGA Section and to the game of golf.

   Wood arrived at Saucon Valley as a PGA Associate in 2003 and eventually became head professional before being elevated to his current position in 2021.

   Saucon Valley’s Old Course played host to the U.S. Senior Open for the third time in the summer of 2022, but the Weyhill and Grace courses at Saucon Valley can be found on most lists of the top golf courses in Pennsylvania as well.

   Being director of golf at Saucon Valley is a big job and Wood has proven that he is up to the challenge.

   Nowhere has Wood succeeded more than in his handling of the business end at Saucon Valley, as evidenced by him winning the Section’s Merchandiser of the Year – Private Category in 2021.

   Wood’s creative use of the footprint of all the pro shops at Saucon Valley has resulted in an 88 percent increase in sales since 2018.

   When the USGA brought its 19^th Hole concept of engaging U.S. Senior Open fans in a large area off the golf course to Saucon Valley, it found the perfect partner in Wood.

   Wood helped his staff come up with a wide assortment of ways to engage fans in the hospitality area, including simulators, a 9,000-square-foot putting green, live music, a jumbotron that live-streamed coverage of the tournament, lawn games and food trucks.

   With help from some of his fellow Philadelphia Section pros, Wood was able to obtain equipment from the Section and PGA REACH, the Section’s charitable arm, to staff the player development area of the 19^th Hole experience for the U.S. Senior Open.

   Wood works closely with his team members throughout the Saucon Valley organization. In his mind, someone can start as a seasonal assistant pro and work their way up to head professional at one of Saucon Valley’s pro shops. That approach has helped Wood recruit the best possible candidates to join the Saucon Valley team.

   Evidence of that approach is Steve Chalmers, a Saucon Valley pro who will show up later in this post as the winner of the Section’s Youth Player Development Award for 2022.

   Wood’s regional outreach includes partnering with Coordinated Health of Bethlehem on golf-specific seminars and with Penn State’s PGA Golf Management (PGM) University program to host its eighth annual PGM intern conference.

   On the national level, Wood has volunteered at the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club in 2019 and 2021.

   The Section’s prestigious Teacher and Coach of the Year Award went to Steve Sieracki, the director of instruction at the Legacy Club at Woodcrest in Cherry Hill, N.J.

   The award goes to a Section pro for outstanding services as a golf teacher, innovator and coach. Sieracki won the Section’s Youth Player Development Award in 2016.

   Sieracki oversees private lessons, clinics, youth camps and golf programs and golf schools while training staff at Woodcrest.

   Sieracki is involved with planning a new golf range and a second state-of-the-art indoor studio at Woodcrest. Club ownership and management are consulting with Sieracki to help design the new buildings.

   In addition to Sieracki’s 3,000 hours of golf instruction and coaching, he also does 30 hours of virtual lessons online each week. Evidence of Sieracki’s youth program can be found on the Philadelphia Section’s Junior Tour, where six of Sieracki’s students were among the top performers in 2022.

   Sieracki networks with PGA members and industry professionals from around the country, including notable instructors like David Orr, Andy Plummer, Mike Bennett and Nick Clearwater. Sieracki presents at various summits, seminars and online education events, both inside and outside the Section.

   Sieracki has developed a strong following on social media and is working on a program that will help other PGA coaches to identify patterns in the golf swing that will help their students improve.

   For the third time in his distinguished career, Jim Smith Jr., the director of golf at Philadelphia Cricket Club, has earned the Bill Strausbaugh Award in the Philadelphia Section. Smith was the Section’s Strausbaugh Award winner in 2006 and 2013.

   The Strausbaugh Award recognizes a PGA professional who demonstrates exceptional character, integrity and leadership by teaching and mentoring other PGA professionals.

   A PGA member for 28 years, Smith started at the Cricket Club in 2006. The Cricket Club includes an A.W. Tillinghast original in the Wissahickon Course, the Militia Hill Course and the nine-hole St. Martins Course, which was part of the original Cricket Club layout that played host to the U.S. Open in 1907 and 1910.

   Smith is most proud of the fact that 32 of his former co-workers have advanced to management positions such as director of golf, head professional or director of outside services. In his mind, helping staff members achieve their career goals in the single most important thing he does professionally.

   In the Section, Smith has been president, vice president and director of Section affairs and has chaired the Philadelphia Assistants’ Organization (PAO) as well as the club relations and long-range planning committees.

   Smith was the Section’s Golf Professional of the Year in 2005 and the Merchandiser of the Year – Private Category in 2002.

   Dean Kandle, the vice president of professional development and education at the Golf Business Network and the former head pro at St. Davids Golf Club, is the winner of the Professional Development Award.

   The award recognizes someone who makes contributions to the education of PGA professionals. During his 10 years at St. Davids, Kandle won the Professional Development Award in 2019 and 2020 and was the Section’s Golf Professional of the Year in 2020 when the onset of the coronavirus pandemic challenged golf professionals like nothing else before or since. Kandle was also the Bill Strausbaugh Award winner in the Section in 2018.

   Kandle’s website, Golf Professional Growth, which he launched in 2017, continues to offer PGA pros advice on how to maintain the difficult balance between their work and their personal lives. Kandle continues to emphasize that theme as he hosts a couple of podcasts, Getting Better Now, and Golf Professional Growth, an offshoot of his website.

   In his new position at GBN, Kandle has launched GBN University as a complement to education that young pros receive from the PGA of America.

   Andy Signor, the head professional at the Pine Meadows Golf Complex in Lebanon, is the winner of the Patriot Award, which recognizes a PGA professional who personifies patriotism through the game of golf and demonstrates commitment and dedication to the men and women who have served our country.

   Signor started a tournament in 2017 to benefit Folds of Honor, which provides scholarships to spouses and children of fallen or disabled U.S. military personnel, as a way to pay tribute to Pine Meadows member Seldon McIntosh, a two-time Silver Star recipient who has since passed away.

   With a modest goal of raising $2,500 in its first year, the tournament has continued to gain momentum, contributing $42,000 to Folds of Honor overall.

   Signor was the Central County Chapter Golf Professional of the Year in 2018.

   David Zimmaro, an assistant pro at Overbrook Golf Club, was honored by the Section for the second year in a row, this time with the Player Development Award. Zimmaro was the Section’s Teacher and Coach of the Year in 2021.

   The Player Development Award goes to a PGA professional who has displayed extraordinary contributions in the area of player development.

   Zimmaro has been the captain of Overbrook’s PGA Junior League team that has gone undefeated in the regular season in each of the last three years.

   In addition to his duties at Overbrook, Zimmaro is seemingly everywhere in the Philadelphia area, working as a First Tee of Philadelphia site director, taking part in the PGA REACH’s Golf in Schools initiative and working with the Middle Atlantic Blind Golf Association, the Widener Memorial School, the Overbook School for the Blind, La Salle Academy, AIM Academy, the Bridge School, Fort Dix Military Base and the Department of Justice’s Students for Juvenile Justice program. Zimmaro also learned American Sign Language in order to work with the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.

   Steve Chalmers, a member of Wood’s team at Saucon Valley as the director of instruction, is the winner of the Youth Player Development Award, which recognizes contributions and achievements in the area of youth player development.

   Chalmers joined the Saucon Valley staff in 2020 and serves on the junior golf committee while coordinating all the youth golf activities at his facility.

   Chalmers has created popular events like the Halloween Parent/Child Glow Golf Night and runs junior championships for 13-and-under and 14-and-over age groups. Chalmers is also the captain of a Saucon Valley PGA Junior League team.

   Chalmers is active in the Lehigh Valley community, working with the Bethlehem YMCA’s LPGA-USGA Girls Golf of Lehigh Valley program and helping out with the Tri-State Championship for scholastic players hoping to move on and play competitive college golf.

   Chalmers also runs a college golf night at Saucon Valley, hosting college coaches who share their experiences with the college recruiting process.

   The bar for youth development in the Philadelphia Section was set pretty high as Andy Miller, the director of instruction at LedgeRock Golf Club in Mohnton, Berks County, was honored by the PGA of America as the winner of the national Youth Player Development Award in 2021.

   Miller won the Youth Player Development Award in the Philadelphia Section in 2013, ’18 and ’19 and was the Teacher and Coach of the Year in the Section in 2020. In the early dark days of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2020, Miller put out a series of practice videos on Twitter that enabled homebound youngsters to work on their games indoors.

   Miller was among the national honorees recognized at the PGA of America National Awards Ceremony Nov. 1^st of last year, the opening night of the 106^th PGA Annual Meeting at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix, Ariz.

   The Philadelphia Section put up the short video about Miller that was presented at the awards ceremony that had comments from a couple of his star pupils, including Evelyn Wong, the PIAA Class AAA runnerup as a senior at Emmaus in 2021 who is a freshman on the Lehigh women’s golf team, and Nick Fioravante, who was a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a senior at Berks Catholic in 2018 and is a senior on the men’s golf team at York.

   Todd Love, the head pro at West Shore Country Club in Camp Hill, was honored as the Philadelphia Section’s Merchandiser of the Year – Private Category, which recognizes a professional working at a private golf facility who excels in business and merchandising in the promotion of golf.

   Love has been at West Shore since 1996 and took over as the head pro in 2017. His focus is to provide options for the 800 members at West Shore. Love will change displays on a weekly basis and works closely with his team to present merchandise in the most effective way possible.

   West Shore’s sales were on pace for a double-digit increase percentage-wise in 2022 from its 2021 figures.

   Ian Madinger, the head pro at Plantation Lakes Golf & Country Club in Millsboro, Del., was honored as the Merchandiser of the Year – Public Category, which recognizes a professional working at a public golf facility who excels in business and merchandising in the promotion of golf.

   After four years as an assistant at Plantation Lakes, Madinger took over as the head pro in 2020. Madinger tries to keep his prices competitive with the big-box retailers.

   Much like Love at West Shore, Madinger’s sales in the Plantation Lakes pro shop were headed for a double-digit increase in 2022 over the previous year.

   Alex MaGann, the director of golf at the Seaview Resort in Galloway Township, N.J., was honored as the Merchandiser of the Year – Resort Category, which recognizes a professional working at a resort golf facility who excels in business and merchandising in the promotion of golf.

   Seaview’s classic Bay Course layout plays host to The ShopRite LPGA Classic Presented by Acer each year.

   McGann sets up a retail promotional calendar each offseason and works with his team, including Area Retail Manager Katie Werner and head pro Jeff Carswell, to finalize sales targets. McCann has also introduced an incentive plan for assistant pros and hourly shop employees that can earn them bonuses once monthly targets are reached.

   Like his fellow Merchandiser of the Year honorees, McGann was on target for double-digit percentage growth in sales in 2022 compared to Seaview’s 2021 numbers.

   Kevin Duffy, the head pro at Riverton Country Club in Cinnaminson, N.J., received the inaugural Deacon Palmer Award, which goes to a PGA professional who displays outstanding integrity, character and leadership while overcoming a major obstacle in his or her life.

  Duffy’s first child, daughter Molly Rose, was born in 2013 and suffers from spastic paraplegia type 47, a rare hereditary disease. Duffy continued with his duties at Riverton while helping his newborn daughter with therapy to deal with her condition. In 2021, the Duffys had a boy, Owen Patrick, who also suffers from SPG47.

   Partnering with another family in the same situation, the Duffys started a fundraising golf tournament with a goal to find a cure for SPG47.

   The response from the community to the Golf for a Cure tournament has been overwhelming with the event raising $1.4 million in its first six years. A gene therapy has shown promise in the fight against SPG47 and is in the final stages of the process to gain approval from the FDA.

   Merion Golf Club’s Keith Clawson is the winner of the Justin Riegel Assistant Golf Professional of the Year Award.

   The assistant pro award honors the memory of Riegel, who had been an assistant pro at several courses in the region and died tragically in the spring of 2020 in his new position as the head pro at Philmont Country Club. Riegel was hustling players off the golf course at Philmont when lightning struck a tree, which fell on the golf cart shed with Riegel dying when the shed collapsed on him.

   Clawson is the chair of the Philadelphia Assistants’ Organization (PAO) and has worked hard to make the PAO a source of numerous educational opportunities for its members.

   Clawson is in charge of Merion’s youth golf program while also staying busy with merchandising, inventory management, men’s golf tournaments, team building, and private lessons for club members.

   Clawson volunteers for PGA HOPE’s Philadelphia chapter at the Union League’s Liberty Hill Course and was one of the volunteers providing free instruction during the Youth Day at the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship.

   John Rutecki, an account executive for Greyson Clothiers in Howell, N.J., is the Salesperson of the Year, an award that recognizes a sale representative who contributes to the Section and is involved with sponsoring Section events.

   Rutecki is an industry veteran with more than 25 years experience.

   At Greyson, Rutecki has launched an ambassador program to make sure he’s getting as much feedback as possible from Section pros who sell its products.